“Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Sing at US Presidential Inauguration”

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-tabernacle-choir-trump-inauguration

For obvious reasons, I have mixed feelings about this.  But not terribly mixed:  The United States of America, and the presidency of the United States of America, are, and should be, far bigger than any one occupant of the White House.  (The story that I recently told about Herbert Hoover seems relevant in this instance.)  And, although they’ve been favored by Republican presidents, the Choir have sung for, and at the inaugurations of, presidents of both major parties.

I know that some, both Trumpists and critics of Trump, will try to spin the Choir’s appearance at the inauguration as some kind of endorsement, specifically, of Mr. Donald J. Trump’s election.  That will be unfair and unjust.  It’s a celebration, rather, of the peaceful transfer of power — something that remains a considerable and historically rather uncommon achievement — in a great democratic republic that, Latter-day Saints believe, was to some degree established by the hand of God himself.

While you’re reflecting on this, here’s the Tabernacle Choir performing Händel’s chorus “Hallelujah” from Messiah: