Category: Uncategorized

Keep it clean or papabear is going to take your comments away!

A reader writes about the theologically backwards message of some original Haugen lyrics:

After reading your last post, I thought of the most theologically abhorrent hymn I knew. Went and checked, and sure enough, it’s Marty Haugen’s work. I hate “Gather Us In” because of this verse:
Not in the dark of buildings confining
Not in some heaven, light years away,
But here in this place the new light is shining,
Now is the kingdom, now is the day.
Not in “some” heaven? This sounds like the anthem of an atheist – we’ll make heaven here, now, don’t need some god to do it for us. That’s the definition of humanism, isn’t it? I know that’s not what he’s really trying to say, but that’s how it comes out, and apparently no one cares.

From foxnews.com
Turns out the lawsuit brought on that led the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule that “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional was brought on by a liberal atheist with an ax to grind. Michael Newdow initially filed the lawsuit on behalf of his daughter, who is living with her mother. The parents have never been married. Newdow is a physician and attorney living in San Francisco. Sandra Banning and her daughter live in what she describes as a Christian household. She has not been “injured” by reciting the pledge at all. Now Newdow says “This is MY issue. I have a right to send my child to a public school without the government inculcating any religious beliefs. I’m saying I’M injured.” Go read the whole article. This guy is a piece of work.

Michael Shirley says so. And I don’t mind one bit.

First, yes you are a snob, but so am I: I would cheerfully drive across three counties to avoid a Latin mass, and tend to walk out of church if I find out that only the organ will accompany the choir. Takes all kinds, doesn’t it?

It sure does!

I have to say that you’re being unfair to Mr. Haugen. He qualifies nearly everything he says as being colored by his own bias, and that his examples are simplistic but should provide a basis for discussion. Where’s the problem?

Problem one is that I’m a snob. I don’t like most of his music because it is pedestrian. If there was a beat (and their frequently is) you can dance to it. I don’t think it belongs in the Mass. The second problem is theology. Someone who does not share in our beliefs as Catholics has more airtime in Mass than the priest in his homily. That has been dumbing down the faith for a quite a while. I think it is an influence that we have not fully understood. I might write more about this later today if time allows. I would love to hear other thoughts.

BTW, have you read Kathleen Norris’s “Cloister Walk,” wherein she talks of church as being “the place you go to sing”?

I have not read that book. If I do I’ll keep my cheese grater at close hand!

for people, like Marty Haugen, who are educated beyond their intellect.

Michael Tinkler helps out a non-coreligionist in need:

A point about Marty Haugen and the Navajo singer –
The person he is quoting is PERFORMING THE RITUAL – in
other words, is the analogue of a priest, not of a
member of a congregation, or even a ‘music minister’.
In other words, it’s a really stoooopid analogy. YES,
priests should sing (though you or your brother
mentioned non-singing priests sometime not too long
ago).