strange fruit

Here's Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit"... lyrics are posted below

"Strange Fruit" began as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high-school teacher from the Bronx, about the lynching of two black men. He published under the pen name Lewis Allan. Meeropol and his wife adopted Robert and Michael, sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of espionage and executed by the United States. via wikipedia

The photo below was the inspiration for the poem

So why did I post this song?

1. It's a beautiful, haunting song that cleanses the palette after the pop in the previous post.
2. It's a needed reminder that despite all the hype south of the border around Obama's election, there is still deep seated racism... and despite our claims otherwise, it exists here in Canada as well.
3. I wonder... are we as the church producing "strange fruit" rather than "peculiar people"? Are we producing stuff [and I think that's an appropriate term] instead of being a missional people?

Just some things to think about?

Strange Fruit lyrics

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

via boing boing