"Silent Night" controversy

[Ed Brayton]

Mark Tushnet wrote:

>I have no idea what the truth of the matter is, but here's a different 
>account of what happened in connection with the Silent Night 
>episode on which there was a post earlier today:
>
>http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/14/silent-night-fraud
>  
>

It appears that your link in fact has it right: 
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5772991.html

----------------

Diane Messer, administrator of the Dodgeville School District, said the 
holiday show is titled "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift'' and was 
copyrighted in 1988. It's about a family that goes to buy a Christmas 
tree and uses a collection of familiar Christmas carol melodies to tell 
the story.

"Somebody totally misunderstood and had the belief that one of our 
teachers took it upon herself to rewrite the words to 'Silent Night,''' 
she said. "This program is well within our district's policy which 
allows us the use of both religious and secular content in our 
curriculum and in our productions and performances.''

Messer said the program has been performed "several times'' over the 
last 18 years and the school district has no immediate plans to address 
the Liberty Counsel's concerns.

"It's a misunderstanding and people have drawn all sorts of absurd 
conclusions from it,'' she said.

----------------

Here is the link to the play itself that they performed: 
http://delrich.home.mindspring.com/tree.html

And here is the list of songs that are performed:

   1.  The Little Tree's Christmas Gift (Overture)
   2. Buy Our Trees! (The Tree Men's Song)
   3. Please Make A Deal For Me (Tree Buyers' Song #1)
   4. Please Make A Deal For Me (Tree Buyers' Song #2)
   5. Cold In the Night (The Little Tree's Song)
   6. O Little Tree With Slender Branch (Family's Song)
   7. Here We Come A-Caroling / O Christmas Tree (Carolers' Songs)
   8. Underscore Tree Music
   9. Christmas Tree Song
  10. Deck The Halls / We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Audience 
Participation Carols)

Sounds terribly anti-Christmas, doesn't it? In fact, the song "Cold in 
the Night" is not a secularization of "Silent Night", but is merely the 
little tree's lament sung to the same tune, in the middle of a play that 
is all about Christmas. Hardly justified in throwing around "war on 
Christmas" rhetoric here. In fact, it's downright silly and dishonest.

Ed Brayton