Theres been plenty of news recently where Latter-day Saints have let their voices be
heard. Of course, the loudest voices have come from the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir on its tour through Americas heartland.Mormon voices have also commented
on moral expectations of governors and a recent statement by the French
president saying that the full-length dress some Muslim women wear is not
welcome in France.In St. Louis, Dana King, a local columnist who also
happens to be LDS, wrote:"The
two hour concert was over too fast. I was left smiling and wanting more. I
was not the only one left smiling. Strangers passed strangers as they left
the concert just beaming, if not in their face, in their hearts. The joy was
palpable."In Kansas City, the choir received the following review:Ronald
Reagan called it Americas Choir, and its as much an American tradition as
mom and apple pie. On Thursday night the Mormon Tabernacle Choir made its
sixth visit to Kansas City, and the first since 1992. . . . The massive choral
sound was striking, though it took my ears a while to get used to the highly
amplified sound necessary to fill the arena.A Denver Post review
said:The 162-year-old Mormon Tabernacle Choir proved Monday night at
Red Rocks Amphitheatre that it still knows how to put on a show. As
the 360-member choir worked its way through a sprawling set that
covered world music, folk songs, musical-theater selections and
Latter-day Saint hymns, the choral group covered the emotional gamut with
class, precision and expertise.The Tabernacle Choir wasnt the
only LDS voice in the news. When Gov. Mark Sanford went AWOL from the South
Carolina statehouse, there was plenty of talk about what kind of moral
standards citizens should expect of their elected officials. Former
presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said that political
leaders should be held to higher standards.Speaking on Meet the Press
(reported in Politico), Romney
said governors and other national leaders are expected to live by a
higher standard because … the culture of the nation can be hurt by
their failings. At the same time, and not commenting particularly on
Governor Sanford, ... people in public life ought to be held to a
higher standard. ... I heard one ... former governor say, Well, everybody
makes mistakes. Well, thats true. But not all mistakes are the same.
And not everybody is a governor or a senator or a president. And we
expect (those) people to live by a higher standard, because what they do
is going to be magnified, their families are going to be hurt more by what
they do, the things they care about will be hurt, and the culture of the
nation and the people who follow them will be hurt, Romney said.In
the arena of religious liberty, Michael Otterson, managing director of LDS
Public Affairs, criticized a recent French decision considering a ban on
burqas. The Economist reported:"When the French government decided in 2004 to ban the Muslim headscarf in
state schools and other public buildings, it set off a heated debate over
religious expression and womens rights in a secular state. Now (President)
Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked another by calling the burqa, a head-to-toe
Islamic garment, a sign of subjugation…of debasement that is not welcome
on French territory.In Newsweeks On Faith column, Otterson
wrote:Burqa or hijab today, yarmulkes or cross necklaces tomorrow —
perhaps even the CTR (Choose the Right) rings that many Mormon kids wear.
This is the classic slippery slope that ultimately would justify the
forced removal of all symbols of religious expression from schools.
Bad idea.