Any Dream Will Do and Wandering

“Any Dream Will Do” is a moving song in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which our beloved Junior Choir presented one Sunday morning at Mount Calvary Episcopal Church, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, under choir director Dianne Morningstar. My sadness about that Sunday was then and always will be that I missed it. Tass was in the Junior Choir, and missing her performance was difficult and painful for me, and required a heart-stretching choice. We were in the “call process” and had just received a call to be rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, that we were looking forward to, and that I was scheduled to accept the following week. But that week in the Spring of 1984 I was teaching a graduate course in Defense Weapons Systems Acquisition Management at the University of North Florida. The day before class, I had called on Bishop Duvall at his office in Mobile, Alabama to discuss the vacant pulpit at Trinity, Apalachicola. As our conversation ended the bishop said, “Next time you are down from Pennsylvania, I want you to go visit the folks at Trinity, Apalachicola,” and I responded, “I can’t do that, Bishop; I have a call to be rector of a parish in Pennsylvania, and I’m going to accept it next week. So it’s basically now or never.” Bishop Duvall picked up the phone and arranged for me to visit Trinity and meet with the vestry on the Sunday, before I returned home to Pennsylvania. The Apalachicola visit resulted in my being called to Trinity, where we lived and served fourteen years.

Outrage and riots about a film insulting prophets are absurd, but any excuse will do. The violence in fact ratifies the film. And there is nothing special about prophets, they are neither more nor less human than anyone. In anger, the prophet Elijah proclaimed a drought that lasted three years (1 Kings 17). When insulted by a bunch of boys who called him “Old Baldy,” the prophet Elisha called fierce mother bears out of the woods and the bears tore forty-two boys to pieces (2 Kings 2). Even though the battle was over and king Saul had befriended Agag his defeated former enemy, the prophet Samuel hacked Agag, defeated king of Amalek, to bits (1 Samuel 15). Prophets are human and are themselves right offensive. So, offending a prophet is usually a good idea.

It is telling that the recent and ongoing riots and murderous violence which were ostensibly because a film insulted a prophet were not replicated when a French magazine ran offensive cartoons about the same prophet. It tells that the outrage and violence were actually anti-American hatred. The film was just an excuse. Any excuse will do.

One of many things I found out as a parish priest was about people who quit the church: they always have to have an excuse, but any excuse will do. In one church we served, where The Peace was unusually warm and friendly, I had made it my practice during The Peace to stroll up and down the aisle and touch as many people as I reasonably could -- at least those I could reach from the center aisle, I generally didn’t go up and down the side aisles greeting people. One couple whom I had worked hard bringing into the church, including visiting them in their home a couple of times, suddenly stopped coming. After a few Sundays of missing them I inquired about them. It turned out that they had quit because “Father Tom doesn’t shake hands with enough people during The Peace.” When folks decide to “quit the church,” any excuse will do.

It’s the same with hating America. When it comes to rioting and demonstrating and violence against America, hating and murdering Americans, any excuse will do. Hearing that some low-life American ex-con made a cheap movie offending a prophet is as good an excuse as any, you don’t even need any facts. Any excuse will do.

Looking back nearly thirty years now, in spite of all the wonderful things that happened later and have happened in my life since then, I still have regrets and great sadness about missing that Sunday morning performance of Joseph and seeing and hearing my beloved daughter as part of it, singing

“It was red and yellow and green and brown

And scarlet and black and ocher and peach

And ruby and olive and violet and fawn

And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve

And cream and crimson and silver and rose

And azure and lemon and russet and grey

And purple and white and pink and orange

And red and yellow and green and brown

Scarlet and black and ocher and peach

And ruby and olive and violet and fawn

And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve

And cream and crimson and silver and rose

And azure and lemon and russet and grey

And purple and white and pink and orange

And blue”

And singing “Any Dream Will Do.” My sadness at missing Tassy’s performance that Sunday morning always comes to mind when anything reminds me of the songs. Looking back nearly three decades, would I make the same choice? Would I do it again?

TW+