Why Do Christmas Songs Get a Free Pass on Goofy Theology?

I don't know when I first noticed this, but there are some extremely popular worship songs with some really bizarre lyrics.  We're talking weird statements, made up history, and blatantly misquoted scripture.  And yet, we ignore these lyrical flubs, and sing them year after year.

I mean, I'm mostly okay with songs like "Little Drummer Boy," which function primarily as Christian musical fan fiction. The three songs I mention below, though, are used in worship services; We sing them as worship to our Savior, but we say things which aren't true, and that aren't in scripture (thus probably not true).

Away In a Manger

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes

But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes

Wasn't a baby just born?  He didn't cry His entire first day of life?
Why isn't He crying?
Why are we adding this strange detail about Jesus not crying?  Was He not a human baby?

Silent Night

Silent night, Holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from thy holy face

Why is it silent & calm?

If it's night time, why is it bright?

Radiant beams?  What on earth does that mean?

Seriously, I don't know what this means.  Is it supposed to be a metaphor about His wonderful personality? I've never once sang a song about adult Jesus with radiant beams coming from His face.  Why does sweet baby Jesus have a glowing face?

Though...I am aware of a toy for children where another part of Jesus glows:

We Three Kings

We three kings of Orient are

Three kings?
From the orient?

The text mentions that magi came bringing three gifts.  It doesn't count off the number of magi, or mention any kings.  It's just a bad reading of the text or made up.  How did this song ever become wide-spread without having the lyrics corrected?

We Don't Do This Anywhere Else

While I can understand why you might think I'm just nit-picking classic songs, you wouldn't think that if we were discussing any other song.  Claiming the magi were "kings" isn't really nit-picking the text.  It's a blatantly wrong reading of the text.  If I wrote a song about Jesus and his twelve Spartan body guards, people would think I was a moron. But, if magi become kings, that's acceptable creative license for Christmas carols.

Though it may seem like my critiques of "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger" are minor, they actually play into key theology related to our Savior:  He was both God and man.  Attempting to paint Him as a baby who never cried and whose face was radioactive, doesn't paint Him as fully man.  Unless they're attempting to claim that crying is a sin (which they aren't), it's okay for Jesus to cry.  It's how babies communicate that they have a need.  Once again, if I gave sermon where I claimed that Jesus never got a common cold and never had to go to the bathroom, that would be ridiculous.  But two Christmas classics build the case that everything was calm on His birth night, and He didn't cry...and he was radioactive.

Why This Really Matters

I have a six year long tradition of giving my middle school students a Christmas quiz.  The current version is 15 questions long, all true or false.  The answer to every single question is FALSE.  Each question presents a common Christmas myth.  Every year, the majority of my students fail the quiz.

The nativity story is surrounded by a great deal of Christian fan fiction at best, and reckless myth at worst. Between songs, movies, and other media, there's so much being said about Christ's birth, but a great deal of it isn't in the Bible.

John 4

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must 

worship in the Spirit and in truth.

If we treat these songs like Christian fan fiction, I'm fine with the embellishments and mistakes.  But we don't.  These songs are added to worship services.  That means the standard must be higher.  We can't say things because they MIGHT be true.  We can't tweak details.  We must worship in TRUTH.

Likewise, people learn theology through music.  Stop and think about it.  How many songs do you have memorized (or a good paraphrase) versus how many verses do you have memorized?  Almost certainly, you know more lyrics to songs than verses.  When we sing sloppy lyrics in our churches, we teach sloppy theology to our congregation.

To honor Christ, we must focus on the truth or acknowledge our embellishments.  When we treat fiction like fact, we do not worship in spirit and truth.

Great Video on Weird Christmas Myths

Here's a great video from IGNITER on a series of Christmas myths which we believe by default.  I show this to my students every year.