In the chapter bearing the title Poetic Potpourri of a Priestly Peripatetic, he has this under the heading ‘A Revised Hymnary’:
Faith of Our Fathers, Wholly Faith
1. LIBERAL VERSION:
Faith of our fathers, once so great.
We must revise or be out of date,
We must distinguish kerygma from myth,
Or they won’t be worth bothering with.
CHORUS:
Faith of our fathers we accept
(Save for the parts that we reject).
2. ORTHODOX VERSION:
Faith of our fathers, keep it intact!
They wrote it down precisely exact.
Change no expression, no phrases delete,
Their propositions cannot be beat.
CHORUS:
Faith of our fathers, keep it pure,
Relevance is a sinful lure.
3. AMERICAN VERSION:
Faith of our founding fathers! We
Now can express with clarity:
“God’s on our side, he’ll hear every plea
If we’ll expand our economy.”
CHORUS:
Faith of our founding fathers! There
Is nothing quite like laissez-faire.
Robert McAfee Brown, ed. The Collect’d Writings of St. Hereticus. Including manuscripts that have not previously appear’d in print to which are annex’d two appendices on theological gamesmanship & one on researchmanship. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964), 115-116.
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