Why Do Some People Get So Worked Up? Looking at a list of blogs, the name "Queer Conservative" caught my eye.

As far as i'm concerned, what i find offensive in that title is the word "Conservative", given the way that term is currently being (mis)defined and (mis)used.

I mean, i happen to be straight, but i'd be a lot less worried if society as a whole thought i was gay than i would if everyone assumed i was a Bush "Conservative".

That being said, one of his posts, entitled NARNIA: A REVIEW BY A NON-BELIEVER, bringing to light a frothing-at-the-mouth review written by an obvious atheist, definitely caught my eye.

Lord, almighty, and i thought the Funnymentalists like the Shrub and his buddies were the real hellfire'n'brimstone shouters.

Herewith we have British columnist Polly Toynbee, telling us, in a review entitled 'Narnia represents everything most hateful about religion' (the Guardian), how hateful The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is.

Why? Because here in Narnia is the perfect Republican, muscular Christianity for America - that warped, distorted neo-fascist strain that thinks might is proof of right. I once heard the famous preacher Norman Vincent Peale in New York expound a sermon that reassured his wealthy congregation that they were made rich by God because they deserved it. The godly will reap earthly reward because God is on the side of the strong. This appears to be CS Lewis's view, too. In the battle at the end of the film, visually a great epic treat, the child crusaders are crowned kings and queens for no particular reason. Intellectually, the poor do not inherit Lewis's earth.

(This is not one of the passages QC quoted; it rather tickles my fancy, though.)

At an earlier point, making a point that Britain is highly secularised these days and that Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" (allegedly) flopped there, she continues:

Most British children will be utterly clueless about any message beyond the age-old mythic battle between good and evil. Most of the fairy story works as well as any Norse saga, pagan legend or modern fantasy, so only the minority who are familiar with Christian iconography will see Jesus in the lion. After all, 43% of people in Britain in a recent poll couldn't say what Easter celebrated. Among the young - apart from those in faith schools - that number must be considerably higher. Ask art galleries: they now have to write the story of every religious painting on the label as people no longer know what "agony in the garden", "deposition", "transfiguration" or "ascension" mean. This may be regrettable cultural ignorance, but it means Aslan will stay just a lion to most movie-goers.

and finishes up

Children are supposed to fall in love with the hypnotic Aslan, though he is not a character: he is pure, raw, awesome power. He is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass. Everyone needs ghosts, spirits, marvels and poetic imaginings, but we can do well without an Aslan.

I just love people who have to run around telling little kids there is no Santa Claus.

The rant as a whole has to be read to be believed.

Years ago, the Velvet Underground had this woman's number:

...there's even some evil mothers
Well there gonna tell you that everything is just dirt
you know that women never really faint
and that villians always blink their eyes
that children are the only ones who blush
and that life is just to die

But anyone who ever had a heart
they wouldn't turn around and break it
and anyone who ever played a part
They wouldn't turn around and hate it...*
(Lou Reed, "Sweet Jane")

People who are very very afraid often want others to share their fears. People who hate need support from others who hate, so that they won't have to consider whether it's everybody else who's wrong, or whether it's just them...

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*Incidentally, the best version of "Sweet Jane" ever recorded --and that's a quasi-quote from Lou Reed -- was done on their first album by Two Nice Girls, an Austin-based gay female trio, who combined it seamlessly with Joan Armatrading's "Love and Affection" in an ethereal arrangement that's almost too pretty to bear...

Like most truly beautiful music that doesn't fit the procrustean formats at Clear Channel and its ilk (may they burn in Radio Hell!), it is long-since out of print and unavailable.  ¶ 3:44 PM