To the millions of non-Christians who live in this country, “our” culture is not their culture and they have not assimilated Christmas carols. Most people take their religion far too seriously to look upon religious songs as forms of art only. The day “Silent Night” is sung in Buddhist Temples and Jewish Synagogues throughout the United States is the day that “Silent Night” will have been assimilated into “our” culture.”
There's some belting hymns. Brilliant hymns. When I was an altar boy the hymns were great.
I only sang bhajans from 4 to 16 years.
There is no passion that is not finely expressed in those parts of the inspired writings which are proper for divine songs and anthems.
One of the things that is wonderful about hymns is that they are a sort of universally shared poetry, at least among certain populations.
I wanted to have more songs with religious backgrounds. The Christmas record has strong, traditional hymns, but it also has a song called 'Christmas in Heaven' about missing someone that you love that's passed on, and wondering what's going on up there on Christmas.
A lot of church music really inspired me. A lot of ancient music that's made for God. If you get really into the history of music, inevitably you're going to have to get into sacred religious music.
Of the music that we've done over the years, the things that are the most requested are the hymns. And folk music is also high on the list.
It's not like we did something wrong. We just burned down the church while the choir within sang religious songs.
Most Christmas carols have no obvious religious content, or at least that's noticeable to most people. I mean, it is almost by definition, a cultural phenomenon, all these songs, even though they point to this very religious holiday. They're not religious songs in effect anymore.
People love to hear the choir sing the hymns.
We sing inspirational songs, songs of praise and worship, and about how good and how big God is. We are magnifying the Lord.
I was age six or seven, and singing, "Jesus wants me for her son, beep, to shine for him," and people smiled and pinched my cheeks till the blood vessels broke, and I knew I was doing something right.
