I agree OtakuLoki.
I share MGibson’s and others’ distate for this song. (I consider myself extremely lucky for having not heard it thanks to owning way too many Christmas CDs)
But I was also pissed to see the old “if God is good why do bad things happen” argument. I would expect any thinking person regardless of atheism or religion capable of understanding the concept of God’s treatment of free will.
Well, hopefully my hijack here will end quickly, but I’ve got a question for you, then.
What’s the purpose of prayer, then?
-Joe
(In the case, “prayer” meaning asking god to make something happen, stop something from happening, etc)
Just make sure that you don’t credit God when a bad consequence is avoided… After all, it is all just free will - he’s not making it happen and had nothing to do with it.
And in that case, what good is he to me?
Well, first, I have to say that in my opinion, your definition of prayer misses what the majority of what I see prayer as being. I’d read years ago, that CS Lewis said that the purpose of prayer isn’t to change God, but to change the one praying. Nothing I’ve seen or experienced since then has changed my view of how accurate that statement is.
When I pray for things I pray for strength, compassion, forgiveness. Not material objects. Or at least that sort of prayer isn’t one that I’ve expected to have fulfilled. 
I’m well aware that many, perhaps even most, prayers are the sort you describe. But, that’s not what I see as the true purpose of prayer.
There’s a lovely chasidic story that emphasizes how I think of prayer: a Jewish carter sits by the side of the road, and recites out the Hebrew alphabet, calling out to God: “O, Lord, you know the prayers, and I don’t. So I am sending you the letters to use to make the prayers for me.”
-OtakuLoki
Hmm, so I can’t consider that God may be behind the stories of mothers lifting cars off their trapped kids? Nor can I appreciate the hand of God in the hearts and minds of the people who do SAR in horrible weather at the risk of their own lives? I’m not trying to take away from anything those individuals do, but if they use prayer and their relationship with God to do those things, and if they feel they can or could do those things with God’s assistance, why not share the credit?
By the way, do you only have friends/relationships with people or things that give something to you?
That a funny reaction you have to this some PunditLisa. You have no problem with a father singing about his grief for his son, why not a son singing for his father?
The Clapton song is called “Tears in Heaven,” and considering it’s about his son, he gets a pass on that one. Plus, although the theme is serious, the song is not maudline. It’s a lovely tune.
The Christmas Shoes and The Little Girl make me want to puke all over myself. The 9/11 John Tesh song is beyond that, to a point where it’s just unwitting parody. It’s the kind I want to download and send to friends just to make them groan. Does anyone have a link?
You can consider it. I don’t buy it.
And of course…it’s all about stuff. (If I want to get sappy, I can say they all give me something by being my friend and I don’t feel any so-called deity is giving me his/her friendship. Hell, Lady Luck spits on me regularly.)
Have not heard “God in the Stairwell”, but have seen & heard various testimonies of survivors who relate some truly INTERESTING coincidences that resulted in their survival- I do believe in miraculous interventions, I also believe in God’s “non-miraculous” ever-presence & compassion with those who perished, and His wrath upon the hijackers.
That said, I probably would disdain GiTS if I heard it. I can’t listen to The C’mas Shoes w/o laughing out loud at the blatant manipulation.
Then again, I gotta admit that Butterfly Kisses gets to me, as does the 9/11 mix (by DJ Sammy?) of “Heaven” (light piano, female vocals, & a little girl’s letter to her Dad who perished in 9-11).
Maybe coz it’s crap?
Um, you realize that that story is an urban legend, right? And that the amazing strength of the mother is attributed to adrenaline, and not God, right?
Anyway, I find the free will explanation of God’s allowing evil to be completely unsatisfying. It’s like saying “I could play football better than that, it’s just that I don;t want to, yeah, that’s it.” Uh huh.
Back to the OP: One doesn’t need to look at Christmas to find dumb God songs. “What if God Were One of Us” springs to mind. Stupidest. Song. Ever.
Even if it weren’t an Urban Legend, the fact of the matter is that omniscient omnipotent god stuck the baby under the car in the first place. Or, if you prefer, Free Will stuck that baby under the car but then god is taking away Mom’s free will by then having her pick up the car to save the baby. Either way it seems pretty damned sadistic to me.
It’s like a deranged fireman starting fires so he can be the hero by rescuing people from burning buildings, but in this case said fireman (“god”) has a success rate of one in a thousand or something like that.
-Joe
“I was in the cockpit of a passenger jet with a man who
thought he did my will by killing himself to kill so many others.
I held his shoulders and wept as he flew. I forgave him for
misunderstanding, for his anger, his stubbornness; I forgave
him for his wrongful certainty of his rightness as he wrought
this destruction, and since I did, so should you.”
“Except for the pope maybe in rome” is one of the stupidist and most forced final rhymes in the history of recorded music.
The first time I heard this song was when I was shopping in a CVS. I dropped my colostomy bag and said “Holy shit, you’ve got to be shitting me with that shit. That shit sucks shit.”
Did I say colostomy bag? That was a typo. I meant giant economy size pack of jumbo condoms.
You would expect anything different from the God that led Abraham to the very brink of sacrificing his own son, only to stop him at the last moment?
Abe! Abe! Put the knife down, dude, I’m only fuckin’ with ya. Haw haw haw!
You forgot Noah. I wonder if the thought process went something like, “Gee, I really screwed the pooch on this. Let me just get out my deity-sized eraser and start again. But I think I got this one right, so we’ll just leave that little bit”. He should’ve realized free will was a problem when the first thing Eve did was eat the apple he told her not to eat.
Quit making me snort coffee through my nose and onto my keyboard.
Hey, hey, let’s leave Joan Osborne out of this. I *like * that song, especially the image of God taking the bus back to his lonely apartment. He pops open a beer (Budweiser, in the can) and settles down in his threadbare La-Z-Boy. Right on schedule, the phone rings - it’s the Pope, calling for their regular kvetch-fest.
Love it.
If God exists, he’s (she’s, it’s) one brutal, sadistic son-of-a-bitch. Songs that honor such make me sick to my stomach.
About the OP: Sentimental, tacky crap. Utter dreck. I can’t think of anything nicer to say.
If there is a hell, I hope there’s a cozy section reserved for people who create manipulative abominations such as that.