Sometimes humor only works in distinctive niches with particular background presuppositions. Whether it will land in this case, I'm not sure. However, I'm in the mood for black humor today because I'm in tune with Christians in Bethlehem who created a nativity scene with the baby Jesus sleeping in the rubble of a bombed building. They cancelled their Christmas celebration on the grounds that talking about peace there today would ring false. I've long been triggered by "peace on earth" songs that ring hollow that way, like mouthing complacent "all lives matter" slogans while someone is being murdered in front of you.
In any case, years ago I wrote a little ditty to satirize Protestant ministers who create supposedly edifying “Christian” lyrics for popular songs. This is a genre I experienced all too often as a child. For example, I was pressured into singing “Thank you, thank you, Jesus” to the tune of “We will, we will, rock you.”
I wanted a satire with tongue-in-cheek critique and humor, without being overtly crass and disrespectful--such that it might just barely be imaginable that a church might use it. (That's not any more far-fetched than this one by Kanye's gospel choir.) I also wanted to take a shot at the above-mentioned trivialization of too much church music.
My lyrics go with the tune of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and are sung as follows:
If you want to skip the video and/or sing along, here you go:
Jesus, my Lord come reign here, we are very sin-sick souls
Although we cannot see you, we know you are in control
All of the liberal scoffers used to take your name in vain
They never let you, Jesus, come into their hearts to reign.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve, angels came to say
Jesus 'neath your star so bright, you are the way, the truth the light.
Then all the liberals repented, and they shouted out with glee
Jesus, my Lord, come reign here, be the Lord of history.
So there you have it, my first promised recording since the reboot of this site. I'm still low on the learning curve of production values for videos like this, and hoping to elevate my game as we proceed. But perhaps this "guinea-pig" level of skill for my first fits the form of this song passably well.