This is the one hundred and thirty-eighth installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is I Believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Lake died yesterday at the age of 69.
Lyrics
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire
They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
And they told me a fairy story
‘Till I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked TO the sky with excited eyes
‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave New Year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get we deserve
Thanks for printing the lyrics.
Embarrassed to say I had never paid much attention to them – the song & melody were just always part of soundtrack to every Christmas.
Always haunted by the last line. Kept thinking of all the dead, starving, homeless people & asking..
Is this what they deserve?
Then realized that their Christmas was also my Christmas.
Just a word,
Just an idea.
Ah yes, Father Christmas = Santa Claus:
It’s the way we teach children that it’s O.K. to LIE
and people wonder why so much corruption and deceit
You mean like telling them there is a God?
This is Sunday, fer gad’s sake! No sports allowed, specially fishing!
“You mean like telling them there is a God?”
I have no absolute guaranteed proof GOD is a myth or not a myth.
Furthermore, I have yet to figure out whether I’m an agnostic or an atheist or humanist,
but I do believe in evolution – so where would I say that leaves me?
Is it a myth Prometheus molded man from clay and Pandora was provided as a wife – partner?
None of have absolute anything. All we have are probabilities. Based on the available evidence, did the Christian God create the universe 6,021 years ago? The answer is no. It is just as likely that Prometheus created humans…”just as likely” meaning improbable. This is why, as an atheist, I cannot say with absolute certainty a God of some sort does not exist. I can say, however, that the God of the Christian Bible is a work of fiction; that it is likely that our existence is more Westworld-like than that of a deity creating the male human species out of dirt and the female species from a male’s rib.
Quoting: Bruce some of reply of December 19, 2016 at 7:16 am
“the God of the Christian Bible is a work of fiction;”
” just as likely that Prometheus created humans…”
O.K. – sounds agreeable with many of my minuscule points of belief.
Since I’m a recent follower of your ‘blog – forum’ and so much to read, do you have posts on Plagiarism?
Do the publishers of “The Evil Bible” ( http://www.evilbible.com ) consult – refer to you or have you visited them for points of view or advice?
I pursued their site many years ago, but I do not consult it as part of my writing process. Do you think I plagiarized something from their site?
I have not written specifically on the subject of plagiarism.
I actually think that teaching children about Santa Claus is a good early lesson in the conflicting lessons of life. It also helps them to understand compassion towards children, via a sweet, harmless, myth that brings joy during the early years of life.
Compare that with the shackles, that often last for life, which religious belief brings.
You rattling my chains again, gawdammit! I dunno about the sweet and harmless part…. I guess it can be but you better watch out and you better not cry is right alongside the so-called promise of Christmas morning/mourning, you know.
Are you obeying your parents, little child? Are you being gooood??? Santa sees you when you are sleeping and he knows your every waking moment! Have you said your prayers? Bad children, disobedient children don’t get gifts. They get a bag of coal…
Christianites, Islamigos, all those woo-woo types who need belief to confirm their extremes, fuck Santa up for children so that he becomes a monster with truly God-like demands and vengeful power. Other than that wee caveat, the Season is quite sweet and harmless indeed!
see Bruce: @ December 19, 2016 at 2:28 pm
Oh No – No to any belief you may have you plagiarized from any site.
That was not my intent.
Because of my comment about Prometheus – Pandora from ‘Greek Mythology’ and the biblical Adam and Eve, there seems to be a similar story line ( who plagiarized who ), and such as the one Egyptian Pharaoh declaring only One God before the time of Moses, ideas can be and are sparks for many tales of fiction ( camp-fire ghost stories ). Also, ideas from the Persians probably fall along the same lines.
Got it. I must be a bit thick in the head today. Yesterday was our family Christmas…I ate way too many Christmas cookies, ?
Well, you should not have to worry about getting a ‘pulpit blister’ this season – hope you enjoyed your cookies.
Now what are weak elbows called when we’re unable to push away from the dinner table?