A Grain of Salt

Oh, come on.

For all of you that don’t like following links, I’ll sum this up for you. In a new book called “Why Wish You a Merry Christmas”, Bishop Nick Baines trashed many traditional Christmas hymns for their lack of accuracy.

…Baines cites the line in “Away in a Manger” that goes “no crying He makes,” and wonders, “How can any adult sing this without embarrassment?”"It’s nonsense,” he says, adding that he finds it “slightly bizarre” that parents could sing that carol “as if it actually related to reality.”

I’ll give him this- Christmas carols do not have a history of being one-hundred percent Bible accurate. But it seems to me that all this guy is really doing is stirring up to controversy to draw attention to himself. Maybe that’s not true. But as I said last week, there are certain people who seem to have no purpose in mind other than to make themselves known and earn a quick buck. More than that, there seems to be no logical point in calling these carols embarrassing. What purpose does bashing these time honored songs serve? I have no problem with calling them inaccurate in order to make a point, and perhaps drive home the true message of Christmas, but this… well, I think I can sum this up with a one sentence.

CALM DOWN ABOUT CHRISTMAS IT IS A HOLIDAY

I know Jesus came to us this time of year, (supposedly), but.. I’ll save it for next week.

(Edit.)

I find myself wondering why you think the media storm over this has not involved a single journalist contacting me. If the reason behind the publicity is ’self-promotion’, why did I not know about the article in the first place? Every other journalist has simply lifted the story without checking facts. The book (whihc had already been out for five weeks) is not about carols – it is about Christmas and re-connecting with the original story. In it I do not ‘bash carols’ – the paragrphs praising carols was mysteriously omitted from any media or blog reference.

So you might like to revise your ’summary’ once you have read what the book is actually about. Or would that simply spoil a good story? You can follow the conversation on my blog at nickbaines.wordpress.com.

I do advise that you visit the author’s website. I was completely wrong on this one, folks. Having now read an actual summary of the book, I feel like an idiot for having fallen for USA Today’s misinterpretation. Well, next week, I’ll talk give a more in depth talk about the real purpose of the book, along with the media’s response.

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 5:52 pm • Uncategorized • RSS 2.0 feed • leave a response or trackback