So... Chr*stmas?

A Chr*stmas Song Study


Triggered by the new "Holiday tree"!


I was trying to figure out a way to illustrate how silly it is to stop people from saying Merry Chr*stmas with the reasoning that it “is forcing Christianity on people”. I decided to look at something that, for me, embodies the spirit of Chr*stmas from a worldly (or to be more accurate “regular American”) point of view. It’s what many people out there like to call Chr*stmas music!

(You don't need to read this list... just trust me, they're all there)
 
A Christmas Long Ago
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
Amen
Baby’s First Christmas
Bells of St. Mary
Blue Christmas
Chrissy The Christmas Mouse
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Christmas Ain’t Christmas
Christmas Auld Lang Syne
Christmas Dragnet
Christmas Serenade
Do they Know it’s Christmas
Do you Hear what I hear
Dominick, The Italian Christmas Donkey
Donde Esta Santa Claus
Feliz Navidad
Frosty the Snowman
Gee Whiz it’s Christmas
Give Love on Christmas Day
Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer
Happy Christmas (War is Over)
Happy Holidays
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Here Comes Santa Claus
Holly Jolly Christmas
Home for the Holidays
I believe in Father Christmas
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
If It Doesn’t Snow on Christmas
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
It’s Christmas Everywhere
It’s Christmas Once again
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bells
Kissin By the Mistletoe
Last Christmas
Let it snow…
Little Drummer Boy
Little St. Nick
Marshmallow World
May You Always
Merry Christmas All
Merry Christmas Baby
Merry Christmas Darling
Merry, Merry Christmas Baby
Mistletoe and holly
Monster’s Holiday
Nuttin for Christmas
Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
Peace on Earth
Please Come home for Christmas
Pretty Paper
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Run Rudolph Run
Santa Baby
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Santa Claus is Watching You
Silent Night
Silver Bells
Sleigh Ride
Snoopy’s Christmas
Step Into Christmas
The Chipmunk Song
The Christmas Song
The Christmas Waltz
The Man with All the Toys
The Most Wonderful time of the Year
The Twelve Days of Christmas
This Christmas
This Time of Year
Twas the night before Christmas
We Need a little Christmas
We Wish you the Merriest
What Christmas Means to Me
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
Wonderful Christmastime
You’re All I want For Christmas
You’re my Christmas Present


WCBS-FM A CBS Radio station decided that these were the "100 Greatest Chr*stmas Songs of All Time". On this list 19 songs were duplicates due to multiple artists doing the same songs. Those were eliminated, leaving 81 total songs to work with. I’m using this as my slice of the embodiment of Worldly Chr*stmas Spirit, because something that’s voted “the greatest of all time” should moderately reflect the general opinion of the populace.

Of the 81 songs, 43 (53%) of the songs had the word Chr*stmas IN THE TITLE!

Of the remaining 38 Songs 18 more of them mention the word Chr*stmas somewhere in the lyrics. Leaving 20 songs without using of the word Chr*stmas somewhere in the work.

This means that, of the 81 best Chr*stmas songs of all time, 61 (75%) of them will say Chr*stmas. Big surprise right?

Now lets use this same list for some different conclusions…

As we’ve already said, 61 out of the 81 songs have the word Chr*stmas somewhere within. Also out of those 81 songs, 9 are actually songs related to Christianity. Now When I say related to Christianity, I mean any small connection (e.g. the words…“Lord”, “Peace on Earth”, “Church” references to the birth of Christ, a stable, three Kings etc.), with the exception of the word Chr*stmas. That’s 11%! On average 11% of “Chr*stmas songs” are actually even somewhat about Christianity.

Alright let’s put the two discoveries together…

Out of those 9 songs, only 4 of them also mention the word Christmas. Let’s mull that over. Less than half of the actual “Christian Chr*stmas songs” say the word Chr*stmas, where 75% of “All Chr*stmas songs” do. Meaning that 4 out of the 81 top Chr*stmas songs of all time, or ~5%, even remotely link the word “Chr*stmas” and the Christian faith.

I guess what I’m saying is… the word Chr*stmas may have originally come about because of Jesus Christ, but our society certainly doesn’t believe that any more, so I really don’t understand why people are getting offended by the word Chr*stmas. It’s kind of like being offended when somebody pronounces it po-tah-to, or getting upset that some people say pop while others say soda, while others call every carbonated drink Coke! The word Chr*stmas has lost what it originally meant anyway, so it’s kind of too late for this “Anti-Merry Chr*stmas” epidemic. So… in conclusion…. stopping people from Saying Merry Chr*stmas is just silly.


The link to the list. http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/music0_christmas.html

God Loves Gays

I was browsing the internet yesterday, looking for a funny meme I could share with my friends, and I stumbled across one of the pages of “funny sign” pictures. You know the type? The ones that have bigoted Americans holding up signs like “We Speek English!” There was a section of these pictures that showed anti gay rights protests. The one that caught my eye was the picture of a boy, about thirteen years old, holding up a sign that said, “God hates fags. Rom. 9:13”. 

It really got me angry mostly because that is simply not true. Let me explain.

I’ve been trying to figure out where I stand on “the issue of homosexuality”. First, I have to consider what is going to shape my opinion. If I accept everything and reject nothing, my opinion is worthless. Conversely, if I try to decide what I believe without any outside input, my view will be skewed, sinful, and pretty much downright wrong. So where am I going to look for answers? First on the list, and most important, is the Bible. As a Christian, everything I think and believe should be most heavily influenced by what the Bible has to say about it. So let’s take a look.

The Invincible Twenties- An Old Young Man's Problem... For Some People

The Invincible Twenties- An Old Young Man’s Problem… For Some People

First off, let me say, I’m writing this as a twenty-year-old male. All of my reasoning has been done through my eyes, thus will be slightly biased in young men’s favor. That being said, I will attempt to give a balanced view of the situation. 

Now then, the viewpoint of mothers:

From the ages of 19-26 men have an opinion of themselves, the opinion that that nothing can harm them, no matter how stupid, dangerous, or crazy the activity. For example, I once heard tell of a twenty-one-year-old, who decided that surfing on the top of his van while driving on the highway would be “Sweeeeeeet!” and that it would be even “Sweeeeeeet!”-er if he jumped at the last minute just as he went into a tunnel so as to grab on and do a pull up…. while travelling at 50 miles an hour. Needless to say it was a little more gravely gravelly he first pictured it. This is what’s known in the mother’s handbook as “real nuts” for lack of harsher four letter words. I have to say that I agree. This is the kind of thing that goes in the file labeled “stupid”. However it can also probably be cross referenced with the phrase “alcohol induced” and/or “event’s that began with the phrase ‘I bet you can’t…’ or ‘hold my beer and watch this’”. In a mother’s eyes, anything that a man in his 20’s does that is remotely dangerous goes in this file. Unfortunately that’s just not the case. Lots of the less run-of-the-mill things that guys like to do while in their twenties (road trip across the country, go bungee jumping, pee into the wind etc.) is born from a desire to live a little bit. Everyone has had this desire at one point. Maybe a little bit of rebellion, maybe just to shake up the normal routine or maybe it’s so that they can experience some of the mysteries this world has to offer.

The viewpoint of emergency room nurses:

Female- Really? You just decided to do this? Are you kidding me? What is wrong with your demographic? What is wrong with men? Why can’t they just think about their actions ahead of time? Don’t they realize they’re going to end up in the emergency room with broken legs if they try to jump off of their roof into a pair of blue jeans? You just couldn’t resist the pull of youtube stardom? You have totally ruined your life from this!

Male- Dude. Sweet. Wish I could have seen it. By the way you won’t be walking for a while.

This doesn’t give us much insight except that the basic behaviors of men in their twenties bugs women a lot more than men.

My viewpoint (aka. The viewpoint of the single twenty-year-old who has done a few stupid things that bug his mother, but nothing so bad to make her disown him):

I have recently begun to enjoy taking more risks than in the past. I will admit this. However I have reasons for doing so and defenses for the usual arguments against such behavior. First of all, my motivation for most of the things I like to do that involve “risk” is either because it’s fun, or I’ll gain something from the experience. (That’s why they call it “experience”) I’ll gain either knowledge, or skill, or courage or faith or… I’m sure you just thought of another word to go in this list. The point is there is some benefit in taking a risk, otherwise no one would take any.

But why is it that men in their twenties take more than other age groups? This is my thinking.

Firstly, men in their twenties have fewer ties to this world than other age groups. They have reached the age where they leave their parent’s home. They feel independent and responsible for themselves and that their parents should no longer feel responsible for them. However, they have not reached the stage in life where they have a family and are responsible for other human beings. The most extreme way of saying it is that if they die, there’s no one (in their mind) who will miss them. Or at the very least, they will not be shirking any responsibilities if they were to kick the bucket today. All bets are off, and they won’t be placing any more bets for a little while. Obviously there will be some grief on the parts of people they knew, but nowhere near as much as when they are older and their families will miss them as a provider (of wisdom, money, forgiveness etc.) or when they were younger and their parents would miss them as a provide-ee of the same. There is no other stage in life where a man will have fewer people to worry about upsetting, while possessing the physical ability to do something “really stupid”. This makes the twenties a prime time to test the limits, so to speak. This leads to my next point. Men in their twenties are in the peak of their physical ability. In general, men in their twenties have more strength speed and endurance than other sex or age groups. If there were any time in your life that you wanted to try some “stupid things” and take some risks, wouldn’t you want it to be in the time of your life that you can most rely on your body to work the best it possibly can? It’s only natural for us to push the physical limits when the physical limits are further away than they ever will be again.

My final reason may be stupid in and of itself, but hey I’m twenty, I’ve gotta do something stupid in this essay. My final reason for taking risks is that if we didn’t we would live long and safe lives. I don’t want that. There’s an Internet meme out there that says, life isn’t supposed to be a safe trip where you arrive in the grave without a scratch on you, you should come screeching in with a totaled car saying man what a ride… or something like that… I’m paraphrasing… the point is… I don’t want to show up at my funeral with all my joints working properly, my teeth in my mouth and my limbs still attached. I want a cremation to be necessary not to upset the guests. :-P… maybe not that extreme, but you get the idea. If I don’t go try some stuff, how else am I going to have stories about how grandpa got that big scar on his arm with which to scare the grandchildren. When my son asks me what the stupidest thing I’ve ever done was, I want to be able to tell him that one time I let a fire cracker explode while lying on the back of my hand, just because somebody bet me five bucks I wouldn’t. I don’t want to have to tell him that I once used the word literally incorrectly.  It’s the stories that we twenty year olds are looking for, because stories are what make a lifetime worth sharing. That is why the next time someone dares me to eat a five pound bucket of butter I will be grabbing a spoon. That is why I will eventually utter the phrase “I can jump that far.” And that is why I will not turn down my friends next time they suggest we drive to New York City in 24 hours to get a hotdog, just so we can say we did.

The Sunday School Answer

There once was a kindergarten Sunday school class. The teacher was giving a demonstration of how God created everyone, including all the little animals. For her illustration, she asked the kids in her class a question. “What’s brown and furry and has a big bushy tail and eats nuts?” “Jesus!” shouted the children, because as we all know, Jesus is always the answer in Sunday school. The teacher smiled patiently and said, “No… Listen close. What’s brown and furry has a big bushy tail and eats nuts?” Again the entire class shouted “Jesus!” A little bit more impatiently the teacher repeated “No. Listen closely to the question kids. What’s brown and furry has a big bushy tail and eats nuts?” One little boy quietly raised his hand and said, “Well, I know the answer is Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel.”

I know, I know, it’s cheesier than a pizza (kind of like that simile), but this joke got me thinking recently. This example is not too far off of reality. In any church, the first answer given to any question in Sunday school is invariably: Jesus. The case could be made that this is bad… bad for our children, bad for our reputations as Christians, or even bad for the church as a whole. The prevalence of this answer understandably leads one to the notion that children are not actually learning anything in Sunday school; they are simply repeating the word that has proven to bring them accolades and pieces of chocolate over the years. It could be argued that this is evidence that they are building the foundations of their faith on “lies”. To reference some parabolic teachings (and you thought that word could only be used in mathematic contexts), we are planting seeds on rocky soil or building houses on loose sand. However, I think that we could choose to draw different conclusions based on this evidence. I think there is something unexpectedly profound about the Sunday school answer. Jesus is always the answer.

            Before we dive into this, let’s get some scripture to set the stage. First of all I think we need scriptures that outline the basics of Christianity. Verses that you want to share with new believers to tell them what it’s all about: You could go with “The Roman Road”  (Romans 3:23 6:23 9:10 10:13) or the ever popular John 3:16. For some less common verses (to me at least) I suggest Isaiah 43:4-6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and 1 Peter 2:24. All of these verses follow the same theme. Jesus died for your sins and rose again so, in order to be saved from those sins, accept it. This is an important thing to remember for all of us. I feel that we often get caught up in the “deeper arguments”: Calvinism vs. Arminianism, the importance of works, speaking in tongues, the list goes on and on. It’s fine to ponder those questions, as long as they don’t cause you to forget the things we actually do know. (i.e. Jesus died for you.) There are verses scattered throughout the New Testament that might also be helpful in thinking about this subject. Prayers always end in praising God in the name of Jesus. That wouldn’t happen if Jesus’s name weren’t important. In fact, the final verse of all the Pauline epistles is something along the lines of “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Paul understood that Jesus is the name you want to mention last in a letter, because it’s the most likely thing to be remembered. All of these verses lead one to the conclusion that, at the very least, Jesus is important. Well duh, but does that prove the validity of the Sunday school answer? Not entirely, but I think it lends some credence toward it. But don’t make up your mind yet. I’ve got some emotional appeals to make. 

When ministering to a freethinking adult, what is the one main point you want to make sure comes across? Answer: Jesus died for you. Obviously this idea could (and should) be expanded, but if you had to boil evangelism down to its simplest phrase or idea, that would be it. If you want to get more artistic with it you could go a little further and say “Jesus for you”, implying a trade or exchange. Or, if you’re in a real rush and you just have one word to say to try and communicate the wonderful message of love and grace and forgiveness that is the gospel, there is only one word that does the job. Only one word comes close to carrying the weight of all that God did for us. Jesus. Jesus is the key. No other part of that original phrase by itself would lead another human being to the truth of Christ. Jesus is THE way THE truth and THE life. No one can get to heaven except through Him, so it makes sense that His name is the best way of sharing that message.

            As a Christian parent, if there is one thing you want to stay with your child as they grow, or one idea that would never leave them that they might later dwell on and ponder so much that it drives them to action it would be the phrase “Jesus died for me”. Of course now we’re talking about your child in the artsy-fartsy, philosophical college phase, so to appeal to their natural craving for the abstract, we’ll shorten it to “Jesus for me”. And then of course if nothing else but one word were to stick with them as they grow, one word that could contain in its meaning, life itself, one word that can explain anything in this world yet cannot ever be fully explained, that word would have to be “Jesus”. It’s the only word that tells the gospel message without running the risk of overstating it. 

I have to ask a question. What is the “gospel message”? A quick etymology of the word gospel: From Old English “gõd-spell” which literally translated means “good news” or “glad tidings”. (thank you Wikipedia.) So the gospel message is a message of good news. And what is that Good news? Jesus died for you, and then rose from the grave. Jesus Christ, the fully-man/fully-God being came down to earth and wrecked shop on sin and death and pain, all for Y-O-U. This is the Guy who thought to himself “I think I’ll invent DNA today,” back when he was designing every other micro and macroscopic entity on this earth. The only uncreated being in the universe and elsewhere thought about your name in particular and decided that the pain your existence would put you through was too great, so He went through it for you. That is the message of good news: the news that the excruciating pain, suffering, and agonizing separation from all that is decent does not have to be your eternity. That is the news of “Jesus.” (I may have overstated it.)

I’m not saying that when a child yells the name Jesus in Sunday school, they fully comprehend the magnitude of their expression, but a little piece of it has to sink in and grab hold. So of all the words they could be repeating over and over again 52 weeks in a row, I’d say they picked a pretty good one.

True Story

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To start this blog off I want to give an essay that might cool a few heads and establish where I'm coming from. This one has no biblical references, It's all logic based. I think any non-Christians who might read future posts, should be able to look back to this essay and see some basic truths that will help them in various ways while reading more biblical material.




True Story

What makes a statement true? It sounds like an easy question. Go head, try to answer it without using a variation of the word true. This is as close as I could get. That which accurately conveys an idea completely forged and governed by reality and not changeable by opinion. Example time. I have three identical granny smith apples. All three have the exact same size, shape, color, and taste. But I describe apple number one as being smaller than the other two, sweeter than the other two and red instead of green. I describe the other two apples exactly as they are. Here’s the question. Does my inaccurate description of one make my description of the other two inaccurate? Put another way, does an untrue statement negate the validity of a true statement. Obviously it does not. This is the first point I wish to make. Truth is true no matter what. Opposing viewpoints, opinions, and arguments do not alter the reality of a situation. Truth is an attribute applied to an event, object, or statement at the moment it comes into existence and it can’t be changed by popular opinion or someone really smart saying so. It is also unchanged by the source from which it comes. A lie from the most righteous and moral person on earth doesn’t suddenly become true; more importantly, truth from the most well known liar on earth doesn’t suddenly become false.

Doctor Paul Shockley came up with this definition of truth. "Truth is that which corresponds with reality, identifies things as they actually are, can never fail diminish change or be extinguished, must be able to be expressed in logical propositions, sourced in the God of the Bible, the author of all truth."I really like this definition.

Now I have to move on to the ground of opinion. This might get confusing, but I’m going to do my best to keep it straight. Here’s the situation. I have an opinion. I believe this opinion to be true. If I did not believe it to be true, it would not be my opinion. Therefore, since I believe my opinion is true, I have to believe opposing opinions to be false. If I don’t believe other opinions are false, then I by definition don’t believe my own opinion to be true, and would therefore believe nothing.

The reason I bring this up is to give you a phrase that will end some hurt feelings after arguments. “Of course offense.” A certain level of offense is always going to occur in any argument because a certain amount of stupidity is always felt towards the opposing viewpoint. It’s unavoidable. If you believe something to be true, and true in the sense that we have just defined it, then anything else is ludicrous to you to a certain degree. Anyone who doesn’t mean a tiny bit offense to the other person in an argument doesn’t actually believe what they are arguing. This is not to say that all who enter into arguments wish the other debater were non-existent, it simply means he believes the other person is wrong about one particular idea. It doesn’t mean that your friendship must now end because he believes tomatoes to be a fruit when you know without a doubt they are a vegetable. You have only lost a small portion of the common ground on which your friendship is built. But to ignore the fact that your friendships foundation has a small crack leaves a hole for your friendship to later fall through unawares. Make sure you know where your holes are so you don’t fall through them, but don’t jump ship simply because they are there.

This blog is opinion, but opinion that I believe to be true, as I've defined true above, so of course if you disagree there will be friction, but friction doesn't always mean fire. Hopefully the things you read in this blog will persuade you to my way of thinking, to my biblical worldview, but if not, keep as cool as you can. Of course offense, but please get over the offense quickly if you could. The point of this blog is to make you think, not to make you freak. 

Why this Blog?

Well, I've been writing things and posting them on facebook for a while now. I started with "Weekly Bible Queries" which were fun, but I kind of ran out of material and interest... then I discovered the joy of first person persuasive essays. Basically I like to make my opinion known in a clear, precise and hopefully entertaining way. I had been posting my essays on facebook, but a few of my friends said I should make a blog, so I took their advice. This is where I'll be posting my essays from now on. Some things to note: anything I write is purely my opinion based on my life, conversation I have had with people I trust, and - most importantly - the bible. For this reason, I don't cite sources, because it's either from me or the bible. If I have direct quotes I will post some sort of citation, but I doubt it will ever be formatted correctly by anyone's standards, and since I'm posting these purely for entertainment and receiving no kind of compensation for this blog I don't see a problem with this. I hope you find something worth reading on this blog at some point.

God bless.

About The Blogger and the Blog

The Blogger

Name: Stephen Curto

Email: mygiveonthings@gmail.com

DoB: Dec 5, 1991

Height: 6’3”

Weight: around 220lbs

Hometown(s): Houston, TX and Singapore, SG

Profession: Full time student (Dallas Theological Seminary-Houston) Part Time Librarian (Dallas Theological Seminary-Houston)

Interests: theology, bible exposition, reading, writing, music, magic, movies, golf, basketball, football, cooking, philosophy, comedy… the list could go on forever.

I am a theologically-minded deep thinker. I write from a biblical worldview. If you can’t get your head around these two facts, you will be frustrated reading my blog.

I am a dispensationalist, which means a lot of things, but what that really tells you is I try to always take the bible at it’s word, keeping it in its plain, grammatical-historical, context. I believe the ultimate purpose of the world and the universe is to glorify God, and all other purposes fall second to that one.

On politics I am a realist first, a conservative second, and a republican third. I have arrived at these classifications thoughtfully and through the filter of my worldview. The one-liner I share with people is, “I would be a libertarian if I didn’t have the unfortunate condition of living in reality.”

Those who know me know I love the style of C.S. Lewis and much of what he wrote. Other than the New-Testament authors, C.S. Lewis has influenced my thinking more than any other Christian writer, and what’s funny is I disagree with a lot of his theology. I really can get along with those with whom I disagree, if they can get along with me!

I do believe in objective truth and I believe those truths are sourced in the very nature of God and are revealed to us through His word, through the world in which we live (which He created), and through the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth. I believe our job is to search out these truths and hold to them as much as we can.

I would sacrifice all my other views if they (in some imaginary world) came into conflict with my core conviction that Jesus is the Son of God, the God-Man, and that his death and resurrection save me from my sins, both now and for eternity.

The Blog

This blog is kind of a hodgepodge collection of my thoughts and writings as I think and write them! I write it for fun, for mental exercise, and to clearly express my beliefs to those who are curious.

I don’t get any money for it, so I cannot be accused of “writing for the dollar, instead of for the truth.” I do my best to say what I believe true, regardless of what people will think about it. Sometimes I can sound harsh and insensitive, but I rarely intend to be.

I do intend, however, to say what I believe true, regardless of how it makes people feel. Whenever possible, feelings and truth should be regarded with esteem, but when put at odds with one another, feelings should be disregarded in favor of truth.

Some posts are theological papers presented for school, some are poems and short stories, some are mere persuasive or argumentative articles written about current or not-so-current issues. I choose whatever tickles my fancy, and then I brain-vomit on a page and let you decide what to make of it.

My ultimate goal is to make people THINK! I want people to know what they believe and WHY they believe it. If I cause you to think (even if you disagree with my conclusions), I’ve achieved my goal. I’m much happier with an atheist who knows why he believes what he believes, than a Christian who doesn’t.

Please, use my words as a springboard for thought, conversation, imagination, inspiration, and whatever else you like that doesn’t fall under the term “ignorance.”