Ohio Church Choir Defames Beloved U.S. Hymn: Sings God Should Not Bless America

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Irving Berlin's
"God Bless America" is one our nation's great patriotic tunes, a song that is a marvelous celebration of the small and large mysteries of our national character. It shimmers with a sacredness, a flag-waving spirit without any mention of bombs bursting in air or terrible swift swords. It stirred our souls and raised our spirits during the darkest days of World War II. And again after 9/11, when Senators stood on the Capitol steps and spontaneously sang the words, "God Bless America" to rally their shocked and stricken countrymen.

Now the Christian right has stolen that beautiful tune, the enlightened hymn that has given Americans strength to confront a restless and sometimes hostile world. The uplifting poetics have been rewritten into something darker -- the lyrics have been changed to say America lacks the qualities of blessedness, that this kind-hearted, generous, freedom-loving nation deserves only mercy as a sinful, wretched, vile land.

The new words show no reverence or joy for the homeland. They fail to see any goodness or greatness in everyday life in the United States, a basic goodness that is America's best quality, the quality of home, sweet home that looms so large and shines so brightly. No, the Christian right sees this:

"Why should God bless America?

She's forgotten He exists

And has turned her back on everything

That made her what she is.

Why should God stand beside her

Through the night with the light from his hand?

God have mercy on America

Forgive her sins and heal our land."

Plunderbund has caught the choir of the Springfield Church of God on YouTUBE singing every verse of the revised right wing version. They conjured up a sinful landscape at a Values Voters conference earlier this week in Fort Lauderdale. They knocked their country, the greatest and kindest and biggest-hearted on Earth. They sang out like fools bowing before a golden calf that America "has turned her back on everything that made her what she is."

By uttering that verse, the right shows it cannot find the heart of America with a lifetime of looking.

Yes, America has its flaws and faults. But the good things of life in America far, far outweigh her flaws and faults. This is a nation that spends billions on the sick, and invests billions more to find cures, that has even curbed the biblical scourge of leprosy. This is a nation that spends billions feeding the world -- and debates whether it should spend more. This is a nation that has spilled its own blood in distant deserts, spilled it willingly so far on a mission intended to bring stability and freedom to the Middle East. And yes, Americans have the right to question that mission, or stop it altogether.

The church choir sang of the wickedness of a nation that allows complete freedom of worship -- all denominations and sects can follow the dictates of their faith. This is the nation where millions yearn to be, where humanity has found sanctuary from dictators and despots and Inquisitors, where all seek the opportunity to live freely in the plain light of day.

God has blessed America. He stands beside her. It's the land that I love.

Ohio Rightwing Newspaper Columnist: 70% Of All Music Is Sexy, Causes Pregnancy

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Apparently, there could be words and rhythms someplace in the "Star Spangled Banner" that can get the juices flowing and hormones humming. So you better watch out this 4th of July. And be sure to turn down the TV or radio when a sporting event is broadcast. Our national anthem might be an aphrodisiac.

This startling tidbit of information comes from the morning metropolitan daily in Cincinnati, where far-right columnist Peter Bronson informed his readers this month that abstinence is good for teenagers and music makes them do the horizontal rumba. He quoted an abstinence advocate who wants to keep tax-funded abstinence programs in the public schools.

"Seventy percent of music has overtly sexual overtones, and much of that is overtly derogatory to females," the advocate told the Cincinnati Enquirer's Bronson.

No examples were offered of how that 70% figure was determined. Is it possible the abstinence movement listened to every musical composition in every human culture since the world began? Is it possible that 70% of all Aztec music had overtly sexual overtones? And what about the stuff in the Vatican -- is Ave Maria a siren song to fire up the mating instinct?

Bronson's musical musings never addressed the where or how the abstinence movement came up with its data. In other words, nothing backed up the claim.

The figure Bronson cited was delivered by Gary Rose, a physician who heads the Medical Institute. Advocates of abstinence programs have been critical of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland for turning down federal aid because there is little proof the programs actually work. Now they seem to be ginning up a statistic that is ridiculous. Sure there is sexy music. But plenty is inspirational. And the statement Bronson regurgiated unthinkingly is ridiculously shallow -- how can anybody prove 70% of all music, every note, is overtly sexy?

Rose told Bronson that his mission is to promote health education, not moral (or religious) programming: "This is not an agenda to be moralistic. Our goal is to provide objective and scientific information."

So, there is science behind the claim that 70% of music stirs the loins? Boy, was I ever fooled when I heard the words "swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home." And, one has to wonder, what was Kate Smith thinking when she belted out God Bless America. Isn't there a verse about something white with foam?