The First Church Endorsement of a Rock Festival Ever?

A letter from a concerned father about the evil effects of some popular music is one of many. I quote from this well-informed teacher of youth:

“If there are any doubts as to the insidious evil of rock, you can judge by its fruits. The well-publicized perversions of its practitioners alone are enough to condemn its influence. Its ultimate achievement is that contemporary phenomenon, the mammoth rock music festival. As these diseased celebrations mount into the hundreds, they infect youth by the hundreds of thousands. And where is there today a rock festival that is not also a drug festival, a sex festival, and a rebellion festival?” (Richard Nibley.)

Slick.

That is a PR-ed almost to death statement that somehow manages to be quite passive-aggressive in it’s implications.

Honestly, what am I supposed to do with this?

When you see the statement in isolation on the Mormon Newsroom site, it seems innocuous enough (love-conquers-all type schmaltzy cant about “our invaluable youth,” etc.), but as written up in the Deseret News article (where I first saw it), were you not reading closely you’d be forgiven for assuming the Church is a co-sponsor of the dang thing

As friend asked, when Public Affairs is voicing support for an event sponsored by GLAAD, what does it mean anymore to say that you do or do not affiliate with groups that oppose the Church or its teachings?

I think it is to take back some control of the conversation, as the key person of the New Testament did, and to use their own words against them, or at least laying the groundwork for future relations.

By agreeing with certain specific phraseology, the church is claiming that members are to be treated with the same respect that LGBT demand.

The statements in this news release are wise. It is as consumately diplomatic and wise as the responses to the Book of Mormon Musical, and the playbill ad “The book is always better.”

Reading it carefully, for everything that the church is saying it agrees with, it is implicitly claiming _we_ are entitled to the same things.

We are not to be mistreated for who we are or what we believe.
We deserve better understanding and civility too.

I would venture to guess this was crafted by a GA, and approved by the Brethren or the FP. This is no mere Public Affairs spiel.

Does anyone who is paying attention really think the organizers of the LoveLoud festival believe in “the value of families” in any meaningful sense espoused by the Church?

MC, to directly answer your question, no. The PC crowd doesn’t believe in family values any more than the Pharisees believed in the Mosaic Law.

But, this is part of a dialogue, the news release doesn’t stand alone. I have a sneaking feeling that the Lord is speaking in that press release, in sort of the same way that He spoke to Pharisees. There is more to come. I believe that the Lord’s pattern will become more obvious soon.

I take exception to Benson’s quote about Rock music:

Drugs you will find at indie concerts, pop concerts, rock concerts, techno concerts.
Sex you will find at pop concerts, indie concerts, rock concerts, techno concerts, country concerts, classical concerts.
Violence you find mostly at rock concerts, but rarely if ever perpetuated outside that environment. All my metalhead friends enjoy the mosh pit but are cordial and educated and gentle outside that outlet. They just like a place where people are chill with punches being thrown.

I listen to probably more violent music than probably anybody I know, but at least to my perception seem incredibly more stable than those who listen to the more politically correct genres.

The environmental danger of music is, and has been for a very long time now, music videos, not how harsh the sound is.