Posted on 09/23/2004 5:56:29 PM PDT by AskStPhilomena
Thank you for posting this! St. John Cantius Parish is well known for the positive role model of an active parish that it is.
But I can't resist commenting on Dan Schutte. What you posted here is of great interest and truth.
Yes, his music is archtypal of the crapola which we are tortured with each Sunday in most churches.
Now what is even more perplexing is not the realization that there are too many gay music directors in parishes; it is that Schutte's music is so beloved among them long before his sexuality became grist for the rumor mill.
This proves two important points:
1) good taste is not the exclusive province of gay people. As a matter of fact, and quick peek in the door of a gay bar, or at the tv program "Queer eye for the Straight Guy", or the Christopher Lowell show tells it all. All too frequently they ain't got no class. And the blatent emotional immaturity doesn't help much either!
2) My oft repeated claim of gay code words which lace the texts of the works of Schutte and his ilk. I would have to conclude that this is a great part of their appeal to all the gay clergy and music directors. Like a dog whistle that they can hear and we can't!
"My oft repeated claim of gay code words which lace the texts of the works of Schutte and his ilk."
I guess I've missed it as many times as you've repeated it.
What are these words?
Polycarp lives!
ok...here is a list of some of the more prominant gay code words which lace our "liturgy song":
Gifts = homosexuality itself, also AIDS (I am not kidding, in some gay circles a "gift-giver" is one who has AIDS). You can learn as much by reading even more conventional rags such as the NY Village Voice.
Diversity = another obvious gay reference.
"wounded" or "broken" = gay persons hurt by the homophobia of Catholicism.
"hopes.....dreams...visions" = that alternative lifestyles will be universally accepted unconditionally.
"justice" = can either have obvious leftist/marxist connotations, or simply be the result of "hopes/dreams/visions".
"outcast/stranger" = can either bothe refer to gay persons, or the former to gays, and the latter to non-believers.
"free" or "freedom" = can be a reference to "freedom" from rebuke, preaching, or teaching on moral matters so as to incite feelings of conscience or compunction.
These bear their meaning in and of themselves, and in conjuction with each other. But they are usually woven into a context which is subtle. Although, if you look at pieces like "Sing a New Chruch", the lyrics are blatent to the point of being frightening.
It almost makes you want to burn the missalettes!
They're only code words if YOU make them so. I find nothing objectionable in those words or phrases, if they are sung as they are written. As for the song "Here I Am, Lord", I always thought it was written from the point of view of a young man offering his life to God and His Church as a priest. Who knew otherwise?
Whatever choices Dan Schutte has made in his life now, some of the St. Louis Jesuits music is very prayerful. I've always liked their use of the Psalms as the basis of many of their songs. Yes, much of it is pedestrian, but at least it gets people used to singing, and they can be convinced to sing other BETTER music later on.
You are, of course, right, SuziQ, but those who wish to tear down the Novus Ordo know that the best way to do it is to associate it with faggotry.
In their warped, hate-addled minds, you and I are homosexuals because we attend the Novus Ordo Mass. We can't possibly be good Catholics, and are condemned to hell because of the manner of worship we choose.
There is a vileness that has come to dominate this forum from those who despise the Church, the Pope, and the Mass that you and I attend. Ignore it. Be confident that your instincts are correct; that those who would debase your worship are simply misguided fools.
"Polycarp lives!"
Thank God.
"They're only code words if YOU make them so."
Not so. They are code words if the writer intended them so, or if men who suffer from SSAD are using them as such.
One bit of knowledge that I could have done without is that men who suffer from SSAD do use code words to identify themselves and each other.
As I recall, I became aware of that back in the 60s after a thoroughly puzzling (and short) conversation with a stranger about Judy Garland. "What the heck was he talking about?" I asked. He was checking to see if we also suffered from his disorder.
We may wish we were still in Kansas, but the Wicked Witch straddles his broomstick in the sky, ruby loafers never touching the ground, and peregrinates in a never-ending search for victims to drag into "the life."
"and they can be convinced to sing other BETTER music later on."
You know, there are a lot of us who bitterly resent this insistance on everybody singing. It's like the Church was highjacked by John Denver or the New Christy Minstrels gone tone-deaf.
And we had far superior music *before,* so how come we're now waiting for some pie-in-the-sky, as-yet unwritten "better music?"
I am.
So, don't sing. Really. If you're going to be bitter about, just zip it.
I didn't say I was waiting for better music to be written, only for the congregations to be open to better music when they are finally introduced to it.
I'm partial to the Oxford Hymnal and Renaissance polyphony, myself.
Hey, everybody, look at message 7.
There's one of those SSPX/Traditionalists flaming people again.
He's saying that people who disagree with him have "warped, hate-addled minds" and that they are vile, "misguided fools."
Man, it really irritates me the way those SSPX/Traditionalists are always flaming people. Thank goodness we can count on the Religion Moderator to suspend people for personal attacks.
You know, the Church was not founded at VAT II.
If today's Catholics have not been introduced to fine music, that is because their heritage was stolen from them by Modernist heretics.
When someone objects to that characterization, you think it's a personal attack.
How long is this stuff going to go on?
They're only code words if YOU make them so
Well, I am afraid that these words are in fact used as codes by their authors - and, very sadly, by certain readers with SSAD. The translation of them is not, in fact mine; it comes from a couple of authors, who are music and literary scholars. Unfortunately I do not have the sources or names to quote at the moment, as I am not at my desk.
My comments were not about Schutte specifically, nor about "Here Am I, Lord".
Actually, Schutte's text for "Here Am I , Lord" is based on Isaiah 6. This is a good basis to write a hymn.
But he bungled the words - to the point that the verses are very close to blasphemy. It is in his use of the word "I". To sing it, one is essentially saying that "I" am God. Such phrases are qualified in scripture and elsewhere by qualification: God said....the Lord said. To cite the context as a reference is insufficient: words have meaning.
Lastly, my post had nothing to do with the Novus Ordo as such. It was simply decrying a very sad reality in contemporary Catholic church music.
I happen to like "Here I am Lord" and think it would very powerful if it had the clarion ring of truth,but it doesn't.
It seems that if we sang TO God,the choir would be singing, "You're the God of wind and rain,You have felt your people's pain."Or,if we were singing ABOUT God,it would say,"He's the God of wind and rain,He has felt His people's pain".
But instead,we are singing praises and attributing power to ourselves. "I am the God of wind and rain,I have felt my people's pain". It is so wrong and affects me like squeaky chalk on a board.
Now, Sara, you stop that.
Don't you know that only "misguided fools" with "warped, hate-addled minds" damage the Religion Forum with that kind of "vileness?"
And no, those words do not constitute a personal attack.
It's perfectly acceptable to say such things about people who express proscribed beliefs.
Oh, how long will this be allowed to continue? (Vamp, vamp, swan about with back of limp wrist pressed to forehead.)
I still say reinstitute tuesday night bingo and weekly singles dances on thursdays, but what do I know?
What do you mean "re-institute"?
Aren't these practices still thriving at "Catholic" parishes around the country.
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