Update....February 1, 2022: Just yesterday a friend showed me a YouTube that has gone somewhat viral. It is from a series of skits that a musical family in England puts together as they deal with the restrictions from the coronavirus. They are all song parodies....and in this one the family uses Leonard Cohen's famous composition Hallelujah. After watching it I did explain a little to my friend the issue with Cohen's song that many evangelicals consider to be Christian....and how I posted on the playing of it at Trump's rally on the Ellipse on January 6 of 2021:
I published the paragraph below in a DISPATCHES post just before noon on that infamous day....January 6 of this year. The violence at The U. S. Capitol had not yet begun. I typed real time....as it happened.....and I had to turn the television off because it was upsetting how Donald Trump was working up this crowd....."unnerving"....being the actual word that I used. Everyone thought in the days that followed that this was the end of Donald Trump.
This is what I typed on that Wednesday morning....
"Wednesday morning at 11:30....The melody is beautiful.....there's no denying that....and it gives me chills....but the wrong kind of chills. I'm talking about Leonard Cohen's....Hallelujah. The word 'hallelujah' is special......for in essence it means....'praise Yahweh'.....or....'praise Yah.' I cringe when I hear in used other than where it should be used....and that includes Neil Diamond's.....Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. So I booted up the computer a few minutes ago to hear what President Trump was going to say in his appearance at the Washington protest/rally.....and Cohen's song was playing. The chills were there.....and I didn't like it....but to make matters worse.....as the video feed showed from the rear of the first twenty or so rows of people....I saw a few raised hands....swaying back and forth to the song.....as if in a charismatic church. What were they praising...for it's hopefully not the object of the Cohen song? Trump eventually came on.....he is speaking now....and I had to turn him off....because folks it is unnerving....the sway he has....as this very large crowd chanted.....fight for Trump....fight for Trump....fight for Trump!
