Elizabeth Scalia on Children's Songs and the Death of Art

"Famished after a particularly strenuous session in physical therapy, I sought out the fastest high protein lunch I could put together - a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk. As I smeared the peanut butter onto fresh bread, an old Raffi song popped into my head - a favorite of my kids, when they were young and addicted to the affable kiddie troubadour: 

"A peanut butter sandwich made with jam
One for me, and one for David Amram…
stick, stick, stick, stick, stick!

"Suddenly, prompted by nothing conscious, I could imagine a voice objecting. 'We shouldn't sing that song! It's not inclusive! It's not sensitive to kids who are allergic to peanut butter and could die from it!'

". . . Well, never mind, I said to myself, bopping into the second verse:

"I can think of witches good and bad
But the best witch that I’ve ever had was
A peanut butter sandwich made with jam…

Again came the nagging voice, 'Why are we always talking about 'good' witches and 'bad' witches? It's just a belief system and this is perpetuating negative stereotyping of witches! Nobody talks about 'good' Christians and 'bad' ones. . .'

"In fact, people do talk about good and bad Christians, only they usually make their distinctions couched in ideological frameworks and narratives that end up making sweeping generalizations that demonize or lionize huge swaths of people, whether fair or not, relevant or not."

In a recent commentary, writer Elizabeth Scalia, content editor at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, reflected on how a "world that will permit no nonsense on the grounds that everything in the world is much, much too serious to permit thoughtless, insensitive frivolity, is a world so full of insensitive, thoughtless and frivolous nonsense that there is no room for mindless joy, and the freedom necessary to sometimes make a mistake within the throes of it, in order to learn about things greater than ourselves - like mercy and second chances."

To access Ms. Scalia's complete post, please visit:

Word on Fire: Elizabeth Scalia: Too Woke for Peanut Butter, and the Death of Art (25 APR 19)