Avoid worldly immorality, LDS faithful instructed
SALT LAKE CITY – Resisting worldly definitions of morality and avoiding sexually inappropriate media were key counsels given to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday and Sunday.
Thousands of Latter-day Saints gathered in Salt Lake City for the 173rd Semiannual General Conference, a worldwide meeting for church leaders to instruct members on points of doctrine. The meeting was broadcast by television and radio to church members across the globe.
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley opened the conference by saying the church is “in wonderful condition.”
“It was said that at one time the sun never set on the British Empire. That empire has now been diminished,” he said. “But it is true that the sun never sets on this work of the Lord as it is touching the lives of people across the earth.”
Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, addressed the youth of the church and counseled them to use prayer to protect themselves from worldly influences.
Packer said gender – male and female – is an essential characteristic of an individual’s identity.
“Some work through political, social and legal channels to redefine morality and marriage into something unrestrained, unnatural and forbidden,” Packer said. “But they can never change the design which has governed human life and happiness from the beginning.”
Packer said church leaders do not set the standards, but are commanded to teach and maintain them.
“However out of step we may seem, however much the standards are belittled, however much others yield, we will not yield,” he said. “We cannot yield.”
Packer told the youth to defend themselves against people who use words such as “diversity,” “tolerance” and “choice” as weapons of argument.
He counseled them to respond, “‘I expect you to be tolerant of my lifestyle – obedience, integrity, abstinence, repentance.’ If the word is ‘choice,’ tell them you choose good old-fashioned morality. You choose to become a worthy husband or wife, a worthy parent.”
Hinckley spoke out against pornography.
“The sanctity of sex is utterly destroyed in its salacious portrayal in the media,” Hinckley said. “That which by its nature is inherently beautiful is corrupted in its popular presentation.”
Hinckley said he was pleased to note the church-owned TV station in Salt Lake City refused to carry a network program “of a salacious nature.”
“It was also interesting to note that the only other station belonging to this network to cancel a broadcast was in South Bend, Ind., the location of the University of Notre Dame,” Hinckley said. “It is comforting to know that there are others who feel as strongly as we feel and are willing to do something about it.”
M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles also condemned much of the popular media for endangering family values.
“What comes out of Hollywood, off the Internet, and in much of today’s music creates a web of decadence that can trap our children and endanger all of us,” Ballard said.
Ballard said evil is too cunning to directly defy traditional values, which most people still profess to believe in.
“Often, media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral,” Ballard said. “Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral – issues of right and wrong don’t even come up.”
Ballard said the media does have many positive aspects, so the biggest challenge is to choose wisely what to watch and what to abstain from.
“When [Satan] wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the church’s missionary system to its collective knees,” Ballard said. “He does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception.”
Ballard called for church members to speak out against current media trends and set standards as a family.
Hinckley warned about the consequences of alcohol abuse.
“You university students on many campuses, realize that one of the great problems on these campuses is binge drinking,” Hinckley said. “What a sorry sight it is to see bright young people damage themselves and ruin their opportunities with excessive drinking.”
Hinckley congratulated BYU for being named America’s most “stone-cold sober student body” by the Princeton Review. He said anyone, no matter where they are, can live by the standards of BYU.
Reporting on the state of the church, Hinckley said it was being recognized for worldwide programs, such as its missionary efforts and humanitarian aid. The church gave $3 million to vaccinate children in Africa, he said.
“This money did not come from tithing,” Hinckley said. “It came from contributions of the faithful. Our contribution alone will provide vaccine for 3 million children.”
Hinckley also reported on the success of the Perpetual Education Fund, a program announced on March 2001, to give loans to returned missionaries for their education. About 10,000 loans have been given to young men and women, Hinckley said, who have committed to repay the loans to help others.
Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said much of the world suffers from a misconception of what God is like.
He said the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price (publications which are part of church canon) help give “a uniform view of God in all his glory and goodness, in all his richness and complexity” – such as the belief that God is loving as well as just, and that he and Jesus Christ are two separate beings.
Also appearing briefly at conference was David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who was recently hospitalized. Haight came to the podium long enough to wave, smiling, at the congregation. At age 97, Haight is the longest-lived apostle in the history of the church.
“What a great soldier he has been in the army of the Lord,” Hinckley said.
-heidithue@cc.usu.edu
The LDS Conference Center is the largest building in the United States for its purpose. It holds 22,000 people and each of the five sessions of General Conference was filled to capacity. (Photo by Jaime Crane)