🎼 🎶 🎵 Viva, it is broad sweeping statements like the one above that are getting people upset enough to down thumb you. Both sides of my family are replete with musicians, both professional and amateur. My mother sang in the St. Charles Choir and played the piano and organ. Her father, the saxophone and violin. His father was a professional orchestra director who played a large number of stringed instruments. My maternal uncle studied one year at The Crane School as a music major before switching to engineering when he realized he wasn’t going to be able to support his wife and hoped for family by playing the saxophone. He also played clarinet, oboe, and bassoon in various community bands, orchestras, and did accompaniment for theaters. For 10 years, he sang in the schola. My Dad was a bugler in the Boy Scouts, played taps at military funerals throughout the 1940’s and later, when needed in the US Navy. He was self-taught, but also played trumpet in high school marching band and became really good on different types of harmonicas. We have many fond memories of singing camp songs around the fire in the summer. He’s played in a few Appalachian and bluegrass festivals. His sister and her husband both sang professionally in The Waring Chorale as young adults, then, after retiring from other jobs, sang with The North Shore Choral Society in the US and Europe. One of my cousins, their youngest daughter and her husband joined them in the summers. My cousin’s husband was the music director and teacher for St. John the Baptist High School on Long Island. Their two oldest twin boys graduated from Fredonia State and play professionally in a swing band. My paternal grandparents and great grandparents (never knew the latter), played, sang, and danced traditional Irish music. In their 20’s and 30’s, my paternal grandparents did couples competitive ice-dancing in local contests, often placing for trophies or ribbons, well before the “everybody gets a prize” era!!
My sister sang in both high school and college and has recently returned to singing at coffee houses and clubs. I can stumble through in the background on the flute or sing background harmony. As for professional or paid performances, not! But I love music of many genres. I attended a college as an undergraduate that is affiliated with a well known music school. I had numerous friends and acquaintances, both male and female, who were music majors. I dated two of them for a time. I also did sewing and mending for the school chorale, band, and orchestra—-for pay. So I can assert that there were very few ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs. (The department where ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs abounded was that of drama, I’d guess about half or more of the guys were gαy, and quite open about it. The department heads were a “couple.” If it was lesbians you were looking for, look no farther than the women's hockey team. Ugh!)
My point is that of all the people I’ve mentioned, from music majors, to professional lesson takers, to self or family taught, not one is or was remotely ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ or any other kind of sɛҳuąƖ deviant. Making broad sweeping accusatory statements about large groups of people without any valid data to back it up is almost sure to unnecessarily offend the innocent. Your point about the disgrace of specific ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ Churchmen and their followers—public knowledge, can be made without mention of what I suspect is your personal opinion, not publicly known “fact” that most music majors are ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs. (Even if true, what has the alleged sɛҳuąƖ deviancy of music majors to do with Card. Dolan and Catholic bishops living selfishly in luxury while practicing ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity?)
Please, Viva, try to show more grace than judgement. If someone or something deserves condemnation, please write in such a manner as to specify who are the culprits instead of implying all the readers are guilty by actual commission or by association. Change your tone, not your topic, and you’ll find the downthumbs disappearing!
Topic: Over 200 bishops in USA (Read 3718 times)