{"id":6076,"date":"2009-12-21T13:42:47","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T22:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=6076"},"modified":"2010-03-25T15:41:11","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T22:41:11","slug":"garrison-keillor-righteous-christian-defender-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=6076","title":{"rendered":"Garrison Keillor, righteous Christian, defender of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan is still down with a chest cold so Mr. Crankypants is ba-ack!<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Crankypants finally decided to read the Garrison Keillor column in Salon that trashes “Unitarians.”<\/a> It’s a mildly amusing little column; there are enough factual errors that one can’t help chuckling now and then.<\/p>\n

For instance, Garry Keillor says that “You can blame Ralph Waldo Emerson for the brazen foolishness of the elite. He preached here at the First Church of Cambridge, a Unitarian outfit….” Except Emerson never preached at First Church. A simple Web search would have revealed that First Church in Cambridge is affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The Unitarian Universalist church in Camnbridge, where Emerson delivered the famous “Divinity School Address,” is called “First Parish.” (A more obscure point is whether Emerson in fact ever actually preached at First Parish.) It’s always amusing when a well-known writer does not know how to do simple online fact-checking.<\/p>\n

Garry Keillor also says: “Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice…, and that’s their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite ‘Silent Night.’  ” Except that Keillor’s favorite words are the rewrite, or more precisely a bad translation of the original German. The current Unitarian Universalist hymnal offers two translations of the German words written by Josef Mohr in 1816: there’s Keillor’s favorite (woefully inaccurate) translation; and on the facing page there’s pretty good translation along with the first verse in the original German. (If you want to be a real Christmas purist, be like Mr. Crankypants and sing the original German words, which are much prettier<\/a>.) It’s always amusing when a well-known writer tries to be a pompous purist but winds up being an ignoramus. <\/p>\n

And Garry Keillor says: “Christmas does not need any improvements. It is a common ordinary experience that resists brilliant innovation. Just… sing softly in dim light about the poor man gathering winter fu-u-el….” Except that the line about “gathering winter fuel” is from the song “Good King Wenceslas,” which is a song about St. Stephen’s feast day, which is December 26. Sure, most people sing it at Christmas time. But a Christmas purist like Keillor, who despises “all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys,” should know better. It’s definitely amusing when a self-declared “Christian” writer tries to be a Christmas purist, but lacks the requisite liturgical and theological knowledge.<\/p>\n

The sad thing is that with people like Garrison Keillor advocating for Christmas, it’s no wonder the New Atheists dismiss Christians. Come to think of it, those who consider themselves Christians may prefer not to be associated with a bitter, ignorant, intolerant ass like Keillor.<\/p>\n

German words to “Silent Night \/ Stille Nacht” below the fold:<\/em><\/p>\n

———<\/a>
\nOriginal German words to “Stille Nacht”<\/a>, as written by Josef Mohr in 1816:<\/p>\n

1. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
\nAlles schl\u00e4ft; einsam wacht
\nNur das traute heilige Paar.
\nHolder Knab im lockigten Haar,
\nSchlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
\nSchlafe in himmlischer Ruh!<\/p>\n

2. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
\nGottes Sohn! O wie lacht
\nLieb aus deinem g\u00f6ttlichen Mund,
\nDa schl\u00e4gt uns die rettende Stund.
\nJesus in deiner Geburt!
\nJesus in deiner Geburt!<\/p>\n

3. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
\nDie der Welt Heil gebracht,
\nAus des Himmels goldenen H\u00f6hn
\nUns der Gnaden F\u00fclle l\u00e4\u00dft seh\u00b4n
\nJesum in Menschengestalt,
\nJesum in Menschengestalt.<\/p>\n

4. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
\nWo sich heut alle Macht
\nV\u00e4terlicher Liebe ergo\u00df
\nUnd als Bruder huldvoll umschlo\u00df
\nJesus die V\u00f6lker der Welt,
\nJesus die V\u00f6lker der Welt.<\/p>\n

5. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
\nLange schon uns bedacht,
\nAls der Herr vom Grimme befreit,
\nIn der V\u00e4ter urgrauer Zeit
\nAller Welt Schonung verhie\u00df,
\nAller Welt Schonung verhie\u00df.<\/p>\n

6. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
\nHirten erst kundgemacht
\nDurch der Engel Alleluja,
\nT\u00f6nt es laut bei Ferne und Nah:
\nJesus der Retter ist da!
\nJesus der Retter ist da!<\/p>\n

Note to theologians: It should be obvious by now that Mohr was Catholic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan is still down with a chest cold so Mr. Crankypants is ba-ack! Mr. Crankypants finally decided to read the Garrison Keillor column in Salon that trashes “Unitarians.” It’s a mildly amusing little column; there are enough factual errors that one can’t help chuckling now and then. For instance, Garry Keillor says that “You can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[299,131],"class_list":["post-6076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-christmas","tag-hymns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6076"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6568,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6076\/revisions\/6568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}