Folklore: Wobs ADMIT right wing evangel. origins!

Subject: Folklore: Wobs ADMIT right wing evangel. origins!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 02:14 PM

Like NPR lately, the Wobblies admitted that they've been using the word God more lately than ever before!

Also, like NPR, whose airwaves are loaded with spiritual content intended to save their financial public broadcasting asses, the
Wobblies have admitted that they were always a religion, and that Joe Hilstrom (aka, Joe Hill) was their second Unitarian Minister. Jesus was the first! His turning the water into wine and serving piles of alewives (fish) to the multitudes was not only said to be a miracle, but it was the actual very first Unitarian-pot-luck-supper, and it set the standard for all the rest. (Chicagoans remember those rotting die-off alewife piles on the beaches of Lake Michigan a few short years ago. -- No miracle we strongly " with all the faith-based vehemence we can muster!!!)

Did you ever wonder how Joe Hill knew all those hymn tunes he wrote his songs to? Did you ever wonder how Utah Phillips... ????? Whatever!

Well, just think about these words here. I know you'll see the obvious "rightness" of what I've told you in, this, my first epissle. Whether there will be more will depend on how you take these mental ruminations of mine. Like the cows on my ol' uncle's farm, I've chewed the grass, and then given forth these pearls of wisdom before swine. Swill 'em down! As with a compact little fur ball, I've been brief; that, in order to leave you room here in cyberspace to toss your own lunchtime meals into this thread. The realization of all this caused me to turn off the strange "Speaking Of Faith"" radio show on Sunday morning last because it dawned on me (Dracula's last words) how this sad dynamic was swelling the $$$$$$$ amounts in NPR's coffers. --- They've learned to play the game. Like the stars and stripes, long may they wave.

George Bush, be happy with these sad successes. For now, it seems you have won. But...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wobs ADMIT right wing evangel. origi
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 02:16 PM

Did Ewan McColl ever have anything to do with Joe Hill's trousers? We should be told!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wobs ADMIT right wing evangel. origins!
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 02:31 PM

Joe Hill "left" his trousers to Ewan MacColl in his "Last Will" which became a song. But it was left out of the song when the early church said what ought to be in in it. The apocryphal song contains the complete lyric.

My will was easy to decide,
I leave my pants to that Ewan guy..."

Art

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wobs ADMIT right wing evangel. origins!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 04:49 PM

I once heard Utah Phillips say that his views on religion were so radical that the Unitarians once burned a question mark on his lawn.

With all those churches messing around with right-wing politics, it only makes sense that some left-wing political organizations will fight back by messing around with religion, for the same (or similar) reasons. Serves 'em right.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Wobs ADMIT right wing evangel. origins!
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 11:32 PM

"In the first issue, March 18, 1909, evangelist Billy Sunday is berated on the grounds that he asks for money from those who don't have it, i.e. the workers. The Reverend W. B. Bull is criticized on page three of the same issue and called a dangerous man. More anti religious sentiment is displayed on May 13, 1909 when the priests are accused of "upholding the justice of legalized murder….The delusion of patriotism and the deceit of the priests and the preachers serve to cause race hatred and to divide the workers…" Although the issue of religion is not a major topic of the paper, it is generally portrayed negatively. A cartoon on the front page of February 12, 1927 issue depicts a graveyard with angel wings above and a question mark where the body of the angel would normally be. The inference being that an afterlife is doubtful. At times the newspaper will caution that talking about religion divides workers, as it did on July 9, 1909: " questions of religion, of race, of color, of nationality are…firebrand scum among the workers to keep them from fighting the bosses.." But headlines like "The Priest aids the Boss" revealed the core sentiments of the the writers who produced The Industrial Worker."