A Church of England bishop has criticised some Christmas carols as nonsense and suggested others exhibit "Victorian behaviour control".
For example, in his book, "Why Wish You a Merry Christmas", the Rt Rev Nick Baines, the bishop of Croydon, takes a verse of Once in Royal David's City as an example of a carol with lyrics which have seemingly little relevance to the story of Christmas.
"Once in Royal David's City has Jesus as 'our childhood's pattern' – even though we know almost nothing of his childhood apart from one incident when he was 12 years old and being disobedient to his parents – and invites children to be 'mild, obedient, good as he' – which means what exactly? This sounds suspiciously like Victorian behaviour control to me," he said.
The bishop added that the hymn, O Come, All Ye Faithful also poses a problem: according to gospel accounts of Jesus's birth it was "not the 'faithful', but rather the 'faithless'" who came to see the infant.