A Truly Mixed Bag

I debated on even posting about our experience at the Opry on Saturday night, because it was such a special night for a lot of folks that I hate to even bring my own complaints into it. But it's hard not to, because it touches off a subject that I think needs to be addressed.

Long story short: I got free tickets to the late show, which was celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Opry, through my work as a Red Cross volunteer. I brought along my friend D., who is a Fort Campbell soldier and had never been before. It turned out that some company who was holding their national convention at Opryland had bought out half the tickets for that night and invited servicemembers, fire and police officers, and others who donated their time and effort to helping their fellow Americans. Really, really cool of them to do. Also cool to offer a tent beforehand with an open bar and lots of food, as well as flashing American flag pins that blinked red and blue. Porter Wagoner said during his set that it was a rare night when the audience flashes more lights than the Opry performers' costumes.

The show started out nicely, and we were having a good time. Little Jimmy Dickens was hilarious. I was happy to see Steve Wariner again (I'd seen him tour with Reba as a teen) and he sang the sweetest song that Bill Anderson wrote called "Two Teardrops". Willard Scott was there as a guest announcer, and said that he'd eaten 140 biscuits before the show to "get into the spirit." Travis Tritt was awesome. The square-dancers were fun. And there was this hilarious drunk guy who kept running up to the stage and dancing around and making the performers laugh. I swear, the Opry should bring him back for every show.

But then Diamond Rio came back onstage (they were hosting the middle segment of the show.) And after doing the requisite "I hear there's a bunch of soldiers out there tonight, and I wanted to give them props for their service" spiel, the lead singer went one step further and said something along the lines of this:

"The soldiers being here has inspired us to play another song tonight. I think it's a shame what they're doing by taking God out of the schools and the government and everything, and this song is about that."

And then Diamond Rio launched into this song called "God in America", which was basically about putting God back in America. I can't find the lyrics to it online, but it was something similar to another song of theirs, "In God We Still Trust".

This really bothered me on several levels. For one thing, I don't go to the Opry to get preached to. I know that country music is hardly known for being a welcoming place for liberals, but there are some of us out there, and we're not sitting there fiendishly plotting to add satanic rituals to the public school workday or to kick fundamentalists out of the workplace or something. I just really didn't feel like this was the place for them to make their own political statements and incite reaction in the name of patriotism. It's a place for entertainment, not propoganda.

But this went way beyond that for me and my friend. Like I said, D. is with the 101st in Air Assault. He's scheduled to deploy to Iraq in less than a month. And he's pagan.

So basically, in my view, D. is about to go put his life on the line for our country. He's not doing it in the name of one God for all, but to give us as Americans the right to feel free to believe in whatever we choose, without fear. But instead of getting credit for what he's doing, his own religious beliefs were minimized by people who claim to be standing up for "what's right" for all. And who are they to judge? How would they feel if they went to a concert where an artist got up and started singing "America for Allah" or something similar as they sat there? They'd be horrified. But as we sat there in shock and didn't clap and everyone around us jumped up and hooted and hollered, we got a lot of nasty looks for not being adequately patriotic or something.

So frankly, that kind of ruined the show for us. We ended up leaving before Garth Brooks came onstage (not too upsetting - I've seen Garth twice, and the only reason I was hugely interested in him was in hopes of hearing his new single about Chris LeDoux.) And while pretty much anyone else would have said that the Diamond Rio song was the highlight of the show for them, it was kind of a wakeup call for me. As a Unitarian Christian, I've adopted a "live and let live" philosophy of religion and life. It's a shame when the same courtesy is not afforded to others.