Sing a song of me

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I routinely describe my upbringing as being in the Felt Banner era of Catholic Education.  The protagonists of this era are "Sister Stretchpants" and "Father Sideburns".  I did indeed spend time with Father Sideburns as I was growing up (the 1970s being a hairy decade) but, to be fair, Sister Stretchpants actually came along a year or two after I graduated High School. 

If I were to name a single hymn as the Anthem of the Felt Banner Era that I endured, it would be "Let There Be Peace On Earth", a barely-religious pean to Narcissus that perfectly summarizes the age.

Let there be peace on Earth
And let it begin with Meeeeeeeee!

Written in the 1950's for some peacenik international children's choir, it's best sung with a breathy, quivering voice.

To take this moment and live each moment in peace etern-uh-LEEEEE!
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin?!!! huh-with huh-meeeee-heee-meeeeee!

I must have sang that song hundred of times in my school Masses.  It never occurred to me that it's an odd song to sing at Mass.  There's exactly one religiously-tinged line in the song

With God as Our Father, Brothers all are we.

That's kind of Christian, but not really.  There's only one member of the Trinity mentioned and could easily be sung by any number of heretical sects over the years (Arians, Nestorians, Unitarians...).  But peace-on-earth is kind of a standard sentiment of the "Church of Nice" that firmly took hold in the 1970's (a phrase brilliantly coined by Michael Voris) so it fit right in (I wore wide lapels too.  Give me a break, I was 10 and wasn't picking out my own clothes.)

Alas, we sang that hymn at Mass today and I was shocked to discover that even the wide-lapeled and earth-tone progressive nature of the song is no longer PC-enough for the gentry class.  Now the sole Christian line has been found unacceptable neutered further:

With God as our Creator, brothers (family) all are we.

The word "brothers" has a helpful second line with "family" written in to keep the LCWR crowd happy. Elsewhere in the song, hurtful uses of gender-specific pronouns are given alternatives which I'm happy to say that our cantor (sorry: song leader) didn't choose this morning.

Presumably this change would still render the song unacceptable to atheists, but now all the mono-theistic religions, including sort-of-monotheists like the Mormons, would be happy singing the song.  Unless they have taste.

I guess if it's not a religious song, I should be happy it's not actively heretical.

At least it's not The Prayer of St Francis. That doesn't mention God at all.

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