During his closing remarks to President Trump on the Senate floor, LDS Arizona Senator Jeff Flake prompted a tweet from The Atlantic when he quoted the LDS hymn "Oh Say, What Is Truth?"
Closing his Wednesday address to the president, which pertained to the importance of promoting free speech and the media's role in reporting truth, Sen. Flake made these remarks about the hymn and its LDS author:
"I will close by borrowing the words of an early adherent to my faith that I find has special resonance at this moment. His name was John Jacques, and as a young missionary in England he contemplated the question: 'What is truth?' His search was expressed in poetry and ultimately in a hymn that I grew up with, titled 'Oh Say, What is Truth."'It ends as follows:
"'Then say, what is truth? 'Tis the last and the first, For the limits of time it steps o'er. Tho the heavens depart and the earth's fountains burst. Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst, Eternal... unchanged... evermore.'
"Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor."
Sen. Flake's closing remarks even caught the attention of The Atlantic reporter McKay Coppins, who tweeted the Mormon hymn along with Sen. Flake's closing remarks.
Jeff Flake closes his remarks on the Senate floor by quoting a Mormon hymn: https://t.co/DLjbTSgYpFpic.twitter.com/oo4HYSsDV3 — McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) January 17, 2018
"(I feel like that speech is going to be discussed/debated in BYU journalism classes for a long time)," Coppins added.
(I feel like that speech is going to be discussed/debated in BYU journalism classes for a long time) — McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) January 17, 2018
