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Showing posts from February, 2022

The Lord's Prayer

When I was a kid, school assemblies invariably began with a recitation of The Lord’s Prayer . It was always a very solemn and serious affair. By the time I got to high school, however, for some unknown reason  The Lord’s Prayer was set to music. For me this stripped away its gravitas and imbued it with a distinctly comedic flavour. I went to a private high school for boys. It was a non-denominational school, but for some reason our weekly assemblies carried a heavy Christian vibe and a lot of our guest speakers were disturbingly evangelical. For instance, every year this withered old missionary used to come and hand out tiny red bibles and regale us with a song about the Holy Land. It was a horrible dirge and this guy used to belt it out like he was bent on destroying our PA system. The refrain was a jarring “JERRRUUU-SALEM! JERRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUU-SALEM!” and the entire school used to sit through it, cringing in collective embarrassment. There was always an awful stunned silence at th