Trump finally found someone to sing at the inauguration!

[_I have a question]

Another Mormon commentator not realising the irony dripping from their post...

I respect the right of any individual to refuse to participate in something that they feel is morally ethically ethically wrong based on their personal values. However, it is my opinion that this individual could have quietly gone to the choir administration, voiced her concerns and the not participated but still remained in the choir and kept her ethical values.

Instead there was a public announcement spurring attention and public debate, which in my mind calls into question the true values of the individual. Was the decision based on personal values, or was it to get immediate attention and 15 seconds of fame?

http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comment ... ation.html

[_I have a question]

Conservative radio host Ben Ferguson, asserted that the woman that quit the Mormon Tabernacle Choir because she refused to sing for President-elect Donald Trump, once sang for President Barack Obama. In fact, Ferguson attacked the woman personally, claiming she was a “crybaby who never grew up” and engaged in an act of “self-righteous grandstanding.”

Choir singer Janet Chamberlin alleged that the choir was “endorsing tyranny and fascism” by singing for Trump. But Ferguson couldn’t believe the double standard.

“Was the choir endorsing abortion when they sang when Barack Obama was inaugurated?” Ferguson asked. “Because he’s in favor of abortion? I think that would be something, obviously, she just stepped out from if she’s going to claim this holy high ground now. This is nothing but a grandstanding individual who doesn’t get her way so she says I’m going walk away. There are 360 people in the choir. Not all are going to be traveling. More importantly than that when it comes to religion you would think she may actually want to have influence over people that are about to run the government and have peace and harmony which is what the Tabernacle Choir claims to be about. This is nothing but self-righteous grandstanding from a crybaby who never grew up. And guess what? Not everyone believes everything you believe in.”

There’s just one problem with Ferguson’s scathing hit job on Chamberlin, she never sang for Barack Obama’s inauguration. In fact, no one in her choir did because the Mormon Tabernacle Choir didn’t sing at Obama’s inauguration.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/conservative-radio-host-caught-lie-mormon-tabernacle-choir-sang-obama-inauguration

Whoops.

[_cwald]

Comments from theBlaze

Only in YOUR own petty little mind and heart, dear.
Bet you’d willingly sing for barak, the one who has run our nation into the ground through executive orders and ignoring Congress, INCLUDING his own party!
You’re not only not real American, you’re not e en real Mormon!

The FBI needs to watch her. Just because she’s a woman does not mean she doesn’t pose a threat. Her being the only one out of the choir is alarming. She also sacrificed her position in the choir. She has a matyr complex. She has forsaken the prestige of performing in front of the world and being part of this event , the adventure of traveling to Washington, to visit the monuments and enjoy the sites with these same friends. That she opted to not be a part of it is troubling to say the least.

Wah……Wah……Wah. Poor little whiner can’t get her way. Sounds like a good Christian practice to me. Hate your enemies so much you cut off your nose to spite your face. Must be a Mormon Hillary supporter who judges others. Of course, she’ll rationalize her actions. Why, she’s doing God’s work in outing this devil. Typical Mormon baloney. She gives a picture of Mormonism that’s ugly. What is her great sin?

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/30 ... cceptance/

[_I have a question]

"In about 1956 we recognized that our neighborhood was deteriorating. We observed this one Halloween by the nature of the people who came in the guise of 'Trick or Treat.' The minority elements were moving into the area where we lived, and many of the old-time families had long since moved away. Seeking counsel, I visited with Mark E,. Petersen, who for many years had been the General Manager of the Deseret News. O. Preston Robinson, my former professor of marketing at the University of Utah, had succeeded Brother Petersen as the General Manager at the News. As I mentioned to Mark my dilemma, wondering if it would be unfair for me to move, he said simply, 'Your obligation to that area is concluded. Why don't you build a house in my ward?'"
-Thomas S. Monson, On the Lord's Errand: Memoirs of Thomas S. Monson, 1985, p. 184

Kindred spirits?

[_The Erotic Apologist]

If Motab pulls out there's always Pussy Riot.

[_I have a question]

Here's a pretty good synopsis of this latest debacle...

Chamberlin sees the choir's singing for Trump as a betrayal of Mormon values -- and she's right. The President-elect, with his bigotry and braggadocio, personifies nearly everything the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS, teaches against. Not only is the choir damaging its reputation by participating in the inauguration, it risks offending members of the increasingly diverse Mormon Church.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/01/opinions/mormon-tabernacle-choir-mistake-reyes/

Consider that a core principle of Mormonism is the importance of religious freedom. That's because the founders of the church were harassed, driven from their homes and even ordered "exterminated" by US government officials on account of their beliefs. As such, much of the church's early history was defined by persecution.
Fast forward to 2015 when Trump, in the aftermath of the San Bernardino shootings, called for a ban on Muslim immigration. The choir should recognize how offensive this was (and is) to many Mormons. In fact, after Trump's comments, the LDS Church put out a statement, reiterating the church's commitment to religious freedom and quoted Joseph Smith, who Mormons believe to be a prophet. "It is a love of liberty which inspires my soul," Smith said in 1843, "civil and religious liberty to the whole of the human race."
And if stoking fears of faith wasn't enough, Trump's comments about Mexicans, immigrants and refugees should have been yet another reason for the choir to decline to participate in his inauguration.

Trump said Mexico sends the United States "rapists" and drug dealers, but Mexico is home to 1.4 million LDS members. Seven percent of US Mormons are Latino, and Latinos are the fastest-growing group in the Church. Trump rails against illegal immigration, while many Mormons empathize with immigrants because of their own experiences serving as missionaries. And though Trump often demonized refugees, the Mormon Church launched an effort to help refugees earlier this year. "Their story is our story, not that many years ago," one Mormon leader said.
It sends the wrong message to the church's members around the world that the choir would perform for a leader so at odds with LDS teachings -- and let's not even get into Trump's bragging about sexual assault.

Makes you wonder who, if anyone, has their hand on the Church's rudder...

However, the choir's appearance will likely not be bringing people together. It has already caused a divide within the LDS Church. An online petition asking the choir not to perform at the inaugural has 31,000 signatures, many from LDS members. "Trump is a disrespectful person that does not exemplify what the church has taught me," writes one signer.

This controversy is not a matter of politics or partisanship. It is about principles. Utah Mormon voters may have cast their votes for Trump because they saw him as the lesser of two evils. The choir's choice is different, as it calls their integrity into question.
Ironically, a common maxim of the LDS faith is "CTR," or "choose the right." CTR is a tenet taught to all Mormon children. It is a reminder that life is about choices, and that one should always make the right choice. It seems a stretch to make the case that the choir is "doing the right" here. Instead it has cast this idea aside in favor of a turn in the limelight.
Trump's inauguration will be a sad day for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. By performing for this divisive bully, the choir will only tarnish its once impeccable reputation.

Choose the right....hmmm...I think the current FP and Q12 wouldn't know 'right' if Christ personally slapped them in the face with it.

[_I have a question]

Petersen hefts his opinion on the matter...

Still, though, while I don’t endorse what she did, I don’t condemn her, either. And I certainly think that those members of the Church who’ve written and spoken unkindly about her need to consider their own behavior.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2017/01/mormon-tabernacle-choirs-trump-sized-mistake.html

He doesn't condem her...but in the immediately preceding paragraph the non-condemnatory Doctor writes...

And, even if she were bent on resigning from the Choir, I’m just a tad puzzled at her need to do it so publicly. Her action has brought a great deal of additional negative publicity to the Church and the Choir, which was easily predicted and which seems an odd thing for a set-apart missionary to do. I can’t imagine that the good she’s done by serving as one of the Choir’s 360 members for the past five years outweighs the harm that she’s done to the image of the Church and the Choir via this latest uptick in critical stories and angry comments.

*As a side note, Peterson does note that members of the choir are "set-apart missionaries". Which explains how the Church gets away with having the choir members bear their own travel and expenses.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Apparently Choose The Right is just a sweet nothing that doesn't mean anything.

- Doc

[_sock puppet]

Apparently Choose The Right is just a sweet nothing that doesn't mean anything.

- Doc

zing

[_Rosebud]

Apparently Choose The Right is just a sweet nothing that doesn't mean anything.

- Doc

And what's bothering the most right now is that it never did. I keep thinking back to all the moral lessons I was taught as a small child. I remember being confused because my own sense of morality didn't align with what was being said and I continually felt like I was getting the short end of the stick, but I managed to maintain confidence that my confusion meant there must be something I needed to learn.

I was just too sweet -- trying to figure out what was wrong with me instead the church for so long. I put so much effort into trying to submit. It's not in my nature but they taught me it was the "right" thing to do. 'Choose the right' y'all.

I mean look at this mess..... I feel sick thinking about all the "good Mormons" who are supporting Trump and the exclusion policy and everything else.