The King’s Singers are an institution in the world of classical music. They are a six-man a cappella group from England — formed at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1968. (Personnel have changed over the years, of course — as in orchestras and other such institutions.) Not often do the King’s Singers make the news — the “news news” (as opposed to classical-music news). But they have now.

This article in the New York Times, dated February 14, reports the singers’ cancellation by a college in Florida. The group, says the paper, had

looked forward to its appearance last week at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, the final stop on the group’s four-city tour of the United States.

Instead, the college informed the ensemble two hours before the concert was to begin on Saturday that it was being canceled because of concerns about what it called the lifestyle of a singer, who is gay.

A little more from the report:

The singers led a workshop for Pensacola students on Saturday and had started rehearsing for the concert — a crowd of more than 5,000 was expected — when they were pulled aside by college officials and informed of the cancellation . . .

The singers put out a statement, reading, in part,

We have performed at Pensacola Christian College before and we entered into the engagement in the knowledge that this is a fundamentalist Christian institution. Our belief is that music can build a common language that allows people with different views and perspectives to come together.

A little more:

This is the first time that anything other than bad weather, the pandemic or war has caused a concert cancellation in our 55-year history.

Three quick points from me, if I may:

(1) I believe in freedom of conscience — for people and institutions.

(2) If you rule out artistic events involving gay people, you will be awfully short on artistic events.

(3) Not only are the King’s Singers an excellent ensemble. They have done more than almost anybody to preserve and perpetuate religious music from all periods. (Chanticleer, a twelve-man a cappella group from San Francisco, is similar in this respect.)

Freedom of association, I have always found tricky. If a Chinese restaurateur in America wants to hire only his relatives, I think he ought to be able to do so. What if he wants to serve only Chinese or Chinese-American customers? Um . . .

Should a hotel be able to turn down black or Jewish clients? No. (Ever seen Gentleman’s Agreement, the 1947 movie?)

Should a baker be required to bake a cake for a gay wedding? No (I say). How about for the wedding of an interracial couple, or a black couple — or simply a couple he doesn’t like the looks of? Um . . .

How much sovereignty — how much autonomy or leeway — should a person have, legally? A person has a right to be reprehensible, right? Yes. Always? Um . . .

“The gay issue is different from the race issue!” people tell me all the time. And they make arguments. They make them in earnest. Yet, I tell you frankly, these arguments don’t persuade me. I could go through chapter and verse. But let me cut to the chase.

Blessings on the colleague who said to me, “Yes, in the area of race, we depart from the principle of freedom of association, freedom of conscience, and all that. We do it because of our peculiar, and appalling, history of slavery, followed by Jim Crow. We make an exception. In a sense, we put an asterisk next to our principles.”

That, I can accept. It’s honest. It is void of sophistry or straining.

You can cancel a music group because it has a gay member, or two, or more. Should you be able to cancel a group because it has a black member, or white member, or yellow member? Or a member who wears striped socks, when you like polka dots?

These questions, as I have said, are tricky, at least for me. And if you have no doubts whatsoever about them — well, lucky you.

• An issue is roiling Mexico. This is a very important issue (otherwise it wouldn’t roil). The Mexicans have a body called the National Electoral Institute. Sounds innocuous. Yet it is critical to the country’s democracy. The INE (to use the Spanish initials of the institute) organizes federal elections. For decades, Mexican democrats campaigned for the creation of such an agency — an independent body. That way, Mexico might have a proper democracy, instead of a personal or party fiefdom.

President of the country now is AMLO — Andrés Manuel López Obrador — that master populist. Latin America has long been lousy with populists. AMLO is a supreme example of the breed, along with Hugo Chávez and other talented folk.

Needless to say, AMLO has resented the INE and targeted it. Checks and balances are a nuisance, especially when you, the leader, embody the Will of the People. In early 2020, I had a long talk with Enrique Krauze, the Mexican historian. He impressed on me the importance of the INE: the efforts to defend it and the machinations against it. (I wrote up my talk with Krauze in two parts: here and here.)

AMLO and his allies have now succeeded in gutting the INE, through their “reforms.” There have been mass protests in the streets, as this Associated Press report tells us. And the U.S. State Department has sounded the alarm. Here is a tweet from the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, Brian A. Nichols:

Will the Mexican supreme court save the INE? Could be, could not be. Mexico has had a democracy — a real democracy — for about 25 years now. It cannot be taken for granted.

Can any democracy be taken for granted? I like to think so. But one also knows better.

• Ordinarily, an op-ed piece signed by two governors would be pretty snoozy. At least I think so. But this one is different. See whether you agree.

The heading reads, “To solve our national immigration crisis, let states sponsor immigrants.” The co-signers are Eric Holcomb and Spencer Cox, governors of Indiana and Utah. Each is a Republican. And they begin,

Indiana has about 220,000 open jobs right now and Utah has 107,000, according to the most recent federal data — more than 6 percent of all jobs in both states. With strong business and tax environments, we like our chances in the competition for job-seekers moving from other states. But they won’t be enough to fill all of those vacancies. We also need immigrants who are ready to work and help build strong communities.

Holcomb and Cox continue,

To help us do our jobs as governors, we call on Congress to end its two-decade standoff on setting immigration policy — one of its most basic duties. And, as leaders of states, we pledge to share the accountability. Though border security is a national concern, and a nonnegotiable requirement of national security in a world with drug cartels and terrorists, we believe that states should be able to sponsor whatever immigrants serve the needs of their communities. As it is, the standstill on immigration hobbles both parties and, more seriously, endangers America’s long-term well-being.

These governors sound reasonable to me. But the weight of the Republican world — Fox News, CPAC, Turning Point, all that — is against them. Maybe they will prevail, regardless?

• I wonder how your honeymoon went. Lydia Ko and Jun Chung’s went very well. She is a professional golfer, and, in fact, the No. 1 player in the world (among women). Bride and groom played a lot of golf during their honeymoon. One day, she made a hole-in-one and set the course record, for women. “So, it was a pretty good day at the office,” remarked Ko.

Great. (To read about this, go here.)

• Paul Berg, a biochemist, won the Nobel prize. He shared the prize for chemistry with two others in 1980. He has died at 96. To read his obit in the New York Times, go here.

His parents, we learn, immigrated from Russia. “His father was a furrier.” What people can do — people such as Paul Berg — with opportunity is astounding. Just astounding.

Can you imagine the talent out there, needing opportunity and not getting it? Talent that goes forever undiscovered, forever untapped? Well, maybe not forever . . .

Thank you, my dear readers, and I’ll see you later.

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