Re: [HoB/D] Many crowns

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

As an English professor  I'm amused at being lectured with the assumption
that I cannot recognize a metaphor when I see one.

Of course I know "Crown Him with Many Crowns" is metaphorical.   How does
that make the hymn any less imperialistic or less objectionable?

I do not insist that we bring all biblical language into 21st-century idiom.
Heaven forbid.  With fewer and fewer monarchs, the last century managed to
be the most imperialistic of all, in terms of the body count of the slain.

Jesus in the hymn "The King of Love My Shepherd Is"  is accessible as a
friend to Harry, Frank and Mother Mary in my own extension of the metaphor.
He's the opposite of imperialistic.

But The Jesus with Many Crowns?!  Puleeze.   Perhaps we should consign him
with the Boy of Prague and other schlock to the candle section of
Wal-Mart's.

I no longer sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" at worship either, and I am
glad that the musicians in my parish never choose it.   I'll willingly
harmonize with its bass line over a campfire on a fishing trip, or while
wearing my fuchsia feather boa motoring through the countryside.  But I
choose not to mingle that hymn with incense and the blessed sacrament.    If
present when others sing it at mass, I have much to pray about silently with
my eyes open.

I am not prescribing what others should think or do but trying to clarify
for myself what I think and why.  I am open to persuasion.  By posting here,
I invite it.

Have a blessed Advent.

Louie, L1 Newark

Louie Crew, 377 S. Harrison St., 12D, East Orange, NJ 07018 973-395-1068
http://queereye4lectionary.blogspot.com/  Queer Eye for the Lectionary

 "Jesus is coming!   Look busy!"

      -- Advent T-shirt my husband spotted at the Newark Airport


> From my original post:

Aside from a few queans I know, why would anyone want more than one
crown?

The Jesus of Scripture showed not the slighted desire for even one.

Yesterday I belted out "Crown him with many crowns" as fervently and
joyfully as I could.  I also sang 'oh what rapture, oh what
rapture."  The songs stayed with me into the night, and trouble me on
waking.

Continued at  http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/natter/msg00176.html