XMAS Tidbit #1: Christmas Carols....how old are they?

After listening to three channels of Christmas music on satellite radio the past couple of weeks, I began to wonder how old some of those familiar carols were. For the most part, there are two types of carols, and, for lack of better names, I'll call them "Nativity carols" ('Silent Night') and "Santa carols" ('White Christmas").

After doing a little research, I was surprised to find how much older the "Nativity carols" were than the "Santa carols". In fact, the most well known "Nativity carols" were written in the 18th and 19th centuries (many not in English), while nearly all of the popular "Santa carols" were penned in the 20th century. In fact, if you look at the chart below, the only Christmas carols in existence prior to 1934 were "Nativity carols". The one exception could be "Jingle Bells", which was written in 1857, but not specifically as a Christmas song. It didn't become one until a 1902 recording.

And with that, I'll let you draw your own conclusions on why!

ISIS: A Surprising Reaction from an Unexpected Source

Seems that on a weekly basis now we see or read in the news about horrible attacks, bombings, be-headings, and continuous threats from the Islamic groups ISIS or ISIL. Tragic and frightening to be sure. But there's an interesting phenomenon that may be emerging thanks to ISIS/ISIL that neither group would have expected: an increase of Muslims leaving Islam. Just search the web and you'll see stories pop up discussing just this. 

Two respectable resources have recently released data indicating an increased uneasiness from Muslims in the heavily Islamic regions listed in the text box above.

1. Life.Church, the creators of YouVersion and the popular Bible app, this week announced a couple of amazing facts. First, their Bible app surpassed 200 million total downloads. Secondly, the country that has experienced the greatest increase in Bible App growth is Iran, with a download increase of 1,886% in 2015 (from 2014).
   
   
2. Created in 2004, Global Media Outreach (GMO) has become the largest provider of online evangelism and discipleship. GMO basically provides an avenue for people all over the world to access information on Christianity, request prayer, and even become a Christian with the help of "online missionaries", or Christians who communicate with them via email. I've actually been involved with GMO since 2010, and have communicated with nearly 1,600 people worldwide, including 367 from India, 104 from Nigeria, and over 50 from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria combined. 

GMO recently announced that so far in 2015 they have received over 77 million responses from people in heavily Muslim Middle Eastern countries. That's 5% of the 1.6 billion Muslims world wide.  And that's 1 out of every 20!  Sure, not all have left Islam, and maybe very few have yet to.  But there's no denying that an interest or at least a curiosity now exists that wasn't there before. There are definite signs that many Muslims are now questioning there Islam religion, and I can't help but believe that the atrocities performed by ISIS/ISIL over the past couple of years is one reason why.

Ok, I know what you're thinking. Those are both Christian resources. And yes, they obviously are. But both carefully monitor all activity within their websites, They can determine where all of their downloads go or emails and website visits come from.  Sophisticated analytic software makes this very possible and thorough nowadays. So there's no reason to believe the facts these two sites provide aren't true. 

Regardless, it'll be interesting to follow this in the coming months and years to see if this trend really does continue. 

2015 Writings

When I logged in to write this new blog, I didn't realize that the last one I wrote was in December 2014!  Yikes!  My only excuse is that I've spent a lot of 2015 writing short papers on a variety of contemporary topics. And probably to no one's surprise, they are are all faith-based. Why? Christians seem to be taking hits from all directions these days, be it from the same-sex crowd, the pro-abortionists, Islam terrorists, atheists, and even our own government. Sure, they always have, but the criticism and attacks seem to be more volatile and frequent these days. So, for my education, I wanted to do some research to learn the origins and basis of these topics, as well as what the Bible says about them.  But there came a point where I thought I'd share them.

The following PDF files, ranging from 5-29 pages, are what I've written so far. And although I'm obviously a "faith-based" person, I tried to use the most reliable, unbiased online resources I could find.

My most recent writing is one called "A Knock on the Door", where I list the five questions I would ask a Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Muslim, and Christian the next time they come knocking on my door. You can find it here:  A Knock on the Door.

Here's a list of my other writings:

• Making a Believer Out of Me - the top seven things that led me to Christianity in 2003.
• Are We Really Good Enough? - a closer look at sin, sinners, and salvation, 
• Hobby Lobby and the Supreme Court - a closer look at contraceptives, abortion, and the 2014 Supreme Court Ruling.
• Relationships and the Bible - a closer look at sexual immorality and Biblical marriage.
• Early Influence -  a closer look on the state of religion in the United States at the time of our country's birth, whether our "founding fathers" were at all influenced by it, and how the constitution relates to it. 

Happy reading!