Courtesy of a link over at Vox Day's place, I was disgusted to read this report.
Messiah Queered — that’s the title of a reimagining of Handel’s classic oratorio performed through an LGBTTQ+ lens.
The oratorio, a staple at Christmas time for many people, will be performed by the Rainbow Harmony Project choir, together with soloists and a 16-piece orchestra made up of professional and amateur players at Holy Trinity Anglican Church Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The idea for the performance came up during a conversation between Nathan Poole, a local violin and piano teacher, and Sandra Bender, music director at Holy Trinity Church.
Bender, who is bisexual and the soprano soloist in the performance, thought it would be a great oratorio for LGBTTQ+ people.
“It’s the story of a transient who hung out with marginalized people, who offered love and self-sacrifice and who experienced rejection and betrayal — something LGBTTQ+ people understand in all too real a way,” she said.
There's more at the link.
No, Ms. Bender. "The Messiah" has nothing whatsoever to do with all those trendy, politically correct, "woke" artifacts you mention. It celebrates the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Son of God and has been worshipped as such ever since. By denigrating that reality, by forcing one of the greatest pieces of orchestral and choral worship ever written into your worldly, sexually charged framework, you've merely pissed off untold legions of people who take Christ seriously, and at his word, and know full well that he had, and has, nothing to do with your agenda.
Methinks it's time we started praying for some well-directed lightning strikes on that church this evening. Some of the Seven Plagues of Egypt might be appropriate, too.
Peter
I am so --->TIRED<--- of the LBGTQ+ agenda. Every damned thing they see is through the lens of "queerness"!! Believe me, their sexual orientation is the last of my concerns. To bastardize this piece of music is simply idiocy.
ReplyDeleteI do believe the queer choir doesn't understand that Christ the King had/has no problem going all David v Goliath on their collective stupidity (can't go medieval because, well pre-medieval.) If Christ can scourge the money lenders and hucksters out of the Temple...
ReplyDeleteNot to be gross, but what is it with modern Alphabet People wanting to f...copulate every thing up with their mental issues?
Damn. I miss the Cary Grant style homos, I surely do.
The left will pervert, distort and destroy literally everything if allowed to. They are quite literally at war with society. There goal is the utter destruction of our society so they can replace i with some sick bizarre perverted alternative. OUR problem is refusing to accept that reality and fight back. Thus the evil left is and will continue winning.
ReplyDeleteNO. I object to the desecration of Handel's sacred oratorio, a work of genius and inspiration that he, himself, felt to have come from God. Handel must be rolling in his grave right now.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, none of these people are capable of creating anything new. Like Satan, they can only twist and destroy and desecrate and defile good things - and they never question their own rightness in doing so.
Remember, He has given them up to a reprobate mind to believe a lie and be damned.
ReplyDeleteAs coincidence would have it, I was watching a DVD of the 250th anniversary performance of Messiah at the Point Theater, Dublin this morning. It is literally a "heart-breaking work of staggering genius". Handel wrote it to give tribute to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is returning to judge the quick and the dead.
ReplyDeleteThese mockers are doing this blasphemy specifically and intentionally to mock Him and His followers. They are going to be hoping for millstones soon.
How long, O Lord, how long?
If these people think that God is going to be any more tolerant of their behavior than He was of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, then they need to adjust their meds...
ReplyDeleteMay their histrionic endeavors be blessed with poor attendance, excruciating reviews and an early production close. Tired of pretentious deviates. rick
ReplyDeleteJoseph and Mary were homeless, lest we forget. Also, Jesus was black too. And gay, even though Bathhouse Barry Obama is absolutely, positively not. NOT, you guys. Get it straight, damn you all.
ReplyDeleteWhat's good for the goose is good for the gander (no matter which way the gander takes it).
ReplyDeletePermit me to gleefully invoke Godwin's Law with a quote from my No. 1 favourite news source, the Jewish Telegraph (did they have a side-gig building Eruvs?) Agency:
https://www.jta.org/archive/nazis-aryanize-handels-judas-maccabaeus
Handel’s famous oratorio, “Judas Maccabaeus,” has been “Aryanized” by substituting a new text with a German hero, according to the Prague Nazi newspaper Der Neue Tag. The work has received the new title “The General.”
The Nazi paper said the original text was “an oriental extravaganza” characterized by “overheated voluptuousness,” while Handel’s music “is a musical speech which rises into the pure air of Nordic-German spirituality.” “Handel’s music,” the paper said, “is now freed of a contradiction which the 18th century lack of racial insight could not grasp.”
THAT is some twisted logic... sigh
ReplyDeleteA church in New England went Woke. Here's how that turned out:
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1ICAyYfLhc0&pp=ygUTc3BlbmNlciBjaHVyY2ggZmlyZQ%3D%3D
Hey Peter!
ReplyDeleteNathan Poole here, the conductor of this performance. Despite your calls for lightning(nothing like a Christian calling for the deaths and injury of other Christians) and your followers’s calls for a “poor attendance”(it was packed, meaning it raised A LOT of money was raised for Sunshine House- a charity sure to make you irrationally angry), nobody died, was injured, or was otherwise upset. Only certain Christians that have decided that their brand of grifty morality policing is “The Way” were offended.
I realize this comment section is moderated, and fully understand you won’t publish this comment, but just wanted to assure you that we were not harmed, despite your prayers for it.
Blessings- and Merry Christmas!
I truly hope you and your followers had a wonderful Christmas Day with family and friends, and that your Christmastide is even better.
Best wishes for a happy new year,
Nathan Poole
Heyo, friend of many of the soloists/performers here:
ReplyDeleteWhile I had the absolute misfortune of being unable to attend this concert, I can say without a doubt that the people putting this concert together are some of the loveliest, most talented, and most reflective of God’s love that I know (even if they don’t call themselves Christian). A community-led performance of Messiah to support a fantastic nonprofit organization is exactly what the Christmas story allows Christians, and indeed everyone to do: enjoy time with loved ones, and share in each other’s blessings. It allows us to come together and love one another, which is exactly what Jesus told his people to do.
Now being Christmas may be a good time to remind ourselves that people thought Jesus was going to be a great war leader. They thought he was going to come with vindication and strength and smite those they thought unworthy of God’s love. They probably wished for a few of their own “lightning strikes”. What did they get instead? A refugee child born out of wedlock to a teenage mother that was outcast from Joseph’s family. All those people that people thought Jesus would smite? He had dinner with them instead, washed their feet, and most importantly, he loved them.
This performance was such a blessing to the community, and I hope everyone here is able to find the same space to love one another this holiday. Merry Christmas!
@Nathan and Chloe: I never censor opposing views on this blog - only rude, ill-mannered ones. Thanks for sharing your views with us.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, there is at this point "a gulf fixed" between our positions. Along with many (most) Christians, I regard the teaching of Christ and the apostolic tradition, the Jewish corpus fidei from which they sprang, and the moral law embodied in the Bible, as normative and definitive. No matter how much modern "woke" Christianity may try to obfuscate the point, there is no possibility whatsoever that an active LGBT lifestyle can be reconciled with the moral teaching of Christ. It's as simple as that. No matter how much one twists and turns trying to reinterpret the Bible's standards, or "update" them to separate moral law from tradition (not nearly as simple or as authentic as it sounds), that's just the way it is.
I'm sure you regard my views as hopelessly stuck-in-the-mud, lost in the past and refusing to recognize modern realities. That's OK. One of these days, please God, we'll be in a position to ask Him what he thinks about it. I suspect we may not be terribly pleased by some of His answers.
Thanks for commenting.
Imagine being this upset about something well intended and inclusive that you literally end up doing the devil's dirty work yourself. One of the most sinful and abhorrent things I can think of is having the audacity to think you're in any way speaking for your God and God's intentions by being an absolute terrible human to other humans. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves and honestly, grow up and do better.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, reevaluate yourselves and your poor choice of character. Maybe pray on it or whatever it is you absolute chud units do.
Decline comment all you want and act like you're better than anyone else, when all you are is gross. I'll ask a few people to pray for your souls because you definitely need it bud.
You: It's inclusive and uplifting to others who arent like me, it must be woke! Yes, *everything's woke* mister Renaissance Man.
@Anonymous at 12:13AM: You just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteYou cherry-pick scriptures and "feel-good" teachings that support your position, and proclaim your love for all humankind, your inclusivity, your tolerance, and so on. So far, so good.
However, to do that, you completely ignore the perfectly valid, age-old moral teachings of the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, that state in simple, black-and-white terms that your way of life is terminally wrong.
You're living a lie. You're saying that you accept the teachings you like, and reject those you don't. You don't believe in Jesus Christ or his teachings - you believe only in your edited version of both.
Bob Mumford, a Pentecostal preacher, once defined "secular humanism" as "what happens when the world evangelizes the church". That's exactly what you've done. You've cherry-picked the bits you like, discarded the bits you don't, and then you condemn all those who say you can't do that.
Sorry. You and I do not believe in the same God. I guess, one day, we'll find out which of us was correct.