Your analysis of one of my least-favorite Christmas songs makes me want to re-listen to it.
But there is no piece of analysis that can ever redeem "The Christmas Shoes," the dumbest and most theologically wrong Christmas song of all time, even worse than the other rhetorical question Christmas ditty, "Do they know it's Christmas?"
That response to "Were You There?" definitely sounds like you. I didn't love the song and I definitely wondered why we sang it so much, but I knew what it was trying to convey.
I think the theological/feminist criticism of "Mary Did You Know?" is over-the-top and unnecessary, for sure. I just don't really like the song. I think its melody is monotonous and its lyrics are meh. (Also, they can't seem to use verb tenses in any way that makes sense. Is this person talking to Mary when Jesus is a baby, or when he's ascended to heaven? Yeah, I know I'm still being over-literal, but sue me.) Which is how I feel about most popular CCM, tbh.
The Pentatonix version is definitely better than the version I heard before, though. I will give you that much.
I have never heard "Mary, Did You Know?" I will eventually after reading this excellent post, but... how have I never heard this apparently ubiquitous Christmas song?
Man, I don’t know. Mark Lowry, who wrote the song, is very famously Baptist.
Honestly, it’s blowing my mind a little that multiple people in the comments are saying they’ve never heard the song. Basically everyone who’s put out a Christmas album this century has recorded it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Man I always thought the song was kind of annoying but never condescending...
Your analysis of one of my least-favorite Christmas songs makes me want to re-listen to it.
But there is no piece of analysis that can ever redeem "The Christmas Shoes," the dumbest and most theologically wrong Christmas song of all time, even worse than the other rhetorical question Christmas ditty, "Do they know it's Christmas?"
I am 100% convinced that “The Christmas Shoes” and its mainstream radio success were a psyop designed to set Christian pop music back 50 years
There is no other explanation.
Yes. This. Thank you.
That response to "Were You There?" definitely sounds like you. I didn't love the song and I definitely wondered why we sang it so much, but I knew what it was trying to convey.
I think the theological/feminist criticism of "Mary Did You Know?" is over-the-top and unnecessary, for sure. I just don't really like the song. I think its melody is monotonous and its lyrics are meh. (Also, they can't seem to use verb tenses in any way that makes sense. Is this person talking to Mary when Jesus is a baby, or when he's ascended to heaven? Yeah, I know I'm still being over-literal, but sue me.) Which is how I feel about most popular CCM, tbh.
The Pentatonix version is definitely better than the version I heard before, though. I will give you that much.
I have never heard "Mary, Did You Know?" I will eventually after reading this excellent post, but... how have I never heard this apparently ubiquitous Christmas song?
Is it because I grew up Baptist?
Luke, help me.
Man, I don’t know. Mark Lowry, who wrote the song, is very famously Baptist.
Honestly, it’s blowing my mind a little that multiple people in the comments are saying they’ve never heard the song. Basically everyone who’s put out a Christmas album this century has recorded it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A lot of people probably conscientiously avoid listening to Christmas albums.