A Young Pete Seeger Sings a Song from the "New Land of Israel"

The incomparable Pete Seeger passed away, Tuesday. He's known for his political ideas and protest action, but in the fifties he was part of the four-part folk group known as The Weavers. This group popularized songs like "Goodnight, Irene," and "On Top of Old Smokey." (The latter is, now days, mostly forgotten except for the melody which is known to us in the annoying form of, "On top of spagheeeettiiii, all covered with cheeeeeese...")

Most of their old tunes sound a little antiquated to my ears, but I really enjoy this recording of them singing "Tzena, tzena, tzena." I found it while cruising through YouTube looking for folk songs a few years ago, and I return to it often because it's fun and truly unique.  What's interesting in this video is hearing the bass singer, Lee Hays, introduce it is a song from "the new land of Israel." It's hard for someone my age to think about a time when that country was considered "new." Of course, Israel is an ancient nation, but in the early fifties people were still getting used to the idea of seeing it on a map. Some people still have a hard time with that, but, like Pete always said, there's still a chance for peace, and that's true even in the middle east.

Watch the video, get cultured, and don't miss out on Seeger's fantastic banjo playing. This is actually a great piece of music.

GOD HATES OBAMA AND CHRISTIANS SHOULD TOO

I was initially going to write this post about those email forwards turned Facebook memes, their malicious deceptiveness, and the role they play in too many well-intentioned Christians' daily social networking liturgy. You know what I'm talking about. They're half truths disguised as completely true stories about politicians, or touching (but still only partly true) stories about a family or individual 'victimized' by liberal policies. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. And they spread like wildfire, in part because they're half true. (Or in some cases, as with the example below, almost completely made up.)

But this landed in my lap this afternoon, and I thought I'd shift gears slightly.

This still lands in the category of a Facebook meme propagated by ultra-conservative groups, but it lacks the compelling narrative. What makes this kind of thing attractive is it's one-liner, black-and-white pith. It's cheeky; it's inflammatory; it's simple. And American Evangelicals love these sorts of things for all of those reasons. This is baffling to me.

We must beware of deceptively simple arguments such as this. We are called by Christ to be innocent as doves and shrewd as serpents (Mt 10). We must stop allowing ourselves to be duped. We must repent from being a part of spreading these lies--even if by being silent--and turn to fight against them instead, for they are a great harm to the church.

The especial, malicious irony of the above image is that it was posted by one of those harmful "Christian" Facebook groups mere hours after Israel bestowed their highest honor upon President Obama, thanking him for his "tireless work to make Israel strong."

President Peres went on to say, "Your presidency has given the close ties between Israel and the United States a new height. A sense of intimacy. A vision for the future." (Read the full transcript or watch the video here.)

Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, stop forwarding these emails. Stop liking and sharing these Facebook photos. These memes are poisonous. They are often intentionally deceptive, and there is nothing more unChristian. We are supposed to spread the cure, not the poison.

Some Help Understanding Israel This Week (Next Week, You're on Your Own)

I get confused about the Middle East when I quit following the related news stories for a while. I hate getting behind, but there is just too much news too keep up with. Fortunately, I came across a blog entry that has quite a bit of helpful information, including this tidbit about an interesting Palestinian group I hadn't heard much about:

The Palestinian people elected a terrorist organization to lead them and so far, in the territory it controls, Hamas has behaved like a pack of terrorists. But another branch of government, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, and based in Fatah-controlled West Bank, has indicated it is willing to work with Israel and with the world for peace. In fact, they’ve indicated they are ready to take over Gaza.

People from the Middle East tend to have different opinions on these complication Israel-related issues and they agree with each other about as often as your family members agree on politics at Thanksgiving. However, I can tell you that you cannot write off all Palestinians as bloodthirsty villains the way some like to do. Hamas does not represent the whole of these people and many of them are tired of being associated with terrorism.

I recommend you read the article, it's quite enlightening, even though I'm not sure I agree with all of it.