Just finished Merrill Osmond’s book, Let the Reason Be Love, which is 1/3 autobiographical anecdotes and 2/3 preaching. Merrill was always my favorite Osmond brother and he’s by all means the sort of good-hearted guy we could use more of in the world. But the book kind of makes me feel bad for him. And it’s not so much because of his struggles with manic depression, bulimia, a rival little brother (Donny - he doesn’t ever call him a rival outright, but one can read between the lines), and “crippling perfectionism” (his own well-chosen words). It’s because he presents himself as someone unable to so much as order a cheeseburger without kneeling in prayer before ordering and then closing that order with a lengthy testimony about God’s Love and the parallels of burger-making with God’s Plan of Salvation. It’s hard to envy someone who lives this way.
And speaking of cheese, things start to smell like limburger - as they always do - when he allows himself to mix politics with religion. If you happen to suspect the LDS church functions in fact as a Living Tentacle of the mighty GOP beast, you won’t be dissuaded in the slightest by Let the Reason Be Love. Here you can read about how Merrill, working in concert with the Republican National Committee and Gordon B. Hinckley (now the President of the Church), organized a 1980 inauguration presentation featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on a million-dollar float, the driver of which Merrill bribed, against the wishes of the Inauguration Committee, to stop right in front of God’s Chosen President Himself during the proceedings. The whole presentation, of course, was made possible by a series of Divine Miracles supplemented by string-pulling from Higher-Ups in the Church. Eight years later, Merrill put on a solo show for Bush Sr.’s inauguration which was midwifed, again, by key folks at LDS HQ.
All of that aside, I’m mostly disappointed that Merrill didn’t write the book I wanted him to write, which was an in-depth reflection on his creative past, especially those first 5 classic Osmonds LPs. I’m afraid I know what Merrill would say in response to this: it’s all so insignificant in the bigger picture. My response to that: who wants a bigger picture with no Crazy Horses anyway?
