4-28 & 4-29, Saturday & Sunday

Fiddler on the Roof

Betty Anne told us a story of a Baptist church in her hometown doing Fiddler on the Roof.

We laughed at the idea of this.  A musical about a Jewish shtetl resident who actually was a milkman rather than a fiddler, per se.  But what would Baptists see as attractive in a musical play that takes as a significant plot device the threat of annihilation by their protestant neighbors? In this the characters lament the outcome of their protestant countrymen’s murderous rage, fleeing their village as the only way to avoid Christian murderers.

Soon I’ll be a stranger in a strange new place,
Searching for an old familiar face
>From Anatevka.

I belong in Anatevka,
Tumble-down, work-a-day Anatevka.
Dear little village, little town of mine

Not to mention a Baptist congregant leaping around singing “If I Were a Rich Man”.

The most important men in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them,
Like a Solomon the Wise.
“If you please, Reb Tevye…”
“Pardon me, Reb Tevye…”
Posing problems that would cross a rabbi’s eyes!

A common Baptist expression, “that is a problem that would cross a rabbi’s eyes!”

A Pentacostal’s explanation of Fiddler’s attraction focuses on her own rejection of sectarian tradition amongst Christians. A Google search shows hundreds of Baptist churches and schools doing Fiddler.  And a Christian cinema site promoting Fiddler as

hauntingly beautiful. And despite the serious subject matter, the film is quite comedic in parts.

Focusing on the more universal aspects of this musical, obscuring the more disturbing details.  Which I suppose is why audiences are able to entirely bypass the nastier bits of this musical.

Fire

The 68,000 acre Sweat Farm Road fire continues to blanket northeast Florida with smoke. You can see in this satellite photo just how far smoke from this fire travels.

Very nasty indeed.

Here is a picture of smoke at the site of the fire.