That’s a white-tie-and-tails, high-society gala performance of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the classic closing number from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. And it is a classic — an iconic bit of British culture, often sung at funerals and other official ceremonial occasions, including the opening of the 2012 Olympics in London. It was sung by the crew of the HMS Sheffield as the destroyer was sinking during the Falklands War.
In 1979, as a Southern Baptist preacher, Huckabee condemned Life of Brian’s showing in Texas as a sign of imminent doom and the decline of American morality:
There was a time in this country when a movie like The Life of Brian which, I just read — thank God the theaters in Little Rock decided not to show, but it’s showing all over the Fort Worth-Dallas area, which is a mockery, which is a blasphemy against the very name of Jesus Christ, and I can remember a day even as young as I am when that would not have happened in this country or in the city in the South.
(“And it all began with one man,” Sketch Erickson would’ve added, “Elvis. Aron. Presley.“)
So in 1979, Baptist preachers told us that the sky was falling because of a movie. Decades later, Huckabee’s prediction of doom looks a bit silly as the very thing he was then railing against has become a beloved, established part of the culture with no apparent ill effects. Don’t be surprised if, decades from now, the same thing turns out to be true about whatever supposed cultural abominations Huckabee is railing against these days.
• I suppose the good new for Democratic Michigan state Sen. Virgil Smith is that he can’t be charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
• Peter Enns on “11 recurring mistakes in the debate over the ‘historical Adam.’” And Wyatt Houtz offers 10 statements summarizing “Karl Barth on the so-called historical Adam.”
Both of these are fascinating and fairly accessible, but despite their providing us with numbered lists, I don’t think theologians and biblical scholars have yet mastered the click-friendly art of the listicle. (That’s probably a good thing — I’m not sure I’m ready to read “21 Taylor Swift Lyrics That Summarize Church Dogmatics VI” illustrated with .gifs from Community.)
• “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, set up by former generations.” — Deuteronomy 19:14
“Do not remove the ancient landmark that your ancestors set up.” — Proverbs 22:28
“Do not remove an ancient landmark or encroach on the fields of orphans, for their redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.” — Proverbs 23:10-11
• “2.15 Million People Still Pay AOL for Internet Access.” That’s surprising and kind of sad. But it’s not as surprising and sad as the fact that hundreds of millions of others primarily access the Internet through the old AOL model using the slightly newer version of its everybody-stay-inside-the-tour-bus approach: Facebook.
• Delaware has three members of Congress. For ages, that meant Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Tom Carper (a former governor and a centrist Democrat) and Rep. Mike Castle (a former governor and a centrist Republican). These were essentially lifetime appointments.
When Biden was elected vice president in 2008, Castle gave up his seat in the House to run for the Senate. Delaware Democrats wanted Beau Biden — the state’s attorney general — to run against him, but Beau had spent most of his first year as AG deployed with his guard unit in Iraq and he wanted to spend some time actually serving as attorney general instead of running for his dad’s old seat. That made Mike Castle a shoo-in — he’d won around 60 percent of the vote in most of his House races, and no other Democrat in the First State had a chance against him.
So Chris Coons, a county executive, stepped up to bite the bullet as the party’s sacrificial lamb. Coons was smart, capable and generally respected, but not particularly charismatic. Everybody in Delaware, including him, expected him to lose honorably, but to lose big.
Then Christine O’Donnell happened. The loopy tea party favorite (who was not a witch) got her people to show up for a very-low-turnout special election primary while most Republicans stayed home, assuming Castle was going to win easily. He didn’t. And so now Chris Coons is a United States senator.
And, as it turns out, he’s a pretty good one.
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