Bring me my bow of burning watsit

I've always had the hymn Jerusalem down as a nationalist diatribe with as much musical nous as a Westlife B-side.

For similar reasons, Southwark cathedral is silencing the song, much to the Torygraph's annoyance.

But last week's polemic on the Grauniad's-- sorry, Guardian's Comment Is Free blog has got me thinking.

Writer Tim Footman supports my view, and even calls for the Church Of England to renounce William Blake for eternity.

However, it's not the nationalism he objects to as much as Blake never meant it as a hymn:

"The notion of Blake's idiosyncratic theology sitting neatly within the
confines of orthodox Anglicanism is preposterous... Blake might just about have
defined himself as a Christian, but his was a Christianity that combined
elements of mysticism, Manichaeist dualism, anti-industrial pastoralism and
Enlightenment radicalism...

"His Jesus was a prototype hippy freedom fighter... Notice how the first
verse of Jerusalem is composed entirely of questions? It's a provocation, a
starting point, a basis for heated discussion..."

Ironically, Jerusalem beings to appeal. Christianity outside of the orthodox box? Christianity sitting neatly in post-modern pick-and-mix culture? Jesus as a hippy aggravator?

And lots of lovely Sanctus-like questions.

Bring me my bow of burning watsit, bring me my arrows of thingummy, I'm a spear-brandishing, chariot-riding Westlife B-side convert!