Some children see Him queer or gay: New Christmas carol released

Rainbow Version of “Some Children See Him” album cover by Andrew Craig Williams

A Rainbow Version of the Christmas carol “Some Children See Him” was released today. It has a new straight/queer stanza added to the standard multiracial lyrics.

“Some Children See Him” is a delightfully liberating song about how children imagine the baby Jesus looking like them. It has a verse for every race -- so why not a verse for every sexual orientation?

Here are the new lines that I wrote:

Some children see him straight as they
Playing like most boys play
Some children see him straight as they
Straight but not narrow.
Some children see him queer or gay
Because some kids are born that way
Some children see him queer or gay
The rainbow child of God.

I am even one of the singers on the new track. Our band is called “Kitt and Andy and the Splott Queer Community Singers.” You can listen to and download the song on its Soundcloud page or use this widget:



My co-leader Andrew Craig Williams is a queer artist and music maker in Wales. He and many of his queer friends live in an area of Cardiff called Splott. He makes music under the pseudonym Fflwcs, which is Welsh slang for “rubbishy sweets that are bad for you.”

Andy often provides queer Christian art for the Jesus in Love Blog. When he asked me to suggest songs for his Musical Advent Calendar, I offered to write some queer lines for “Some Children See Him.”

He was immediately enthusiastic and started organizing a group to sing it. I thought he would record everyone singing together in Splott, so I was flabbergasted when he asked, “Is there any way you could record you and Audrey singing?”

I live in Los Angeles, home of the recording industry, so it turned out that there was a way -- with the help of a mystery co-producer behind the scenes in true Hollywood tradition. My life partner Audrey and I are raw amateurs when it comes to singing, so it was rather embarrassing when we got the star treatment at the professional recording studio of a friend, who shall be known here only as Three-Turtle Man. But somehow it made sense because it was all for the cause of showing God’s unconditional love.

The church has often excluded LGBT people from Christmas festivities, so we all made our best efforts in the spirit of Christ who was born in lowly circumstances to embody God’s wildly inclusive love for all.

The Musical Advent Calendar is a fundraiser for Shelter Cymru, a charity for the homeless in Wales. Donations can be made at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/andywills.

Andy mixed both our voices into the final version along with heavenly synths, piano, strings, and maybe a bell or two. We are a truly international group, with singers from Wales, England and America.

“Our singers hail from American, Welsh, English, and Scottish descent,” Andy said. “How’s that for multicultural!! A wide range of beliefs too; people from Anglican, Catholic, MCC, pagan, and atheist backgrounds. Wowsers!!”

If you like our Rainbow Version of “Some Children See Him,” please consider making a donation for Jesus in Love, my project supporting LGBT spirituality and the arts, at http://www.gofundme.com/5mugns.

Of course our unsophisticated singing isn’t going to outsell the famous James Taylor version. He croons the traditional lyrics on the following video with a wonderful variety of images showing Jesus from many racial and ethnic groups.



The original lyrics are great, including these words in the final verse:

The children in each different place
will see the baby Jesus' face
like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace,
and filled with holy light.

____
This post is part of the Queer Christ series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others. More queer Christ images are compiled in my book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
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