Which obsolete team from the Arch City do you prefer?

The St. Louis Browns?

Or the St. Louis Jesuits?

I have to go with the Brownies. There was an appealing honesty regarding their merits. They were pretty much horrible and nobody made any bones about it.

Not so with the Jesuits who gave us the St. Louis Sound in folk Mass hymnody, and who still are upheld as trendsetters in parish music ministries across the land.

Check out the site of "Sing a New Song" and "Here I Am, Lord" composer Dan Schutte, the former Jesuit responsible for the Lamb of God you hear at just about every local parish (and probably many of the other hymns, besides).

Give a listen to "Meadows and Mountains." Then sample "Join in the Dance."

It's as if Bernie and friends from Room 222 had cut short a rap session with Mr. Dixon to try their hands at sacred music.

Shades of Love, American Style! Shades of New Zoo Revue!

Why, 30 years after 1972, after Godspell and bell-bottoms have gone out and in and out of style again, is this sort of peppy Aquarianism still the musical standard in as many parishes as it is?

UPDATE: Dan Schutte is no longer a Jesuit, having left the order. The post has been corrected accordingly.