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“Simply having a wonderful Christmas time. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time.”
If you hear these lyrics less than a thousand times this Christmas season I’ll be surprised. They’re played ad nauseum on the radio, over retail store muzak, in elevators, at the gas pump, and probably in more than a few churches, though thankfully I haven’t heard that yet. Trouble is, the song isn’t worthy of the attention it gets.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas music—my wife plays it non-stop from mid-November on—and we go in for Christmas big-time: huge, real tree (sometimes two) we’ve cut ourselves each of 37 years running, mucho decorations, presents for the kids and now grandkids, good food, family, friends, fellowship, fun, and, via social media, fans and followers. So please, hear me out. Though you may think I protest too much, I am not a Scrooge by a long shot. (I’m even a guy who likes to go to the mall with his wife.)
But Sir Paul McCartney’s ubiquitous “Wonderful Christmastime” is just too much.
Why do I dislike it so? Well, for one, it’s poor music; the tune, texture, form, rhythm, melody, none of it is uplifting, just drive-you-bananas abominable.
Another reason this is my least favorite Christmas song is the over-the-top repetition involved. I know nearly all song lyrics involve repetition, and for good musical reason, but this song is run-you-in-the-ground repetitive. The lyrics repeat “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time” fourteen times as written. Some renditions repeat the phrase more often than that.
Then there’s the song’s claim to “Christmas” status. Other than using the phrase “Christmas time” in the lyrics and “Christmas” in the title and last line, there’s nothing distinctively Christmas, from a Christian point of view, about this song. No manger, no baby Jesus, no three kings, no silent night, no star or Good News. Just “Ding dong, ding dong.”
On this theme I’d even go further and say the song, perhaps intentionally perhaps not, is a wholesale secularization of the season. The song’s been sanitized of all Christmas story content—nothing to “offend” anyone here, just a party for one and all. This is another reason retailers in an increasingly secularized Western society find the song acceptable. “Wonderful Christmastime” becomes a “safe” (in our religiously privatized culture) replacement for “Silent Night” or “O Come All Ye Faithful.”
Read the lyrics yourself. Here’re verses 1-4:
“The moon is right, The spirit’s up, We’re here tonight, And that’s enough”
“The party’s on, the feelin’s here, That only comes, This time of year”
“The choir of children sing their song, Ding dong, ding dong, Ding dong, ding, oh, oh”
“The word is out, About the town, To lift a glass, Ah, don’t look down”
These verses are interspersed by the chorus “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time,” then repeated. Pretty stirring isn’t it?
If there is religious content in this song it’s in the line “And that’s enough,” which makes the subtle statement that we’re the end-all be-all and nothing is needed for fulfillment other than our own happiness at “This time of year.”
Maybe Paul McCartney just wanted to write a little jingle and thought no more about it than any of hundreds of other songs he’s written. But I doubt it. This one was meant to profile him and his work prominently for the general public at least once per year. If he didn’t intend this I’ve no doubt his managers and marketers did. I'm not against Paul McCartney or his music, per se; he's obviously a musical genius and I like some of his songs. But he missed it on this one. Even he reputedly knows this; though he makes about $400,000 per year in royalties from this song, he has said for years that it embarrasses him.
I know I’m making a lot out of a pop song. One could just ignore it and go on, which I try to do. But it’s hard to ignore because “Wonderful Christmastime” gets more airtime every year. When this song is played there’s an opportunity cost in the sense that better Christmas songs are not given airtime.
I’m not against all non-Christian or non-religious Christmas music. I like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “White Christmas,” for example. I like these and other “secular” songs because they’re good music. “Wonderful Christmastime” isn’t wonderful, isn’t Christmas, and isn’t good music.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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Brett Favre played quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, and finally for the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. In his playing days he was without question one of the most exciting players to watch. His “gunslinger” approach created plays time and again where there were none moments before and brought his team success and his fans enjoyment. Then it came time for him to retire.
If you’ve paid much attention to football you know his story. Fuss with the Green Bay Packers organization, act like a spoiled kid instead of a nearly 40 year old professional, retire, not retire, retire, come out of retirement. Cry at retirement, come back a few months later: what is this? Whatever was going on in Favre’s life this non-disappearing act made the man look like he didn’t know what he was doing. After a couple of years of this he finally retired January 17, 2011. Or maybe he did—word this week is that he may get a call from the Houston Texans.
Worse than Favre’s retirement fiasco were some alleged off the field shenanigans, investigation by the NFL, a finding he’d violated the league’s personal conduct policy, a $50,000 fine for not co-operating with the investigation, and Favre’s typical reticence on something he should have been man enough to handle. Favre supposedly texted or “sexted” the Jets “Gameday” host Jenn Sterger several times during the 2008 season, sending her salacious messages. She and others claimed he did, he denied it, and now no one really knows. But there was a lot of smoke to believe there was no fire.
Worse still is how Favre not only left the Green Bay Packers but how he spoke publicly about a management and a team that had been his home for most of his illustrious professional career. He slammed them in public and argued his weak case in media.
And worse than this is how he then and now has continued to treat—which is to say not treat at all—Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. In a recent television interview Rodgers carefully admitted he “had not heard from” Favre after the Packers won the February 2011 Super Bowl and that he thought he’d had a relationship with Favre earlier but not now. Rivalries in sports and otherwise are understandable, even healthy at times, but this kind of silence speaks volumes. This is what we now have come to realize is the real Brett Favre, a small man in a big profession.
One of the signs of a great leader is that he or she knows when to leave. Great leaders are great not only for what they do during their run at the top but for how they handle themselves and what they do when it’s time to move on—and every leader eventually moves on via opportunity, retirement, illness, or death. The end comes to us all. Favre walked out whining and has never stopped. He clearly is bothered by his successor’s success, and he’s made it clear that he is a selfish person. It could have been different.
When Joe Montana, winner of four Super Bowls in the 1980s with the San Francisco 49ers, came to the end of his run in San Francisco he quietly went to Kansas City and played out his career with the Chiefs. He remains today one of the most respected quarterbacks to play the game, and he lives near San Francisco his adopted town. He won big, he left quietly and respectfully. This is what could have been for Brett Favre.
Whether Brett Favre ever regains his stature in Packer land is largely up to him. For now he’s a sad case. Someday, hopefully for his sake, he’ll make amends. But the damage to his legacy has been severe and it will remain so until Favre demonstrates a depth of character that has so far been absent.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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“Tebowing” is the word of the moment. It’s a noun describing NFL Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s practice of bowing in prayer on single knee here, there, and just about everywhere on the football field. The word was likely first coined as a form of ridicule, but like a lot of other things in Tebow’s life, he’ll probably get the last laugh.
Tim Tebow’s story is by now well known to anyone paying attention to football. He’s the son of missionary parents in the Philippines and grew up home-schooled and groomed for service. Turns out Tebow is a physical specimen, 6 foot 3 inches, 235 pounds, athletic, tough, and gifted at running if not throwing a football.
At the University of Florida Tebow helped his team win the National Championship as a backup quarterback in 2006, won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore starter in 2007, and helped his team win a National Championship again in 2008. In college he won numerous other awards as the best college football player in the nation.
But Tebow is known for more than this, most notably unfailing optimism, terminal niceness, and super-sized leadership skills. Somehow, someway, Tebow always seems to get the job done on the football field and off, giving credit to others along the way. He’s also known for openly living and referencing his Christian faith and testimony, wearing “John 3:16” and other Bible verses on his eye tape in college until the NCAA outlawed it, speaking constantly of Jesus, praising the Lord for his accomplishments, saving himself he says for marriage, and of course Tebowing, which is only one part of his testimony.
For a number of reasons, the suitability of Tebow’s football skills for the NFL, his faith, his openness about his faith, and his Tebowing all create controversy. In particular the latter, how he practices his faith, drives people to polarizing frenzy. His critics accuse him of “pushing his faith on others,” something he has never really done. They accuse him of “telling others what they should believe,” again something he’s never done. They go berserk at Tebow’s expressions of faith ignoring the fact that many other NFL and other professional sports athletes openly express their varying faiths.
Meanwhile, Tebow keeps doing his job, trying to make it as a quarterback in the NFL. He refuses to criticize others who criticize him, including especially players who’ve mocked him with their own Tebowing stance. So far, he appears to be everything he claims that he is, a young Christian trying to live a good and exemplary life, even if a highly visible one in the public eye. In this regard it’s hard not to defend him and a lot of sports journalists and current and retired football professionals are increasingly speaking up for him. Others of course may never be won no matter how consistently he lives his faith.
One has to be concerned for him too. When you live as publicly as Tebow lives, when you put your faith out there and say, “This is me,” you’re a target and you’re vulnerable (as are we all). One misstep, one unwise comment, one human moment of angry emotion, one wrong girlfriend in the wrong place at the wrong time, one ugly reaction, and you’re toast. Ask Mel Gibson, who never lived like Tebow but who did build an image of himself as a religious person that was later shattered by his own anti-Semitic comments, ugly divorces, and romps with supermodels.
For Tebow, despite the doubters, so far so good. He just keeps on. Actually, so far, he keeps winning. At this point, he is 4-1 as the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos, turning a team from 1-4 to 5-5 with a chance to yet salvage the season.
I don’t have any problem with Tebow’s Tebowing, as long as it’s sincere and not a show. On the other hand, I can see why some people question its appropriateness. Put the practice in another professional setting. Do you think it would be helpful if attorneys, doctors, salespersons, bus drivers, or politicians dropped to a knee with each accomplishment? I don’t. But then again, maybe politicians indeed need to spend more time on both knees.
I root for this guy. In an age when sports heroes are more often anti-heroes whose lives are one long story of self-indulgence, Tebow is different. He’s about others. He works hard. He tries to do his best, share credit, live honestly, be nice, and take responsibility for his actions and failings. He’s a leader who’s thus far leading in the right directions. So I’ll cut him some slack. Tebow can “tebow” all he wants.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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Both of my parents turned 80 years of age this year, Dad during the summer, Mom today. They have been and are good parents by any objective measure.
So on this Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for God’s gift of good parents, something for which I can take no credit. It’s purely God’s blessing, my parents’ grace, and my benefit.
Both of my parents have been Christian people since their youth, and they both introduced me to the faith as a child and took me to every conceivable church event since I was born. What I’m saying is that I grew up in a “Christian home” in the best sense of the phrase.
I never had to doubt my parents’ love, commitment, “being there,” or support. These things were a given, and they continue to be so. They disciplined me as a kid, taught me right from wrong and pushed me toward the right even when I’d have preferred the wrong.
My parents aspired to my higher education before I did, and they paid for much of it. They wanted me to go to a Christian institution of higher learning long before I considered the issue one way or another. They prayed for me to “find” a Christian wife before I got around to thinking about it and before the Lord sent the right one into my life, again without me having much to do with it.
My parents have been faithful church attenders, participators, and leaders for more than sixty years. They lived out the Christian faith, thus providing an unwavering example for me, of course, but for any and everyone who cared to pay attention. No one ever fairly doubted their word or integrity. No one ever had reason to question their faithful motives and generous good works.
Assuming you were blessed with good parents, and not everyone was or is by a sad long shot, but if you were, how do you pay them back? How is it possible to repay someone who has invested an entire life into your life and who in large part helped make you what you are, or at least what you can be?
I think there’s only one way. The only way you can repay good parents is to attempt to live by the values they hold dear, to live as they hoped you would live. If you do this you perpetuate their values and their goals into the third and the fourth generation. You affirm and honor the wisdom of how they’ve chosen to live. You extend their legacy.
I haven’t robbed banks or done physical harm to anyone, thankfully, but then again, I don’t offer myself as a model of the best Christian living. But I do remember, consciously or at times subconsciously, what my parents taught me by word and deed and I’ve tried to live to that standard. Better yet, my wife and I have passed my parents’ Christian values to our own children and they are living out their faith.
Parents, including good ones, don’t all get the privilege of turning 80. But when they do it is a good thing to celebrate long lives lived as unto the Lord. These are my parents, good parents at 80. These are people who have nothing to be ashamed of and who’ve blessed me, my sister, our families, and many more. Now they are modeling how to “finish well” and God grant that as long as he gives me to live I will walk in their footsteps.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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“Oh no” moments come to us all, I think, or at least they come to me. They’re the times when something happens that’s anything but what you wished would happen. It’s a moment when things could have gone better but alas did not and you’re left with nothing but “Oh no.”
Here’re a few:
--It’s the weekend. Ah, finally, relax, read, sports, do nothing. But the furnace won’t kick on, the house is turning into an icebox, and it’s the weekend. Remember? Oh yes. Oh no.
--You make a special trip into the store, what store? It doesn’t matter, the store. And you want a certain item. What item? Doesn’t matter, an item. Finally, you’re there, but the item’s not there. Oh no.
--Big week planned, trip maybe, cool goings on. Wake up ready to go. Nope, wake up with a sore throat feeling like you’re coming down with a cold, achy. Oh no.
--You’re speaking, have worked on a great PowerPoint, all set up, ready for show. But the local projector won’t work and the local projector operator doesn’t know how to fix it, nor do you. Oh no.
--You’re running late, jump into your rental car, and drive a few miles when the distinctive odor of smoke hits you. You don’t have time to return your smoke-tainted “No Smoking” car, so you drive it for the next few days and you’re clothes soon smell like a smokestack. Oh no.
--You arrive at church ready to focus on worship, look down, and spot a spot on your shirt that in the light of day you can’t imagine how you missed dressing in the half-dark earlier. Oh no.
--You get to the airport 20 minutes from home and an hour before your flight, only to discover you’ve forgotten your sport coat, or worse, your passport. Oh no.
--You walk out of the airport late at night after a long flight and all you want is to get to the port hotel the sooner the better for the night’s layover. As you cross the street to the shuttle stop the bus you need to catch drives by. In it’s 30+ minute loop you missed its airport stop by seconds. Oh no.
--You can’t wait to finally get a chance to relax and eat. You stopped on the way to the hotel for your fav sandwich meal, get to the hotel and check in, settle into your room, and now it’s finally time to enjoy. You bite into your sandwich, your fav remember, only to discover the bread’s hard, an ingredient’s missing, or for some reason it all “tastes funny.” Oh no.
--You get in this road lane, or Customs or store line, rather than that lane/line because this lane/line is moving faster. Only when you get in this lane/line that lane/line starts moving faster. You see your chance and move to the other lane/line out of your lane/line so now you’re in a better position in a new lane/line. But the vehicles ahead slow to a stop or the Customs agent in this line suddenly decides to talk chattily with each traveler or the store clerk determines now is when he needs to rush off somewhere else. You are stuck forever in your lane/line. Oh no.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.
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Benetton has done it again. The Italian clothing company whose American empire has dropped from 800 to 61 stores is once again making a marketing move that advertises more about edgy sexuality than clothing.
The so-called Unhate campaign features public domain pictures of world leaders kissing one another. President Barack Obama is featured kissing China’s Hu Jintao. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is portrayed kissing Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbbas, and Pope Benedict is kissing Imam of the Al-Ashar mosque Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. So far, only the Pope-Imam smooch has been dropped after loud protests from the Vatican.
To say the same-sex pictures of the campaign are disgusting, or at least tasteless, doesn’t quite cover it. What’s more disgusting is the Benetton executive debuty chairman’s, the son of the founder, claim the advertising campaign is not about Benetton’s brand but about the “need to have courage to not hate others.” Sure, the company is spending millions to promote love and peace. That’s Benetton balderdash.
Benetton is known for pushing the envelope in advertising, featuring the bloody clothes of a soldier killed in battle, black children kissing wrapped in the American and Soviet flags, or convicted murders each given a chance to share their view of life. Benetton is not alone. Remember Calvin Klein’s “heroin chic” ads in the 1990s? These pictures featured emaciated people, usually young women, with dark circles under their eyes. The ads drew fire even from the White House. And then there’s Abercrombie and Fitch, which generally features partially nude models, often in compromising positions, in its advertisements. Abercrombie and Fitch has also sold push-up or padded bra bathing suits for little girls under 10 years of age.
Supposedly the owners and leadership in these companies hold rather liberal social and political views. Ostensibly these advertisements are about clothing or fashions, yet few of the actual pictures or messages feature clothing. Ostensibly, at least for Benetton, these ads are about a political message, clearly a nihilistic one. But in the end, the ads are really about creating controversy to advance the brand. The companies want their name to be known so that, what, they can make more money, a decidedly capitalistic viewpoint.
Benetton claims no moral responsibility for its ads. Indeed in using political leaders’ names and images for commercial purposes without permission or compensation the companies are probably breaking the law. But Benetton does not care. Certainly Benetton and the other companies are responsible for promoting debased sexuality, the drug culture, and maybe even pedophilia, but no matter, the brand and cash flow are what matter.
One hopes that the American public would not be so gullible. One hopes Americans, and for that matter consumers in other countries, would walk away from Benetton, Calvin Klein, and Abercrombie and Fitch. One hopes.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.