‘Boycott Trump? That’s just not how a righteous Mormon chorist rolls’

Colby Cosh writes:

Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States, is planning his inauguration and has run into trouble with both the Rockettes and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This is interesting only partly because it sounds like the setup to a joke, possibly an obscene one, from the 1960s. (…)

Historically, Mormons have been both persecutors and victims of persecution. Their choir played an important part in positioning Mormons in the mainstream of American life, and its members are checked out for theological standards as well as performing-related ones.

In short, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has a mission in a way that the Rockettes don’t. Choir member Jan Chamberlin is leaving the group after a lot of prayer, according to a Facebook message posted Jan. 29 (but since withdrawn). She argued that performing for the new president would be an endorsement of “tyranny and fascism”: “For me,” she wrote, “this is a hugely moral issue. I only know I could never ‘throw roses to Hitler.’ And I certainly could never sing for him.”

Anyone who thinks Trump is a second Hitler obviously doesn’t know the first thing about, er, the first Hitler. (…)

Ms. Chamberlin, who spent five years in the choir, seems a bit confused about what the choir is for…