Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Tampering with tradition

Probably a big festive non story but it did raise an eyebrow at Castle QM was this addition to the MSM's they're "banning Christmas pc gone mad" meme.

Telegraph.
God rest ye merry ladies and gentlemen... Christmas carols given PC rewrite
Much-loved Christmas carols are being rewritten to make them politically correct, it is claimed.

Verses are being changed by clergy and teachers to remove supposedly chauvinistic references to men, sons and kings, making them “gender inclusive”.

Even the word white is being censored for fear of racism accusations, while some schools and churches no longer sing about the virgin Mary.
Many parishioners feel it is unnecessary to meddle with the words of carols that have been sung for centuries without causing any offence.
In many cases the new words do not fit the tune, causing choirs to stumble over them.
People who only go to church once a year to sing carols are also left confused when they find the words they remember have been changed.
Nic Robinson, a teacher from Derbyshire, told of his “bemusement and sadness” to find at a recent carol service that many of the words of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing had been tampered with.
The original - written by Charles Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement – included the lines “Born that man no more may die” and “Born to raise the sons of Earth” in the third verse.
But the version printed on the service sheets at Mr Robinson’s daughter’s school had “Born that we no more may die” and “Born to raise us from the earth”.
Another line in the second verse had been changed from “Pleased as man with man to dwell” to “Pleased with us in flesh to dwell”.
Mr Robinson said: “I am sure some bishop will write now, explaining, kindly, that hymns have been evolving throughout the ages and that this one, in particular, has known many versions. May I ask the bishop not to bother, but rather to spend his time in contacting the people who have defaced my favourite carol.”
Why can't the Righteous (for this is clearly the Righteous) leave things alone? They only make themselves look stupid and they surely must know the result of tampering with tradition, then again they probably just don't care.
Now you could possibly make a case for replacing archaic terms and words, those whose meanings have changed, after all King James II called the just completed St. Paul's Cathedral amusing, awful and artificial (When he lived, those words meant that the cathedral was "pleasing, awe-inspiring and artful" respectively.) but gender stereotyping in Christmas Carols?
There are times when I'm feeling generous that I conclude that they mean well but are somewhat foolish, but those moments tend to last seconds and most of the time I believe it's a genuine wind-up to try and provoke a reaction. Still the pc brigade continue to try and get in their knocks and shape the world to their weird non-gendered, non-racist, multicultural version of hell.
Last year a Church of England vicar banned his congregation from singing O Little Town of Bethlehem because he believed the words did not reflect the plight of current occupants of Jesus’s birthplace.
Which inhabitants? Would that be the Christians who lived in Bethlehem who have been driven out in recent years by Hamas hoodlums? Or is it the same old tired anti-Israeli rant by someone who forgets Jesus was Jewish? Either way pc gone mad.

Some churches have altered the words to Once In Royal David’s City, removing a reference to children “all in white” and replacing it with “bright like stars”.
Modern versions of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen have taken out the reference to a “pure virgin bright” and inserted a line about “David’s town tonight”.
You can just imagine some twit spending their days altering carols to suit the Righteous' version of bland neutralism and for what? So people like me can poke fun at them?
No, it's to enslave us all to the notion of thought-crime, remove the words or change the meaning and you remove the context for dissent. It wont work, they can't change how people think (yet) but it never stops them trying to ruin Christmas one way or another.

5 annotations:

Anonymous said...

As for ruining Christmas QM, I think big business and commercialisation did that many years ago. Would that it were about love and goodness and truth. It's not though. It's about people buying stuff they can't afford but feel obliged to buy for people who don't want it and will probably throw it out after a few weeks.

It's strange though that they feel inclined to change hymns to reflect Queens being equal with Kings, but the reality is that they are not. Whilst the rest of us have equality rammed down our throats till we choke on it, Prince Philip remains a Royal Highness, the previous holder of his job of monarch's marital partner, was Majesty, because she was a woman. (That’s a higher pay grade!!)

Likewise, women who marry Lords become Ladies, while men who marry Lords stay the way they were.

Of course, on the other hand Princess Anne is second born to the Queen, but was shoved out of succession by Andrew and Eddy (although Anne would be far better at the job than either of them).

So, let's stop messing with hymns and sort out real equality. Most people haven't got a clue what they are singing anyway.

James Higham said...

Grrrrrrrrrr.

Juniuis said...

Peace! Theses things don't last. Remember Bowdler rewrote Shakespeare for the *chaste* Victorians taking out some of the best bits so they didn't offend the ladies?

That went by the board - so will this.

Leg-iron said...

Holy Crap!

I thought I was just joking, but I must have been chanelling this article.

http://underdogsbiteupwards.blogspot.com/2009/12/pc-christmas-songs.html

The Hickory Wind said...

Eventually all this inclusiveness and anti-ness will be seen by everybody- not just by us, the enlightened ;) as the new racism, a narrowminded shrewish hatred based on ignorance and self-loathing. Then something else will takes its place. The main thing is to ignore them, but not enough people do.

@tris- you don't have to live Christmas their way, or anyone's way. If you don't like the commercialism don't spend; if you like singing traditional carols find a church where they do it properly, or organize your own choir. Take a break from work and drive hundreds of miles through snow to meet all those relatives you avoid like the plague for the rest of the year. That's the reality of Christmas for most people, and it's not something they can blame anyone else for.