An Unholy Christmas Carol Alliance
Holiday tunes slamming Israel. How festive.
To the tune of “We Three Kings” …
Palestinian martyrs we are,
Wearing bombs we travel afar.
Jews we hate, we don’t discriminate
Blowing up yonder bar
I’ve been moved to song by the news that a group of anti-Israel British Jews teamed up with a Church of England vicar to stage a Christmas carol concert with a difference: the words of the songs were replaced with lyrics critical of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. So, for example, “While Shepherds Watched” becomes:
While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground,
Some occupying soldiers came and bulldozed all around.
You get the idea. Somehow I don’t think my little ditty would have made it on to the order of service.
The concert was organized by a group calling itself Jews For Boycotting Israeli Goods, or J-BIG for short, and held at St James’s Church in Piccadilly, central London — a church with a rich history (it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren), but which has over the years adopted an increasingly “progressive” and “radical” approach to preaching the Gospels.
In addition to various rag-tag activist groups, the carolers included the Liberal Democrat politician Baroness Tonge, who caused a storm in 2004 when she said that if she were Palestinian she would consider becoming a suicide bomber, and who’s notorious for holding forth on the power of the “Jewish lobby.” Also there was Bruce Kent, a former Catholic priest who, having failed to deliver Western Europe to the Soviet Union in the 1980s in his capacity as head of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, left the priesthood so he could devote himself more fully to political activism.
Defending the concert, Kent said: “I am fed up with sugary religion — the baby Jesus sitting in his stable and all that stuff.” Perhaps he prefers the more “in your face” religion of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose terrorists Israel’s “oppressive” security measures are designed to thwart, and whose fellow believers were deeply immersed in their latest act of worship in Bombay even as Kent and his companions sang mockingly about checkpoints and security barriers on the West Bank.
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Mike McNally blogs at Monkey Tennis Centre.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
16 Comments
1. African Moonbat:Do some people still wonder why the Anglican Church is in such a precipitous decline?
Dec 24, 2008 - 2:43 am 2. R a Z o R:So easy to criticize .
How bout a diddy bout love and peace ?
________________________________________________
The bastards are probably Saxons like the ones
that raped my gr gr gr gr great Granny Angloia .
________________________________________________
Guess I could sue me self but what’s the point .
Dec 24, 2008 - 5:52 am 3. Laura:This is just too much. What the hell is this world coming to?? Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and a Happy New Year to everyone. May G-d have mercy on all of us.
Dec 24, 2008 - 6:46 am 4. Andrew Ian Dodge:The CoE is just a front for marxists. trots and other near-do-wells who have lost the political argument.
Dec 24, 2008 - 7:33 am 5. Assistant Village Idiot:Eddie Izzard says the CofE is more like a hobby than an actual church these days. Spot on.
Dec 24, 2008 - 10:30 am 6. e:Kent said: “I am fed up with sugary religion — the baby Jesus sitting in his stable and all that stuff.”
Very good quote Mr. McNally. I suppose peace and forgiveness in religion isn’t in style anymore. I think some people don’t even understand the words coming out of their own mouth.
Merry Christmas and whatever you celebrate too,
Dec 24, 2008 - 12:09 pm 7. Donna V.:~e
You can see why the English are so determinedly secular these days. If I had to sit in the pews and listen to this dreck for any length of time, I’d probably end up as a ranting, raving atheist too.
Dec 24, 2008 - 12:13 pm 8. Sohrab:Nothing could be farther from the spirit of this sacred day – don’t they have any shame?
Long live Eretz Israel!
Sohrab
Dec 24, 2008 - 6:06 pm 9. Elle:http://www.iranianfreedom.wordpress.com
It appears that the Church of England has decided on suicide.
Dec 24, 2008 - 8:57 pm 10. jonesy55:“The CoE is just a front for marxists. trots and other near-do-wells who have lost the political argument.”
The CoE is certainly a pointless institution, it has no theological justification that I can see as it was just a political creation to suit the whims of a king.
I wouldn’t say that Queen Liz is a Marxist though, she’s a very bad one if she is.
Dec 25, 2008 - 2:58 pm 11. Micha Elyi:Even a bad Marxist can be a good useful idiot, as she who has swapped her title of Defender of the Faith for Enabler of the Idiots demonstrates.
Dec 25, 2008 - 6:32 pm 12. blogengeezer:From what I gather, ‘The Church of England’ is more akin to the US congressionaly supported organization ‘ACORN’? Basically a self perpetuating entity of the congress (government) in power at the time?
Dec 25, 2008 - 7:43 pm 13. Eric R.:How ironic that the pro-Western, conservative, break-away wing of the Anglican Church is led by — Nigerians.
Dec 26, 2008 - 9:02 am 14. Frank:If it wasn’t for checkpoints and security barriers there would have been a dozen Mumbais in Israel by now.
And that’s exactly what these caroling scumbags want.
Dec 27, 2008 - 8:59 am 15. Smarty:Sounds like a bunch of wanna-be sonderkommandos sucking up to their future overlords.
Dec 27, 2008 - 10:58 pm 16. RF:So is Fink gonna hold her breath next?
Dec 28, 2008 - 2:33 amSpot on about Islam’s hatred for anyone but Muslims.