Hi Dave, it's not someone else choosing. It's the choice that the collective makes, to do the least harm and the least offence, in the face of the inevitability of assorted individuals all having different views.

As I say, the 'cop-out' is to insist the line can't be drawn.

I'm an atheist too as it happens. Presumably you've prowled my timeline to see that I started a thread about pub carolling. Presumably as a denizen of this forum, you know enough about said traditions to know that a big chunk have little discernible Christian content, or else muddles of the Christian and the secular or even the pagan/profane.

And, it does seem disingenuous to try and present this whole discussion as being about singing historically accurate songs.

It isn't - it's about, what are the parameters - if any - within which those songs can be sung, weighing up contemporary morality and sensibilities; and, more importantly, whether casual usage of certain vocabulary or material can create a substrate for genuine hatred to flourish.

But in any case, as you know - in its narrative, 'Little Sir Hugh' isn't a 'historically accurate song'. It's a medieval piece of propaganda and religious incitement (shouldn't that affront your atheism?).

'Historical accuracy' - if that's your aim - would require that contextualisation. Which I think I and many others above have hinted at...?