Friday 28 November 2008

You couldn't make it up (?)

This sounds too much like a Private Eye parody to be true. It seems that an 'alternative' carol service was held at St. James's Piccadilly on Wednesday evening, in support of the Palestinian cause and in protest at Israeli policies. The words of some traditional Christmas favourites were apparently adapted for the occasion, as in this example:

While shepherds watched their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
Some occupying soldiers came
And bulldozed all around

'Fear not,' said one, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind
We will not do any harm
For we are good and kind

We're forced to confiscate your land
To build ourselves a fence
To keep our people safe from all
Your people's violence

Some fields will stay, although cut off
But access won't be banned
Yes, permits we will give to you
To visit your own land.

As I say, it's just the kind of nonsense you might find in a Dave Spart column or the Alternative Rocky Horror Service Book, so I'm wary about taking it too seriously. I couldn't find any mention of the service on the church's website, and there's a danger of being taken in by left-wing, secular versions of all those 'Post Office bans Christmas'  kind of stories. But I did wonder why there wasn't a verse about the shepherds being disturbed by a Katyusha rocket attack...

On the other hand, if the story has any truth, it's yet another example of the willingness of well-meaning but naive progressive-religious types to be taken in by pseudo-leftist posturing, and to adopt one-sided positions on the Israeli-Palestine question. Thankfully, not all Christians are amused.

(Via Red Maria, whose blog I discovered today by way of Shiraz Socialist)

3 comments:

Red Maria said...

"But I did wonder why there wasn't a verse about the shepherds being disturbed by a Katyusha rocket attack..."

There was this instead:

(Soloists)
The olive and the army
When are both full-grown
Every olive tree on the West Bank
The IDF cuts down

Chorus (all)
O the rampaging of the settlers
And the rolling of the tanks
The grinding of the bulldozers
As the olives fall in ranks

etc etc.

It was all rather buttock-clenchingly self-consciously "alternative" and "relevant", if you know what I mean.

Martin said...

Thanks for the comment - great blog, by the way.
Martin

Red Maria said...

Thankyou, I rather like yours as well.

Here's to finding many more things to snigger at!