Pick of the Day: Handel's Messiah

There's a Sing-Along Messiah at Knox Metropolitan Church tomorrow night, so you have your choice of that or this performance tonight which features the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Regina Philharmonic Chorus and invited soloists.

As regular readers of prairie dog know, we're not big fans of organized religion. At least, of those organized religions that try to shove their belief systems down the throats of other people without regard for their right to live their lives as they wish. Having confronted the death of a beloved family member in mid-November, I can see how the idea of life after death and an eternal soul could be of immense comfort to people. But even if Heaven doesn't exist, that doesn't diminish the value of life here on Earth. There's a whole wonderous universe out there, and if we'd just get our shit together we could start exploring and even inhabiting it. That's not going to happen, though, as long as we, as a society, remain fixated on the idea of the Rapture and an impending apocalypse that will herald Jesus's return.

Still, I do want to distinguish, as one letter writer in our Dec. 3 issue did, between people and institutions that embody true Christian values, and those scumbags who use religion as a cover for some of the most odious and oppressive ideology imaginable. In the spirit of the former, here's video of a choir in Stuggart under the direction of Helmet Rilling performing "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah. (YouTube)