The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, has blamed the much-loved Christimas carols for adding to confusion over the season’s real meaning and turning Jesus into a figure as fictitious as Father Christmas.
There is something to be said about the way Jesus is ‘packaged’ for the populace at Christmas. In the minds of our children this Christmas, I wonder how their image of Jesus would compare with John’s experience?
…..I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,”dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Away in a Manger cannot be sung “without embarrassment”, Once in Royal David’s City is “Victorian behaviour control”; and O Come, All Ye Faithful is misleading, said the Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines.
He blamed the much-loved carols for adding to confusion over the season’s real meaning and turning Jesus into a figure as fictitious as Father Christmas.
While others defended the traditional songs as “joyful” and “triumphant”, the bishop complained that the carols have contributed to the story of Christ’s birth being seen “as just one more story alongside the panto and fairy stories”.
In a new book published by the Church of England, Why Wish You a Merry Christmas, the bishop argues that carols encourage images of Christmas that have more to do with Victorian sentiment than the Biblical account of Christ’s birth.
“I always find it a slightly bizarre sight when I see parents and grandparents at a nativity play singing Away in a Manger as if it actually related to reality,” he said.
“I can understand the little children being quite taken with the sort of baby of whom it can be said ‘no crying he makes’, but how can any adult sing this without embarrassment?”
He said that Jesus would be abnormal if he had not cried as a baby. “If we sing nonsense, is it any surprise that children grow into adults and throw out the tearless baby Jesus with Father Christmas and other fantasy figures?” He continued: “Once in Royal David’s City has Jesus as ‘our childhood’s pattern’ — even though we know almost nothing of his childhood apart from one incident when he was 12 years old and being disobedient to his parents — and invites children to be ‘mild, obedient, good as he’, which means what, exactly? This sounds suspiciously like Victorian behaviour control to me.”
While the bishop praises the ability of some carols to excite and capture the Christmas message, he cites O Come, All Ye Faithful as a prime example of inaccuracy.
The bishop said it was not the “faithful” who went to see the baby Jesus and his parents but shepherds, who are the “great unwashed” and the wise men, who were “not good Jews, but were pagans, men who were outside the covenant people of God”.
“Some of the traditional carols perpetuate images of Christmas that have more to do with Victorian sentiment than the story we actually read in the Gospels,” the bishop said in the book.
If you have stumbled onto this blog and are not a Christian, get yourself a hot drink, pull up a comfy chair and then tuck into the following article written by one of the best in the business:- All Of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
Tags: Christianity
November 30th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Thank you, thankyou – at last a bishop with courage to speak out what I,ve been saying for 25 years ( ask my offspring )
November 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Another nail in the coffin of christianity – this time by one of its own bishops. You wouldn’t find catholics and moslems attacking their own faith in this manner.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Nick Baines……. And now Pete Stoodley, I wont refer to these two with their ‘rev’ title, Why do you have to try to change these age old carols ? . What is wrong with you people ?, let people enjoy their CHRISTMAS yes, (C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S for the benefit of the ‘dont upset the muslim brigade’) You are a disgrace to the real Christians given what some of your Irish perverted colleagues have been up to.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
What is wrong with these carols? I’m sure most people don’t honestly think they are the gospel truth but accept them as an enjoyable part of the ritual of Christmas. Personally, I’m against the mawkish squawkings of my offspring who prate about the “Baby Jesus” as a result of their CofE school but I think they should grow up with an understanding of faith and make their own choice on this matter.
Most organised religions evolve and I’m sure that some of the current practices in churches would be little understood by early christians or their (and our) medieval counterparts. Let the Christmas carols alone – surely it’s about believing your Christ was born to save the world (still work to be done on this mind) and trying to be a better person and love thy neighbour.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Perhaps the Right Rev. Nick should search his own soul to see if the lights are burning. The blame for confusion rightly rests with those of his own sorry ilk.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:32 am
Mr Stoodley — I shall keep you in my prayers. It’s bad enough that +Baines said what he did, but then you agree with him.
No wonder the C of E and Christianity is in the state it is today. It seems to be so much ‘better’ (read ‘easier’) to preach about the Church of Gaia than our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Most people’s earliest childhood memories include singing carols, which bring so much happiness to all believers, regardless of age. And, yes, speaking from personal experience, they are an excellent way to learn the Christmas story.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Could this all have been taken a little out of context? I think the underlying message is that Bishop Nick is asking us to think, what is the real meaning of Christmas? Carols will be sung, decorations hung and presents exhanged. These our much loved Christmas rituals that will continue for years to come, I think we should just remind ourselves what’s the reasons and messages behind the real Christmas story. If you are not sure, find out. A little deeper thinking at times is good for the soul surely!
December 1st, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I agree with you Mrs Mills!
December 4th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
The infancy narratives don’t feature in the earliest gospel. In St Luke and St Matthew, they have something of a mythic quality about them – it’s not to say they are untrue, but they’re tales which tell about royal descent and royal visitors (Old Testament kings were referred to as shepherds – it took one to spot one seems to be the idea). So getting hung up on how accurate the carols are (whether the shepherds & wise men were or were not faithful) is to miss the point.
The point is that Jesus who came into the world and shared our humanity comes into the world today, and we need to be reminded of him and recognise him, and some of the Christmas tales and myths do speak powerfully about him. Yes Mrs Alexander may be manipulative, but let’s not chuck this baby out with the bathwater.
December 18th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Those who were involved in the selection of Nick Baines must have been aware of his controversial nature and what would seem to be his I am right theology. Many ordained clergy do not accept the episcopal authority of Bishops who ordain women and so A.N.Other flies in. I wonder how many priests in the Diocese of Southwark, being totally opposed to Nick Baines teachings will have the courage to refuse to accept his Episcopal presence in their parishes? I have just s few words for the errant bishop, Christmas is not about shepherds,or kings it is about God coming to identify with our humanity in the frailty of a child. If some people find the pictures surrounding the Birth of our Lord a help in holding it all together, who are you to destroy a persons deeply held faith,when you are not in a position to help them through it. Parish priests are left to pick up the shrapnel of your wounding words.
I think in all fairness you should re name your book,”How to destroy the C Of E and centuries of tradition,in a few chapters.
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Having been at a C of E Christingle Service on Christmas Eve and a Baptist Celebration on Christmas Morning with 2 of my grandchildren I do wonder how much they understood of the true message of Christmas either from the sentimental Victorian hymns or the modern Spurgeons dvd which perpetuated the unbiblical myth of there being 3 Kings called Caspar, Melchior and Balthazaar. Nevertheless as long as they continue to be brought up with enquiring minds and encouraged to ask lots of questions I don’t think it will have done them too much harm. I certainly think that a fully human baby Jesus must have cried from cold. wet or hunger even if, being without sin, he never had a 2 year old temper tantrum.
I do wish Mr Jackson hadn’t tried to use CHRISTMAS to have an unecessary go at Muslims who also believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary even if they do not recognise him as the Saviour of the World. The PC brigade, who are constantly being brought to our attention in the tabloid press, and who do not want us to celebrate Christian Festivals for fear of upsetting other religions are usually white, secular Brits, very rarely ethnic minorites or people of other Faiths. Having said that, it might impress people of other Faiths more if the indigenous Britsh population celebrated with a little less materialism and a little less drunkeness.