If you’re planning to attend a carol service tonight, says Celia Walden in the Telegraph, you might want to check out the hymn sheet first, to see that you’re not singing ‘O Come, All Ye Wokeful’. Here’s an excerpt.
You see, priests have been told to edit popular carols this Christmas in order to avoid (I really need to create a custom keyboard shortcut for this phrase) “causing unnecessary offence”. Quite why you would be in a church to begin with if you found Christianity so offensive has not been made clear.
Do you see many vegans in butchers demanding to talk to the managers? Last time you were down the pub, did you notice any teetotallers raging at the landlord about his “disgusting wall of booze”?
Yet according to a whistleblower vicar, Church of England clergy across the country have been contacted and urged to alter various Advent hymns “to avoid upset”. Those singled out as particularly concerning are ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’ (for depicting other faiths as being “outside of God’s grace”) and ‘Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending’ (the clergy have been sent a link to research suggesting the second verse contains “problematic words” by stating Jesus is the “true Messiah”).
In a further email sent to the Birmingham diocese, clergy were advised to: “Try to use language that won’t add further confusion or tension or take away anything from the good news of the Nativity.” And they wonder why the pews are empty?
If the Church of England were a business – and learning to operate like one is probably the only thing that could save it now – it would have gone into receivership years ago. Why? Because you cannot sell people a product while simultaneously apologising for the abject awfulness of that product.
Worth reading in full.
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So messed up that you don’t know what to say. In our secular age one expects a high level of theological illiteracy but the things mentioned above suggest complete cluelessness at a higher level. Unless of course they are completely captured just like everything else. What the hell was the attraction of the last archbishop? Some sort of banking dude put in charge of the church. What have you sunken to? You will give people the impression that you were a deceiver from the beginning and I don’t believe that The future speaks to the past and constantly rewrites it. Gnostic fantasies about Nazis winning the war can turn out to be true. So consider the evil whenever you speak to the past.
To me it is a good sign this is controversial- it shows that a lot of smart people care about this extremely important question.
Priests have been told to edit popular carols this Christmas in order to avoid a lunatic driving a car into a Christmas Market.
But, but….he was of the Far Right….the BBC told me so….and they verified it with their unit run by the floozie who lied on her CV.
Complete arseholery! What next? Employ “sensitivity readers” to edit the Bible?
Sod that for a game of soldiers! 
, and show defiance in solidarity with the Christians of Damascus. Very brave and admirable people;
These priests need to hold firm, channel their inner Gandalf ( “You shall not pass!!! )
https://x.com/AzatAlsalim/status/1871542916247908797
https://x.com/AzatAlsalim/status/1871606098949734825
Don’t hold your breath.
So you that will be the vicars who are not misbehaving towards children. They will restrict their faith to suit other faiths.
is there any information about instructions sent out by the ayatolers – are they to avoid discussing the murder of Jews and other non Muslims.
what about shias. Are they extending a hand of peace to Sunnis and vice versa.
Have all the illegals been told not to murder. Have all former Saudis given up on hire cars.
As far as I know most Baptists are calm and collected and thinking of their faith. Me? I’m with my family as a minority in an east London borough with no thought of getting a large knife to stand near the nearest mosque or curry house.
They want you to fall down dead like a rootless tree that is their sacrament. The tree buried upside down the reversal of the life force.
In fact, Christmas carols do need to be edited, in order to tell the truth.
Elizabeth bore twin boys at Ein Karem, in September: Jesus the Forerunner and John the Baptist the True Christ.
The Evil Impostor calling herself the “Virgin Mary”, inspired by Satan, faked her own pregnancy and rushed to play midwife, deceived and drugged Elizabeth, kidnapped newborn Jesus, handed newborn John to Zacharias as his “only” son, then smuggled Baby Jesus 7 miles away to Bethlehem, so she could claim he was born in the City of David, to set herself up as a “Goddess” upon the earth. Using her Temple connections, she secretly denounced Elizabeth and baby John to Herod, causing the Massacre of the Innocents, and the death of Zacharias, for refusing to tell Herod’s soldiers where his wife and son had fled.
Then she smuggled baby Jesus to Egypt, corrupted him from infancy to turn him from his path, and brought him back to Nazareth seven years later when old Herod was dead. Upon hearing that Elizabeth & her seven-year-old son John were still alive in the wilderness, the Impostor again denounced them, this time to the new Herod, persuading him to send a pack of hounds with Herod’s soldiers to hunt them down and kill them both. Elizabeth saved her son’s life at the cost of her own, but when the Impostor heard that the orphan child John was still alive, she sought him out in the wilderness as he grew, pretending to befriend him, pretending to be his substitute mother, persuading him to honour her and her stolen child Jesus, and eventually to yield his own disciples to Jesus years later as the Fake Messiah, whom she helped fake all his “miracles”.
And later, when John the Baptist began to doubt, she conspired with Herodias & Salome & Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, to trick and force Herod into first imprisoning and then murdering John the Baptist at Herod’s birthday feast at Passover, which he did not want to do, as he respected John and his teachings. A year later, the Impostor and her evil relative Joseph of Arimathea helped Jesus fake his death & resurrection. These are only some of the crimes of the Impostor “Goddess Virgin Mary”, one of the most evil women ever to have walked the earth.
But the Time of Evil is over. Jesus the Forerunner will at last fulfil his true destiny, proclaiming his twin brother John the Baptist as the True Christ, the Hero Warrior Christ who is coming with angel armies in the End Times, rescuing the redeemed souls of repentant sinners, and the souls of all good creatures of the land & sea & air, and the stars in the sky. Jesus the Forerunner will be with him. And Satan will be annihilated.
For the Time of Evil is over.
Comes the Time of Joy and Justice, Truth and Rescue.
Interesting!
Do you have any documentary evidence (apart from dan brown of course) for this astonishing story?
No. I’ve never read Dan Brown, but from other descriptions of his work, it seems he never referred to John the Baptist as the True Christ, non-identical twin brother of Jesus the Forerunner, both born at Ein Karem to their mother Elizabeth.
The “six-month gap” between their supposed births to different mothers was invented by The Impostor “Virgin Mary” herself, to distract attention from her heinous atrocity— only one of many. She deceived the world for 2000 years into worshipping her and her stolen child Jesus, and it’s time for Christians to wake up.
I was joking about dan brown but I am genuinely interested in the history.
My belief in the value of Christianity is oddly detached from the literal truth of the foundation myths.
I respect you for searching for truth, instead of blindly swallowing dogma. Christians have been deceived for 2000 years: Catholics into worshipping the Impostor “Goddess” Mary, and Protestants into worshipping Jesus the Forerunner, Jesus the Stolen Child, instead of Almighty God, pushing the True Christ John the Baptist into the background for 2000 years.
But the essence of Christianity is true: “Repent your sins” as the True Christ John the Baptist taught, “Go and sin no more” as his twin brother Jesus the Forerunner taught, and turn your hearts to Almighty God. Without true repentance, there can be no rescue, and no salvation.
For we are redeemed, not by the resurrection of the physical form, but by true remorse and repentance for sin, by asking forgiveness of Almighty God, by doing our best to sin no more, by full immersion baptism of our own free will, and by the blood, sacrifice and earthly death of John the Baptist, the True Christ, the True Lamb of God, soon to be heralded by his twin brother Jesus the Forerunner, fulfilling his true destiny.
The reason Satan and his depraved allies in the spirit world, of which he is the least, want to destroy Christianity is because they don’t want any souls to be redeemed. They and their human servants are desperate to keep good souls trapped forever, so that they can slowly devour them, absorbing angelic power into themselves.
They don’t want humans ever to know that Nothing on Earth, or in the Spirit World, compares to Heaven’s Glory.
Since as a paid up sceptic I don’t blindly accept dogma, you’ll have to give me documented evidence for your esoteric view, as so far you’ve presented only dogma.
No, I haven’t presented any “dogma”, which is defined in the dictionary as
“a fixed, especially religious, belief or set of beliefs that people are expected to accept without any doubts.”
I didn’t say I expect people to accept it without any doubts.
I am just telling you the truth, and hope people will think about it, and consider it, before deciding whether or not to reject it.
There are many “paid-up sceptics” on this website who blindly accept dogma.
I guess there are historical aspects to all of this but I have never looked into them as it never seemed that relevant to me. I don’t have a “faith” but isn’t the point of one that you “believe” without evidence?
I thought it was satire.
No, it isn’t satire.
But it is heresy, probably based on “dodgy documents”. Perhaps a touch of that Catholic named Blair?
Of course it is heresy (I am not called Heretic for nothing), and the Catholics like Blair would have burnt me at the stake for it, so your reference to him doesn’t make any sense.
No, it is not based on “dodgy documents”.
As Christians who cherish Christian values we have no need of the idiots in lambeth palace or the Vatican.
Utter fools.
Yes, can you see it folks. The communist country now wants to eliminate religion.
Jesus died for his faith on the cross in his 30s. The founder of Islam died on June 8, 632, at the age of about 60 in the presence of his third wife. He fell ill a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage . I think the former shows more commitment to his faith.
Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.
Matthew11.16
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished Christians worldwide a Merry Christmas.” Video posted on X.
If any region should be offended by claims of Jesus the Messiah it’s the Jews. I have never met a Jew offended by Christianity, Christmas, carols – or for that matter Muslims or Hindus.
Taking vicarious offence is a mental illness and sufferers need psychiatric referral.
Outrage after video shows ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on ground beside Christian procession
Orthodox Jews again filmed spitting at Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City | The Times of Israel
Christians in Jerusalem Want Jews to Stop Spitting on Them – Haaretz Com – Haaretz.com
One public comment:
“After the war I was riding an Egged bus near the Damascus Gate, in front of me was a hasid who saw two nuns approaching, he rolled down the window and spat on them. No one intervened, it was just another day in Jerusalem where this occurs too many times and police seem not to do much. The hasidic community loves god with all their heart and hates their neighbors, Jews and non-Jews alike, with all their soul.”
We need robust christianity