Norman Lear, I love you.

[GliderGuider]

OK, I'm not an American. And I'm not patriotic, even about my own country. I'm not a Christian. I don't particularly like country music.

But I do believe in ordinary people. And I gotta tell you, I'm sitting here with a tear in my eye after watching the fruits of Norman Lear's latest effort:

Born Again American

When I saw the name of the site I was prepared for another traditional right-wing polemic. Boy, was I wrong. This is the most remarkable piece of grass-roots political activism I've seen in recent years. It's an arrow with feathers of outrage, a shaft of social criticism and a tip of pure sentimentality, aimed straight at the heart of Middle America.

Play the video at the link, you'll be glad you did.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Norman Lear is a GREAT American and Human Being!

:patriot:

[marmar]

2. I was a kid when Norman Lear's sitcoms "The Jeffersons" and "All in the Family"......

..... were on regularly, and I thought they were funny, but as a child, I didn't really "get" the social commentary in them.
But I watch them now on TVLand and think, "he was really making some pretty big social statements."

[malaise]

3. My bible and bill of rights

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! How inclusive - no bible you're not American. Good luck with that.

[GliderGuider]

4. Remember the intended audience.

[drm604]

16. You may be hearing that wrong.

I think it might be "My bible is the bill of rights", meaning that the bill of rights is their bible.

[midnight]

5. Equality, and Justice for all..... It does bring a tear to the eye..... But our

citizens have been and continue to be hoodwinked into thinking that for their safety, those words are for another time when all the drunk drivers are locked up, all the terrorist are killed, and those who color out of the line are held back...... If we are going to be re-born again Americans, it better be with holding firm to our constitution, and not the steady diet of facts used to whip us up into fearful legislation..... Let's move away from this prison planet and into the right to move around freely.

[GliderGuider]

6. Of course. But one has to start somewhere.

He's reminding people of the actual principles the country was supposed to have been founded on. The wedge needs a thin edge, and this seems like a good one to me.

[Laelth]

7. Mister we could use a man like Norman Lear again. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[KG]

8. lost me at 'my bible'.

[Berry Cool]

9. Your loss.

Like it or not, there are liberals who are angry that the conservative right has been allowed to co-opt and corrupt religion in general and Christianity in particular. They want it back, but they don't want it back as the right made it, they want it the way THEY see it. And believe it or not, you might not find that so objectionable. If you do, though, too bad because the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion for people who want to follow it, even if you don't.

Edit: I'm keeping this here only because several people included in the video are quite obviously people of faith selected for the variety of their religious beliefs, including choir members, a Protestant minister, a Jewish cantor and some Muslims. In short, this video is definitely attempting to make the point that not all religious people believe in forcing their beliefs on others via politics or the government; there are people of all faiths who worship in some sort of church but, when outside their church, regard the Bill of Rights as their only "bible."

[Berry Cool]

10. Actually, I just learned something important for all you "Bible objectionists"--

--something so important I'm not burying it in a correction of my previous post, because I want you to see it.

On the page "About Us," Keith Carradine explains:

When Norman asked me to write "Born Again American" he did so with the suggestion that the song address several timely and timeless social and political issues. He was quite specific about reinforcing what our founders envisioned when they wrote our Constitution and Bill Of Rights; (ergo " my bible is The Bill Of Rights "). The secular ideals of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine are what we need to remind ourselves of at this critical time in our Nation's history.

So...what you really have here is no reference to the Bible or religion at all (except as couched within the Bill of Rights!). The lyrics are saying "My bible is the Bill of Rights." Period! Obviously, Carradine made a big mistake not including the word "is" in his lyrics, because he made them too easy to misunderstand, but that's what he meant. A "born-again American"'s only "bible" is the Bill of Rights.

Now, can you get behind that?

[GliderGuider]

13. If the original words had made it into the recording,

"my Bible is the Bill of Rights" would have completely turned off a large portion of their target audience -- a much larger portion than the ones who might be offended by "my Bible and the Bill of Rights".

While I resonate more with the original words, I'm a secular atheist. Not many in the target audience fit that description. Many of them would see elevating the BoR to Biblical status as offensive. The change was a smart move.

[Berry Cool]

14. Good point.

The only way to make it work would be to say "The Bill of Rights is my bible." But I think the lyrics say "my bible, the Bill of Rights," not "my Bible AND the Bill of Rights."

Also, it was my understanding that even social atheists could appreciate what people mean when a document or book of some kind is referred to as a "bible." As in, "This book is the bible of opera" or "This book is the bible of baseball" or whatever--and that referring to a book in such a way was no more objectionable to an atheist than it would be to tell a Christian that Memphis is a "mecca" of blues music.

[GliderGuider]

11. Self-delete, due to Berry Cool's post above.

[ThatsMyBarack]

12. America the Beautiful!

:patriot:

[DemReadingDU]

15. Watch: Norman Lear’s Preamble at the Lincoln Memorial

This is on the page 'About Us"

several videos at this link
http://www.bornagainamerican.org/about.html

[Mari333]

17. wow.

knr
Im ignoring the bible part anyway lol