Tell the Truth

I was driving my grandchildren home the other day listening to that classic musical written for Christians by Christians, “Sir Oliver’s Song.”  This musical covers the Ten Commandments, some more than once, with songs that are supposed to have an international feel.  What that meant back in 1979 was that a collection of adults, mostly of European ancestry tried to sing with accents not their own.  A really bad German accent on Dankeschön, for instance or a cheesy Jamaican accent on Kalepo (written by a Bulgarian who was the creative power behind Silverwind, an ABBA wannabe group for Christians). I will leave for another time the idea that monkeys are morally responsible when they steal another monkey’s banana (the premise in Kalepo).  I will not now address the cultural insensitivity inherent in only having English speaking (in one case with a slight Bulgarian accent) performers sing every song even when the song highlighted another language (French, Spanish, Hebrew, German, Bavarian) 

I want to focus on one line from the song, Tell the Truth.  It contains one line that bothered me back when my children were listening to the cassette.  “Stretching the truth is tellin’ a lie.  Angels are honest that’s why they can fly.”  The angelology of this song comes out of nowhere.  Other than making a rhyme for the word lie in the previous sentence there is no theological reason for saying anything about angels and lying.  And there is certainly no reason to attribute an angel’s ability to fly with their honesty.  (Unless the argument is that unfallen angels can still fly while fallen angels no longer possess this ability.  If that is the case, how do they get around?  Public transit?  Walk? Bike?)

There really is a point to this rant besides being able to take a trip down memory lane for those who grew up listening to or having their children listen to Agapeland.  Theology matters.  Children, like adults, learn their theology a little at a time.  Earl Palmer said, “Never teach a child something they will later have to unlearn.”  I’m sure I didn’t do this perfectly as a parent, but I tried very carefully to not teach things that were not true.  There is a place for fiction.  I read a lot of fiction every year, but I know going in it isn’t true.  The danger to children is that they do not have the maturity until quite late in their development to discern the real from the false, the true from the lie.  Ironically this song about telling the truth tells a lie.  And an unnecessary lie at that.  (A lie is an abomination to the Lord.  And a very present help in time of trouble.  Adalai Stevenson) There was no reason to introduce angels into the discussion.

So let this be a warning to us all.  Speak the truth.  Whether about angels or banana stealing monkeys.  If I can figure out how to skip the song on the CD, I’ll do that next time we’re driving up Beach Boulevard.