How do you feel about Broadway stars performing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

[Soaring29]

As someone who is a gay man, it's hard to like myself when I listen to recordings of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and it's even more problematic when Kelli O'Hara and Sutton Foster perform there despite the long track record of anti-gay sentiment from them. It isn't just those two either: Renee Fleming, Audra McDonald, Laura Osnes, Brian Stokes Mitchell etc have performed with them as well. Thoughts?

[ghostlight2]

Unless they are really aggressive and pushy about their beliefs, I am content with letting performers perform.

[MadonnaMusical]

Believe it or not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is largely non-Mormon. It’s a paid gig that allows you to travel the world performing... just paid for by the Mormon church as a sort of Positive PUblic relations move that worked very well in Helping to diminish stigma against members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

I agree their stance against gays is problematic... I actually think we will see them change their stance on gays in our lifetime... and a public protest such as artists boycotting working for them might help that along.

So I guess I don’t know how to feel. I personally couldn’t do it. I have seen the hurt it has caused to my gay friends who grew up Mormon... but I also don’t want to judge a performer who just needs a pay check... even though it does make them complicit.

Edit: also, it’s a prestigious invitation. They happen to be one of the finest choirs in the world with an excellent reputation and an extensive amount of recording. We could liken it to a chess player getting paid to play Chess in communist USSR in the Cold War. Should they decline the payment because they do not support the USSR? 

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

ghostlight2 said: "Unless they are really aggressive and pushy about their beliefs, I am content with letting performers perform."

They spent $22 million to fight marriage equality in California. I'd say that's pretty aggressive and pushy.

[JennH]

MadonnaMusical said: "Believe it or not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is largely non-Mormon. It’s a paid gig that allows you to travel the world performing... just paid for by the Mormon church as a sort of Positive PUblic relations move that worked very well in Helping to diminish stigma against members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

I agree their stance against gays is problematic... I actually think we will see them change their stance on gays in our lifetime... and a public protest such as artists boycotting working for them might help that along.

So I guess I don’t know how to feel. I personally couldn’t do it. I have seen the hurt it has caused to my gay friends who grew up Mormon... but I also don’t want to judge a performer who just needs a pay check... even though it does make them complicit.

Edit: also, it’s a prestigious invitation. They happen to be one of the finest choirs in the world with an excellent reputation and an extensive amount ofrecording. We could liken it to a chess player getting paid to play Chess in communist USSR in the Cold War. Should they decline the payment because they do not support the USSR?"

Umm...unless something has changed (which I'm willing to be corrected if so), being in the MTC is not a paid gig, never has been. All members pay their own way. Again, I'm willing to be corrected if this has indeed changed, which I'll admit I hope it has...it's the most well known choir on the planet and when I found out it was all volunteer, I just about balked. Their guests artist are paid of course. And as for taking jobs of this kind...I have mixed feelings. Not because I agree with their stance, but because if we all said I won't take/I quit this job, we'd all be jobless. There's plenty of people/institutions who just aren't going to change. And my personal thoughts is that the 'system' never changed from without...it always changed from within. Take that for what you will.

[Highland Guy]

MadonnaMusical said: "Believe it or not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is largely non-Mormon. It’s a paid gig that allows you to travel the world performing... just paid for by the Mormon church as a sort of Positive PUblic relations move that worked very well in Helping to diminish stigma against members of the Church of Latter Day Saints."

 

That's not true.  Where do you get your information?

https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/answers-about-the-mormon-tabernacle-choir.html#:~:text=21.,who%20practice%20and%20perform%20weekly.

My great-grandfather, an LDS Church convert from England, was a carpenter who helped build the Tabernacle. 

 

[OlBlueEyes]

In the spirit of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who wept on the Supreme Court bench when Chief Justice Roberts announced the death of the husband of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Justice Ginsburg, who on the death of Scalia called him her "best buddy," you should try not to hate someone with whom you differ on an issue, even an important issue (genocide excepted). 

They are more likely to moderate their position on an issue for friends then they are if backed into a corner by angry people.