I noticed the other day that the guy who wrote the song "Hokey-Pokey" recently passed away. Although saddened by his death, I was glad to be reminded of the song. It was the first song I learned in Sunday school, along with "Climb, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain." I think that's one of the problems the Sunday school movement is facing today: no hokey-pokey.

So I thought as a kind of memorial I'd offer an exegetical piece on it. Because much of what I know about theology, I learned from Hokey-Pokey.

"You put your right foot in."

No surprise here. Some of the literal-minded among us used to wonder "in what?"; but most children of goodwill got the general idea.

"You take your right foot out."

Why not? You put it in in the first place. You give, and then you take. Here we have an almost Johannine dualism that echoes the classic rhythms of life and death, love and hate, network and cable.

You share, then you withdraw. You are neither enmeshed nor engaged. No co-dependents allowed in ...