I’m gonna have to agree with the Daily News writer on that one. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is NOT a song of Christian hope in the afterlife. Although its highly reasonable to expect that Heaven might be the fulfillment of such a longing, — there’s nothing anti-Christian about it, and there’s Christian precedent for reading “wish upon a star” as “prayer borne by an angel to Christ,” so that it’s not pagan — the song is more wistful than hopeful.