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By Gregory Taggart, March 4, 2012 4:21 pm

I searched for, but couldn’t find, the Mormon Tabernacle’s version of this American folk hymn. But I did find it sung by the Eastview High School Concert Choir. It appears to be the same Mack Wilberg arrangement. The choir does a great job. The talent high school students have these days amazes me.

HOW BRIGHT IS THE DAY
How bright is the day when all people
receive the sweet message to come
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home
And be there forever at home
and be there forever at home,
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home
And be there forever at home
and be there forever at home
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home
The angels stand ready and waiting
the moment the Spirit is come
to carry it upward to heaven
and welcome it safely at home
And be there forever at home
and be there forever at home
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home
And be there forever at home
and be there forever at home
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home
The Saints that have gone on before us
all raise a great shout as we come
and sing allelujah and glory
to welcome the travelers home
And be there forever at home
and be there forever at home
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home
And be there forever at home
and be there forever at home
to rise to the mansions of glory
and be there forever at home

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By Gregory Taggart, February 26, 2012 7:31 pm

Van Morrison does a great job with religious music. “Higher Ground” is another good example, here played with Cliff Richard:

And here are the lyrics:

Whenever God shines his light on me
Opens up my eyes so I can see
When I look up in the darkest night
I know everything’s going to be alright
In deep confusion, in great despair
When I reach out for him he is there
When I am lonely as I can be
I know that God shines his light on me

Reach out for him, hell be there
With him your troubles you can share
If you live the life you love
You get the blessing from above
He heals the sick and heals the lame
Says you can do it too in Jesus name

He’ll lift you up and turn you around
And put your feet back on higher ground

Reach out for him, hell be there
With him your troubles you can share
You can use his higher power
In every day and any hour
He heals the sick and heals the lame
Says you can do it too in Jesus name

He’ll lift you up and turn you around
And put your feet back on higher ground.

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By Gregory Taggart, February 26, 2012 7:13 pm

Of course, the LDS Church doesn’t have a corner on great hymns. “Be Thou My Vision” is one I wish we had in our hymnal. Better yet, I wish we simply could get Van Morrison to drop by on a Sunday to sing it for us.

Here are the lyrics:

Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart
Nought be all else to me, save that Thy art
Thou my best thought in the day and the night
Waking or sleeping, Thou presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom, be Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father and I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight
Be Thou my armour and be Thou my might
Thou my soul shelter, and Thy my high tower
Raise Thou me heavenwards, oh power of my power

Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise
Thou mine inheritance through all of my days
Thou and Thou only though first in my heart
High king of heaven my treasure Thou art

Oh high king of heaven, when battle is done
Grant heaven’s joy to me, bright heaven sun
Christ of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, though ruler of all

Da, da, da, da, da, etc.

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By Gregory Taggart, February 26, 2012 7:01 pm

No other LDS hymn captures the majesty of God’s creation than does “If You Could Hie to Kolob,” for me anyway.

Here are the words to all 5 verses:

If You Could Hie to Kolob, 284 – William W. Phelps

1. If you could hie to Kolob In the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward With that same speed to fly,
Do you think that you could ever, Through all eternity,
Find out the generation Where Gods began to be?

2. Or see the grand beginning, Where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation, Where Gods and matter end?
Me thinks the Spirit whispers, “No man has found ‘pure space,’
Nor seen the outside curtains, Where nothing has a place.”

3. The works of God continue, And worlds and lives abound;
Improvement and progression Have one eternal round.
There is no end to matter; There is no end to space;
There is no end to spirit; There is no end to race.

4. There is no end to virtue; There is no end to might;
There is no end to wisdom; There is no end to light.
There is no end to union; There is no end to youth;
There is no end to priesthood; There is no end to truth.

5. There is no end to glory; There is no end to love;
There is no end to being; There is no death above.
There is no end to glory; There is no end to love;
There is no end to being; There is no death above.

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By Gregory Taggart, February 22, 2012 11:47 am

I want to thank Daniel C. Peterson for pointing me (and you) to this video:

In turn, I’ll direct you to his blog where he discusses baptism for the dead. Petersen, by the way, is an Islamic scholar and teaches at BYU. You might be interested in his short book Muhammad: Prophet of God.

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By Gregory Taggart, February 18, 2012 1:36 pm

As I mentioned in a previous post, my brother Jeff died on February 6, 2012. He was predeceased by his father, grandparents, various uncles and aunts, cousin-uncles and cousin-aunts (a Taggart family genealogical category that should be standard issue), and friends. All of which makes the opening choir number at his funeral even more moving.

The Cody Combined Ward Choir sang “Going Home” to open the funeral. Then I spoke. My first words were, “I’m going to pay the choir the highest compliment that can be paid a choir: I thought I was at a funeral in Cowley.” Those from or with roots in Cowley will understand. For those who don’t have those ties, here’s another comparison: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Orchestra at Temple Square, and choir member Alex Boye performing Dvorak’s “Going Home.” Yes, the Cody Choir was that good:

UPDATE: This is a bit embarrassing. I was so caught up in the music “Going Home” that I misremembered. In fact, the Cody Choir sang “Homeward Bound,” an equally beautiful piece. If there’s a redeeming feature in my mistake, it’s that Jeff would have been the first to correct me–humorously, of course. Instead, it was my cousin Dana. Here’s “Homeward Bound”:

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By Gregory Taggart, February 2, 2012 4:49 pm

This

Caused me to think of this

Mitt, Trapped by the Donald?

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By Gregory Taggart, January 26, 2012 11:15 am

By the way, the star of this show is Rick Reilly’s son.

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By Gregory Taggart, January 25, 2012 9:58 am

Charles Krauthammer praised Mitch Daniels’s speech in the GOP response to the SOTU as being “one of the best” and as one “best presentations of the Conservative idea against the larger government of Obama.”

It was a good speech, but there’s nothing in it–nothing–that hasn’t been said by Mitt Romney. Nothing. Watch it here or, better, read it yourself. Do you see anything that hasn’t been said before–and as well?

I have nothing against Daniels. I hardly know the guy. But this pining for him or for Jeb Bush, for what might have been if only they had entered the race, for all that green grass on the other side of the fence, has to stop. We have some good men (at one time, women) who took up the challenge and entered the race. That because of the insane debate schedule they have endured and the resultant overwhelming scrutiny they’ve received, of course that other grass looks greener. But as we all know in our heart of hearts, it’s not.

Unfortunately, Krauthammer is not the only one pining for Daniels. Michael Uhlmann, for example, said that “Mitch Daniels, in reply, sounded exactly the right note — one that has been almost entirely lost in the childish cacophony of the Republican primaries to date. He sounded like a grown-up.” Mona Charen sounded a similar note, calling the candidates “second rate.”

And the candidates are childish? Please.

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By Gregory Taggart, January 1, 2012 12:36 am

As per my usual routine, I went into my office to shut down my computer. It was 11:00 PM, and Janet and I were going to bed before the New Year. For one, Janet followed me in to see if her print job was finished. It wasn’t, and so here I sat, waiting for it to begin, let alone finish. And because I was sitting at my computer, I began to surf. My surfing was rewarded.

First, by a link on Instapundit that led me to a post on Chicago Boyz of an excerpt of a Tennyson poem, The Passing of the King:

The stillness of the dead world’s winter dawn
Amazed him, and he groaned, ‘The King is gone.’
And therewithal came on him the weird rhyme,
‘From the great deep to the great deep he goes.’

***

Then from the dawn it seemed there came, but faint
As from beyond the limit of the world,
Like the last echo born of a great cry,
Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice
Around a king returning from his wars.

Thereat once more he moved about, and clomb
Even to the highest he could climb, and saw,
Straining his eyes beneath an arch of hand,
Or thought he saw, the speck that bare the King,
Down that long water opening on the deep
Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go
From less to less and vanish into light.
And the new sun rose bringing the new year.

I had my problems with Christopher Hitchens — who didn’t? — and Barron mentions some of these issues in the video. But he puts those disagreements in a very realistic context, in what I think is an attempt to see our brother Christopher with God’s eyes. That is what we are called to do even with our outright enemies, never mind people who might say an unkind word about (or to) us now and again. Now there’s a resolution for the New Year: Try to be as charitable with people who disagree with me as Father Barron is in his comments on Hitchens. (One hell of a challenge; but then, so, of course, is Christianity. In fact, it’s the same challenge.)