{"id":84,"date":"2005-12-15T21:07:22","date_gmt":"2005-12-16T02:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=84"},"modified":"2006-02-11T22:51:20","modified_gmt":"2006-02-12T03:51:20","slug":"zinging-the-living-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=84","title":{"rendered":"Zinging the Living Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the mid-1960’s, Rev. Christopher Raible issued a little pamphlet with parody lyrics to familiar hymns in the then-current hymnal, Songs for the Celebration of Life.<\/em> His booklet, titled Songs for the Cerebration of Strife,<\/em> included such classic parodies as “Coffee, Coffee, Coffee” to the tune of “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and “God Rest Ye, Unitarians,” with its refrain of “Glad tidings of reason and fact.”<\/p>\n

It is time for new parodies of Unitarian Universalist hymns. I do not have the skill of Christopher Raible, but I offer these four parodies in the hope that I’ll challenge someone else to write something that’s actually funny….<\/p>\n

“Spirit of Strife”<\/strong>
\nto the tune of #123<\/em><\/p>\n

Spirit of strife,
\ncome unto me,
\nlive in my soul,
\ngive my life the shape of conflict.
\nMy mind is closed,
\nmy heart’s a stone;
\nI will not feel
\nany friendship or compassion.
\nI will not yield!
\nI will not budge!
\nSpirit of strife,
\ncome to me, come to me.<\/p>\n

“Where Is That Blasted Church?”<\/strong>
\nsung to the tune of #113<\/em><\/p>\n

Where is that blasted church?
\nI cannot find it, though
\nI called them up and asked them: Please,
\ndo tell me how to go.<\/p>\n

Where did they build their church?
\nOut on the edge of town;
\nso visitors, and newcomers,
\ncan never track them down.<\/p>\n

Where is our holy One?
\nPerhaps she’s lost like me;
\nthat Unitar’an Univers’list
\nchurch she’ll never see.<\/p>\n

Wake Now, My Husband<\/strong>
\nsung to the tune of #298<\/em><\/p>\n

Wake now, my husband, you’re snoring too loud
\nThe man in front of us just turned around,
\nMinister’s staring, I’m turning bright red.
\nBut you won’t wake up, t’ the world you are dead.<\/p>\n

Your head has rolled back, you’re starting to drool;
\nI whisper in your ear, “Wake up, you fool!”
\nYou stir and straighten, and then try to fake
\nThat through the sermon, you’ve been wide awake.<\/p>\n

Lest I be accused of gender bias, I will say that the only reason I chose “husband” is because it scans better.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We Are a Gently Doubting People”<\/strong>
\nsung to the tune of #170<\/em><\/p>\n

We are a gently doubting people
\nAnd we are doubting, doubting all our lives.
\nWe like discussions never-ending,
\nBut a firm answer — well, answers give us hives.<\/p>\n

We will consider ev’ry viewpoint,
\nAnd we will never, never let things rest;
\nWe won’t reach a firm conclusion,
\nWe’d rather argue, argue with great zest.<\/p>\n

If you want to be obscure, you can substitute “We are an aporetic people” for the first line.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the mid-1960’s, Rev. Christopher Raible issued a little pamphlet with parody lyrics to familiar hymns in the then-current hymnal, Songs for the Celebration of Life. His booklet, titled Songs for the Cerebration of Strife, included such classic parodies as “Coffee, Coffee, Coffee” to the tune of “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and “God Rest Ye, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberal-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}