Churchill and Smuts

Last updated on: December 16, 2021 at 9:48 pm by Dan Peterson

Churchill and Smuts 2021-12-16T21:48:45-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The official 2013 movie poster for “Black Nativity”
(Wikimedia Commons fair use image)

***

Flying eastward today, I watched and enjoyed the film Black Nativity, which I had never seen before. It’s based on a 1961 play by the famous Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes (1901-1967). Originally released in late November of 2013, it really is a Christmas film. And, although not entirely unpredictable, it’s far more thought-provoking (and actually far more Christian) than the typical Lifetime or Hallmark Channel movie. I enjoyed it.

I also read part of a German translation of the memoirs of Lord Moran, who was the personal physician to Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Second World War. (Why in German? Because it’s in a German volume of Reader’s Digest condensed books that I found a couple of years ago among things that had been discarded by a faculty colleague of mine who was retiring. Anyway, it was free. And it was a book. How could I possibly have said No?)

For whatever little it’s worth, I got a kick out of a passage in the book where Sir Winston is engaged in conversation, during meetings in Cairo, with the famous South African prime minister Jan Christian Smuts. (Curiously, I’ve learned elsewhere, they had first met in 1899, when the much younger Winston had been captured by the Afrikaners during the Boer War. Smuts interrogated Churchill.) They’re discussing how to handle the problem of Mahatma Gandhi. Smuts points out to Churchill that, while they’re both men of the world and secular leaders, Gandhi is a “man of God.” Accordingly, Smuts tells Churchill, Gandhi must be approached in a different manner than other, secular, leaders. Churchill responds that he too is a spiritual leader. “Why,” he tells Smuts, “I’ve probably named more bishops than St. Augustine did.” (He was referring, of course, to St. Augustine of Canterbury, not to the earlier and, outside England, the better-known St. Augustine of Hippo.)

***

Here’s a remarkable a cappella version of a very popular Christmas carol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_MGWio-vc

The carol was written by Katherine Kennicott Davis, an American classical music composer and teacher, in 1941. (She originally called it “The Carol of the Drum.”) The Trapp Family Singers — think The Sound of Music — recorded it in 1955 and it became even more popular when the Harry Simeone Chorale recorded it in 1958.

I’m guessing that the latter may have been the version that I first encountered; I vaguely remember hearing the carol as “new” when I was a very little boy — on the radio, while riding in our family car down the main drag in Alhambra, California, underneath the street’s Christmas lights, which were a highly anticipated and wonder-inducing sign of the season every year of my childhood — and loving it. That was a magical moment, which is why it remains, among my earliest memories.

Posted from Washington D.C.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 15, 2021

A plea for charity

Next Post

December 17, 2021 Memories at Arlington

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who is known as the "weeping prophet"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Joel Jeremiah Ezekiel Isaiah