Deseret News photo praising Mormon Missionaries for assisting the Nazi basketball team

On Dec 22, the LDS Newsroom announced that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has agreed to sing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.  This has drawn fierce criticism from many, and the Deseret News reported that reactions were mixed to the announcement.  Many of my friends on Facebook were appalled at the announcement.  One friend said that he would not have been surprised if the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would have accepted an invitation from the Third Reich, or Vladimir Putin.  That might not be far from the truth.  Morgan Deane noted that J Reuben Clark of the First Presidency supported the Nazi regime, and I wrote that Clark refused to help Jews emigrate from Germany.  There was even a Deseret News article praising Mormon Missionaries working with the Nazi basketball team in preparation for the Olympics.

Some people are taking a stand against Trump’s bigoted, racist, and sexist comments.  The Rockettes announced that they would also perform at the inauguration; one of the dancers balked, posting a message on Instagram: “The women I work with are intelligent and are full of love and the decision of performing for a man that stands for everything we’re against is appalling.”  This led to the union who represent the women announcing that the performance is voluntary after dancers complained about being coerced into performing.  It seems that the sometimes scantily clad women are making a bigger moral stand than the wholesome Tabernacle Choir.

The LDS Newsroom noted that this is the sixth presidential inauguration the choir has been invited to attend “for both parties”, but the choir hasn’t performed for a Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson in 1965 (which was the last time a democrat won the vote in Utah, by the way.)  The choir has sung at the inauguration for Presidents Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2.

What are your thoughts?  Is it more important for the church to be patriotic, or make a stand against the horrible remarks that Trump has made?