The Annointing of the SUVs

(from Dan Savage, SLOG.com)

Pentecostal Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, who shared the sanctuary’s wide altar with three gleaming sport utility vehicles, closed his sermon by leading the choir and congregants in a boisterous rendition of the gospel singer Myrna Summers’s “We’re Gonna Make It” as hundreds of worshipers who work in the automotive industry—union assemblers, executives, car salesmen—gathered six deep around the altar to have their foreheads anointed with consecrated oil.

While Congress debated aid to the foundering Detroit automakers Sunday, many here whose future hinges on the decision turned to prayer.

Well, it's better than hundreds of autoworkers storming the CEOS' homes in the suburbs of Detroit. But if Hummers are wiped away from the roads because of people seeking cheaper, smaller, more maneuverable, less gas-guzzling or (heaven forbid) alternative fuel cars and the "concept men" run out of ,well, concepts... we'll see Detroit turn into a - what else? - museum of antique cars.