in addition, it does snow in parts of africa.

every year i hear the song "do they know it's christmas" and every year i get a little bit more agitated with its existence.

i know, i know. some of you will cry out in protest "but it was written to give starving children in the ethiopian famine of 1984 food!" and that's true. and i think that is a great thing.

however, every time i hear this song the fact that it was written for victims of severe poverty is lost. especially when i hear bono belt out the line "tonight thank God it's them instead of you." (no worries, for all of you who know me and my frustrations with bono, i did not like this line before i knew it was he who sang it...).

i don't know how to put my frustration with this song into words. but it definitely has something to do with how it misses the entire point of christmas. how it misses the entire point of giving thanks. and how it misrepresents what is going on in the lives of those living in poverty.

they are right. if christmas is about gifts and about snow it is possible that those living in the 1984 famine of ethiopia might not have known that it was christmas that year. but lucky for all of us, that is not what christmas is about. in fact, christmas is more for the poor, the hungry and the homeless. while Jesus came down to save all of us, He did it in the form of a small, helpless, Palestinian refugee, born to an unwed mother and a carpenter father. as scott bessenecker eloquently states in his book new friars:

...the very first statement Jesus ever voiced about his concern for the poor, oppressed and marginalized people was when he cried out as one of them--eyes shut tight, mouth open wide, wailing, kicking, shaking and dripping with blood and amniotic fluid. it was one of the most profound acts of solidarity with the poor he could make. he cast his lot not with the world's emperors or with the rich and powerful but with the world's demoralized peasants. when God voted with his birth, he voted for the poor. it was the fulfillment of a long-awaited plan for God to live among the people he had made...

you see, the line "thank God it's them instead of you" goes against everything that Jesus' birth was meant to tell us. He came to live among His people, disgusting, rotten and impoverished as we are, rather than watching from a distance, being grateful that He did not have to deal with the problems and messes that we had gotten ourselves into or caused for others.

i'd also like to point out that the line "the greatest gift they'll get this year is life" is a ridiculous line that separates the rock stars from the hungry in ethiopia unnecessarily. the greatest gift that any of us will ever be given is life. not our own lives, but the chance to have our lives enhanced by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

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(if you do not have time to watch the youtube video with the ridiculous 80s hair and clothes, you can read the lyrics here).