Roy Zimmerman Benefit

REAL AMERICA: Songs of War, Ignorance & Greed

Singer/Songwriter & Political Humorist, Roy Zimmerman

Saturday February 27th, 8 p.m.

Norman Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (1309 W. Boyd)

Roy’s music veers left of center and takes a light hearted, yet poignant and sometimes biting, look at war, the economy, poverty, ignorance, bigotry, neo-conservatism, homophobia, creationism, greed, lust, and fear.

Suggested donation: $15 at the door

For info, call Susan at 226-9627 or email at nuuf@cox.net.

A Reverse Reformation?

Analysis…

The Vatican announced yesterday that it would accomodate Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church.  For instance, Anglican priests who had married, could become married Catholic priests, a practice forbidden to traditional Catholic priests.  Also, Anglicans could keep their “elements of distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”  The Anglican Communion has been somewhat unstable while debating and discussing issues of human sexuality, thus creating an opportunity for Catholics to allow conservative Anglicans into the Catholic Church without fully assimilating.

Get Religion |  Yet, please note, that this discussion of Anglo-Catholics fleeing to Rome — once again — is not essentially rooted in the ordination of one noncelibate gay bishop in the micro-tiny Diocese of New Hampshire here in the American colonies.  After all, Father William Oddie was writing his trailblazing book “The Roman Option” in the mid-1990s. It is also interesting to note that a major theme in that book is behind-the-scenes opposition on the Catholic left to the creation of an Anglican home within Catholicism in England. You see, liberal Catholics — those seeking the ordination of women, in particular — did not want the wrong kind of Anglicans swimming the Tiber. That’s a story worth watching, now that Benedict XVI has opened a gate for the Anglo-Catholic refugees.

The Anchoress  | This is very big. If this reconnection is well-facilitated, we may see the entire African arm of the Church of England (which is currently its most vibrantly-growing branch) cross the Tiber, and that will be a very interesting development, especially as Catholics are exposed to the Anglican-use liturgy, which will remind many of everything they loved about the Latin mass, but in the glorious language of the Anglican liturgy. This may accelerate the already-growing movement within the Catholic church to correct some of the liturgical excesses and errors we’ve seen in the last 40 years.  As I said earlier, as secularism and evangelical atheism gain in influence and power, we may well see the a new unity among Christians, ut unum sint, (that they all may be one).

America Magazine |  The most important point to stress is that the Vatican is responding to a request from others who wish to join the Catholic Church. They are not merely going out to pick some low-hanging Anglican fruit or, as Cardinal Walter Kasper put it, “We are not fishing in the Anglican lake.” There are members of the Anglican Church who have come to question the catholicity of their communion, and like John Henry Newman before them, their questioning is leading them to turn to Rome.

The Telegraph |  This from a good source in Rome: apparently both Lambeth Palace and elements in the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity were “implacably opposed” to Pope Benedict XVI’s dramatic new arrangements for Anglicans. The source also reports speculation that Archbishop Rowan Williams put pressure on Vatican ecumenists to stop the Apostolic Constitution being issued.

Change.org |  If you’re an Anglican and you don’t like women priests, gay bishops, or same-sex couples infiltrating your church, Pope Benedict XVI has a message for you: try becoming Catholic! Hey, it comes with free wine once a week, and support for all the anti-gay ballot measures you can muster.

Episcopal Life Online |  In a statement from the Episcopal Church, Bishop Christopher Epting, ecumenical and interfaith officer, said that the announcement “reflects what the Roman Catholic Church, through its acceptance of Anglican rite parishes, has been doing for some years more informally … We are in dialogue with the archbishop’s office and will, in the coming days, continue to explore the full implications of this in our ecumenical relations.”

News & Analysis …

Morehouse Men Don’t Wear Dresses – Womanist Musings

We have invested a lot into the male/ female binary and many feel threatened when the line is even slightly blurred. As part of its appropriate attire policy, Morehouse has banned wearing of women’s clothes, makeup, high heels and purses.  It seems that Morehouse men are expected to send a very specific message to the world about what exactly Black masculinity entails.

Drop-Kick Me Jesus – Spiritual Politics

For the past six years, the cheerleaders at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in the northwest corner of Georgia had taken to displaying Bible verses on banners such as the above, through which their football team would burst onto the field. Then, last month, the banners were banned on advice of counsel, after a local woman wrote to the school superintendent to suggest that they might provoke a lawsuit.

NPR Sort of Hates “Black Music” – Racialicious

Rosen argues that music of black origin usually selected by NPR: (1) tend to be either from obscure or dead artistes black people don’t listen to (2) are restricted based on genre, and (3) heavily influenced by the majority white and male (with beards and guitars) NPR audience.

Hey Country Music, Welcome to the Future

I have not always been a country music fan.  My experience growing up in Norman, OK was that country music was not cool.  That was for all those other Oklahomans, the ones who lived in towns with populations of less than 100,000 or even worse, in the actual country.  Nevertheless, I was exposed to country by my Dad who would play it in the car.  (Incidentally, my Dad is from a town with a population 2,905.)  After my Grandfather died in 2001, I spent a lot of time driving back and forth to my Grandmother’s house to help with mowing her few acres of property.  Something about driving from Norman to Drumright changed my mind about country music. 

 I enjoy country’s depiction and celebration of what I now call ‘the middle of the country.’  County fairs and country roads, watermelon and water towers, small town living and small plots of land, these are thing that should be lauded.  I also appreciate that the music would sometimes call attention to social problems in that culture.  Garth Brooks’ Thunder Rolls and Martina McBride’s Independence Day both called attention to domestic abuse.  Reba McEntyre’s Fancy talks about a mother who turns her daughter out to work as a prostitute.  These are realities brought the forefront by country.

 But, there was always a side of country that I didn’t like.  This side is best exemplified by Toby Keith’s The Angry American.  This song was written as a vengeful response to 9-11 and speaks of raining down wrath on America’s opponents.  “We lit up your world like the 4^th of July,” the song says of American retaliation and bombing.   This song and others like it don’t celebrate a simple way of life.  They celebrate a xenophobic, segregationist, homophobic, war mongering, intolerant way of life. Even now, I refuse to listen to these songs and change the radio station every time they come on.  (Note: Alan Jackson’s Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning is an excellent country song about 9-11, which takes a reflective, rather than militant perspective.)   

 This week I was pleasantly surprised when listening to a new Brad Paisley song, Welcome to the Future.  This song is the first of its kind that I have heard in the country genre.  Instead of reminiscing about the Old South, it embraces the progress our country has made.  Paisley has told the press that he wrote the song after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.  Although he does not speak directly about Obama in the lyrics, the music video, parts of which were shot at the Lincoln Memorial, strongly invokes him. 

You can hear the song below but to view the music video you must go here.

The verse on race goes like this:

I had a friend in school
Running back on the football team
They burned a cross in his front yard
For asking out the homecoming queen

I thought about him today
And everybody who’s seen what he’s seen
From a woman on a bus
To a man with a dream

Hey, wake up Martin Luther
Welcome to the future
Hey, glory, glory, hallelujah
Welcome to the Future

Not only do these lyrics not idealize the Old South, but also they rebuke it for its racism.  In another verse, Paisley takes on the war mongering attitude of songs like The Angry American. 

 My grandpa was in World War II
He fought against the Japanese
He wrote a hundred letters to my grandma
Mailed ‘em from his base in the Philippines

Hey, every day is a revolution
Welcome to the future

I wish they could see this now
The world they saved has changed, you know
‘Cause I was on a video chat this morning
With a company in Tokyo

This part of the music video shows a Japanese country group singing this in a bar in Japan.  The overall theme of the video is unity and harmony, world peace, etc.  It’s almost too much to handle.  But, I have to commend Mr. Brad Paisley for writing and recording this song.  I hope more country stars will follow.  Paisley proved that the country values of small town America can coexist with values of a progressive society. 

 Hey country music, Welcome to the future!

Norman Groove Fest: Human Rights Here and Now

THE LINEUP:
Autumn Shade
Harlequins Bohème
Jonbear Fourtet
Algebra
John Calvin
Zebre
The Whiskey Trio
Montu

THE WEBSITE: For more information, please visit our website at www.groovefest.org

THE STORY: Groovefest is Norman’s one and only Human Rights Music Festival. Each spring and fall, the community comes together to raise awareness about human rights, listen to some talented musicians, and have a great time! Established in 1986 by the OU chapter of Amnesty International, Groovefest has since been under the guardianship of the Norman Groovefest organization. This year, OU Amnesty International will host the festival once again.

THE CAUSE: Human Rights: Here and Now was chosen as the theme for the Spring 2009 Groovefest because we feel it accurately communicates a central idea about human rights work. This work didn’t end with the civil rights movement, and it doesn’t just take place in third world countries. Human rights action takes place right here in Oklahoma, and it affects average Oklahomans. With this spring’s Groovefest, we hope to highlight the great work that many local organizations are doing to promote human rights here and now. In addition, we hope to further the goals of the Groovefest organization by educating the community about human rights worldwide.