Candidate Obama actually said, "They will remember the day the oceans stopped rising and the planet began to heal."
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A Cold Front Moves in from Minneapolis
Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "Copenhagen and Washington DC Struck by Record Snow...":
I have been browsing through your list of favorite hymns. Don't see many Scandinavian hymns there, GJ. Why not? How can you consider 'Stille Nicht' a good hymn? It's sappy German sentimentalism that has no doctrinal content. See my blog this month for a lengthy list of good Scandinavian Christmas hymns.
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GJ - Next, Norman will be saying I murdered my best friend (Hauerwas liturgical insight). His hymns are posted without translations. I knew two of the melodies, tops. "I am so glad" has never been a favorite in congregations I served. There is quite a difference between the German and the Scandinavian hymn traditions. That led to the break (which supposedly never happened) over the WELS/ELS hymnal.
My complaint is that "favorite hymns" in various synods have been the Methodist ones, or worse ones imported from Babtist revivals.
I thought the Service Book and Hymnal was stronger for having more Scandinavian hymns. TLH is too Germanic, but I still like it. WELS Contempo Worship is a slap-dash collection of hymns, from the dreadful to the pathetic, with the great doctrinal war verses removed from the best hymns.
I hired Mr. Bose (orthodox Lutheran) as my organist. He never complains when we sing all 16 verses of a hymn during a service (broken up, of course).