From Deseret News archives:
The quandary of peculiar versus weird
• Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller didn't attend Game 4 of the NBA playoff series between the Jazz and the Lakers because it was played on a Sunday.
• David Archuleta sang John Lennon's "Imagine" on "American Idol" but left out the anti-religious verse.
• Another "American Idol" contestant, Brooke White, stubbornly stuck to modest clothes.
The reaction among fellow LDS Church members and other Utahns ranged from deep pride to strong criticism. "Mormons are really concerned about identifiable markers between themselves and the rest of society," says Brian Birch, an ethicist at Utah Valley State College.
Miller took the brunt of the criticism, though we should all compliment him for letting an ESPN.com writer join him while Miller drove up into the Wasatch Mountains during that Sunday game. The resulting story gave us insight into his decision and his personality, and that's helpful and commendable.
For Miller, attending Sunday games clashes with proper Sabbath observance. So he didn't go. But some objected, complaining Miller was a hypocrite because he profited from the game and his employees still had to work.
On Thursday, ESPN.com humorist Bill Simmons wrote that he heard another discordant Jazz note:
"Even though it happened 10 days ago, given that Utah capped off a Game 4 victory over the Lakers by blasting 'Shook Me All Night Long' from the loudspeakers on a Sunday afternoon, there's no doubt Brigham Young is still doing 360s in his grave at 155 mph. I mean none. He might be spinning for the rest of the summer."
For many, these three situations appear in stark relief, right or wrong, black and white, but they're far more interesting than that.
"There really is a set of dilemmas," says Birch, who is working on a book about Mormonism and Christian thought for Oxford University Press. "On the one hand it seems Latter-day Saints want to see themselves as being apart from the world. On the other hand, (LDS Church) President (Gordon B.) Hinckley said, 'We're not weird.'
"So how do you negotiate the space between being a peculiar people but not weird? How soiled can you be in popular culture and all that comes with the business culture? There's a kind of balancing act between hypocrisy and pragmatics, where people want to be realistic but want to be seen as maintaining a certain set of principles."
The tension is constant. Church-owned KSL-TV refuses to air NBC's 25-year-old hit "Saturday Night Live" but continues to air shows like "Lipstick Jungle." The Marriott Hotel chain, founded by a prominent Mormon family, offers adult movies.
