I am old, but I\u2019m not that<\/em> old, so when I say that everything in this story occurred within my lifetime, that should tell you something about the claims of these folks to be \u201ctraditionalists.\u201d The big manifesto introducing and proclaiming \u201ccomplementarianism\u201d came out in 1987 \u2014 the same year as Moonstruck<\/em> and Lethal Weapon<\/em>. That was the year after<\/em> \u201cLivin\u2019 on a Prayer<\/a>\u201d came out, which is to say it was four years after \u201cRunaway\u201d first hit the airwaves, and I\u2019m not impressed by the argument that something carries the weight and authority of \u201ctradition\u201d if it hasn\u2019t been around for as long as Bon Jovi has been on the radio.<\/p>\n \u2022 James McGrath ponders the need to recraft the lyrics to the beloved old Sunday-school song \u201cJesus Loves the Little Children.\u201d As he notes, the song\u2019s central message is wonderful: every child, everywhere, is beloved by God. But it\u2019s now a bit jarring and anachronistic to sing, \u201cRed and yellow, black and white<\/a> \/ they are precious in God\u2019s sight.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve discussed this song, and this line in this song, a few times here, noting that the line now seems awkward not just in the Sunday-school song but in John & Yoko\u2019s allusion to it<\/a> in \u201cHappy Christmas (War Is Over).\u201d<\/p>\n For my grandmother, the first verse \u2014 \u201cJesus loves the little children, all the children of the world\u201d \u2014 entailed the second verse, \u201cGo and tell<\/em> the little children \u2026\u201d I don\u2019t want to veer off here into a longer discussion of \u201cchild evangelism,\u201d in which the creepy paternalism of 19th-century missiology tends to shine brightest, but let\u2019s also note that this verse of the song might also benefit from a bit of rethinking.<\/p>\n Not sure how this song\u2019s message of indiscriminate divine love squared with Grandma\u2019s strict Calvinist belief in limited atonement, but Grandma was large, she encompassed multitudes.<\/p>\n Anyway, I remain fond of this well-intentioned if imperfect little song. It may be as sappy, sentimental, and simplistic as \u201cWar is over, if you want it,\u201d but the ideals behind such apparent platitudes are still valuable.<\/p>\n \u2022 If you\u2019ve ever wondered about their namesakes, here\u2019s Jan Edmiston on the Robert of Robert\u2019s Rules of Order<\/a> and here\u2019s Erik Loomis visiting the American grave of the Dewey of the Dewey Decimal System<\/a>.<\/p>\n Melvil Dewey, it turns out, was a despicable jerk \u2014 a lecherous misogynist, racist, and antisemite. (\u201cDo you realize just how over the top antisemitic you had to be in 1906 to lose your job over it?\u201d) Henry Martyn Robert, on the other hand, was a mensch. He was the son of an abolitionist Baptist preacher who fought for the American side of the Civil War and eventually composed his rules (in 1876) in an effort to make Baptist church meetings less chaotic.<\/p>\n \u2022 Daniel Jos\u00e9 Camacho\u2019s Revealer<\/em> piece on \u201cThe Internet\u2019s Unofficial Patron Saint<\/a>,\u201d happily, does not conclude with Isidore of Seville turning out to be a milkshake duck.<\/p>\n Reading that had me musing about other potential candidates for unofficial patron saints of the internet and thus thinking of Craig Shergold \u2014 one of the first \u201cviral\u201d internet celebrities and, subsequently, one of the first internet-driven urban legends. I was saddened to learn, via<\/em> Wikipedia<\/a>, that Shergold died last year from COVID. He was 40.<\/p>\n Shergold\u2019s death in 2020, alas, will not stop thousands of people in 2021 from sending birthday cards to 9-year-old Craig Shergold, or to \u201cGreg Sherwood\u201d or Draing Sherold. Those cards will keep coming to the former address, which still has its own designated postal code.<\/p>\n \u2022 The title of this post comes from \u201cPump It Up\u201d on the 1978 Elvis Costello album This Year\u2019s Model.<\/em> That was also the year of the \u201cChicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy\u201d \u2014 \u201cbiblical inerrancy\u201d being another concept often marketed as \u201ctraditional\u201d when, in fact, it\u2019s younger than Disco, Punk, or New Wave.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the official music video for \u201cPump It Up,\u201d because official music videos were already a thing before the ancient tradition of \u201cbiblical inerrancy\u201d was codified.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2021\/03\/CEFJLTLC.jpeg\")
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\n\u201cJesus Loves the Little Children\u201d was my grandmother\u2019s favorite song. I mentioned, when telling \u201cThe Grandma story<\/a>,\u201d that she\u2019d always lose when she played \u201cMastermind\u201d with her grandchildren because her hidden pegs were always<\/em> red and yellow, black and white. This was, for Grandma, a missionary<\/em> song, capturing the indiscriminate nature of the missionary zeal of her strain of Great Commission fundamentalist Christianity. That missionary emphasis rescued Grandma from the most explicit forms of Christian nationalism (even though she was a big Peter Marshall fan). It couldn\u2019t rescue her white fundie faith from its utter entanglement with white supremacy, but it steered her toward the more \u201cbenevolent,\u201d Kipling-esque form of that found in the 19th-century missionary movement (which is maybe not quite better<\/em>, but perhaps less aggressively bad?).<\/p>\n