Re: What is the world coming to...

Don't forget _The Wizard of Oz_. Those whose memories extend back a few
years will realize that this isn't a joke.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <tdavis@messiah.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; <pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 3:41 PM
Subject: Re: What is the world coming to...

> There are many dramatic versions of the Faust legend. Here at Messiah, we
> used to require all students to read Christopher Marlowe's play, "Doctor
> Faustus," as sophomores. Marlowe was quite possibily a genuine atheist --
> if true, a genuine rarity in his day (Shakespearean age) -- and his play
> is
> full of stuff about the devil, alchemy, temptation, power, and knowledge.
> I
> read Goethe's version (on which Gounod's opera is based) in high school,
> as
> my own choice (as part of a term paper), and it fits the same description.
> My goodness, if we're going to start objecting to standard dramatic
> versions
> of the Faustus legend then we might as well start banning the Magic Flute
> (all that masonic stuff, alchemy, and ... well, magic) and Don Giovanni
> (just sex, pretty much, but also some literal hellfire and fatal
> swordplay).
>
>
> Then again, there are people on the other end of the "culture wars" who
> object to school choirs singing Christmas carols that aren't limited to
> mindless stuff about chestnuts, Santa, and silver bells. In several
> districts in this state you can't sing the finest choral music ever
> composed, stuff like Handel's Messiah or Brahms' Requiem or William
> Billings' superb anthems. NO ONE WINS when this kind of censorship takes
> place. Might as well say that Fiddler on the Roof is too Jewish
> (hush--they
> did that musical in my school district two years ago) or Inherit the Wind
> (which we will be doing here next spring) too antireligious (and that
> would
> not be far from the mark), but I bet those two staples stay on the
> approved
> list.
>
> Idiots do seem to dominate the public airwaves, when it comes to matters
> like this (not to mention many others).
>
> Ted
>
>
Received on Tue Mar 21 16:20:00 2006