I recall a very troubling conversation I had years
ago with a young man in a South American airport, where we were both delayed by
late planes.
His hair was long and his face bearded, his glasses large and round. Sandals
were on his feet, and his clothing such as to give the appearance of total
indifference to any standard of style.
He was earnest and evidently sincere. He was educated and thoughtful,
a graduate of a great North American university. Without employment and
sustained by his father, he was traveling through South America.
What was he after in life? I asked. “Peace—and freedom” was his
immediate response. Did he use drugs? Yes, they were one of his means to obtain
the peace and freedom he sought. Discussion of drugs led to discussion of morals.
He talked matter-of-factly about the new morality that gave so much more freedom
than any previous generation had ever known.
He had learned in our opening introductions that I was a churchman; and he let
me know, in something of a condescending way, that the morality of my generation
was a joke. Then with earnestness he asked how I could honestly defend personal
virtue and moral chastity. I shocked him a little when I declared that his
freedom was a delusion, that his peace was a fraud, and that I would tell
him why.
I have thought much of that discussion and others like it that I have held over
the years. Today there are persons numbered in the millions who, in a search for
freedom from moral restraint and peace from submerged conscience, have opened
a floodgate of practices that enslave and debauch. These practices, if left unchecked,
will not only destroy these individuals but also the nations of which they are
a part.
I remember thinking of this freedom and this peace when I faced a young man and
a young woman across the desk of my office. He was handsome, tall, and manly.
She was a beautiful girl, an excellent student, sensitive and perceptive.
The girl sobbed, and tears fell from the eyes of the young man. They were freshmen
at a university. They were to be married the next week, but not in the kind of
wedding of which they had dreamed. They had planned that
to come three years in the future, following graduation.
Now they found themselves in a situation that both regretted and for which neither
was prepared. Shattered were their dreams of schooling, the years of preparation
they knew each needed for the competitive world that lay ahead. Rather, they would
now have to establish a home, he to become the breadwinner at the best figure
his meager skills could command.
The young man looked up through his tears. “We were sold short,” he
said.
“We’ve cheated one another,” she responded. “We’ve
cheated one another and the parents who love us—and we’ve cheated ourselves.
We were betrayed. We fell for the rubbish that virtue is hypocrisy; and we’ve
found that the new morality, the idea that sin is only in one’s mind, is
a booby trap that’s destroyed us.”
They spoke of a thousand thoughts that had crossed their minds in the fearful
days and the anxious nights of the past few weeks. Should she seek an abortion?
The temptation was there in the frightening contemplation of the ordeal that lay
ahead. No, never, she had concluded. Life is sacred under any circumstance. How
could she ever live with herself if she took measures to destroy the gift of life
even under these conditions?
Perhaps she could go to some place where she was not known, they thought, and
he could go on with his schooling. The child could be placed for adoption. There
were excellent organizations that could assist in such a program, and there were
good families anxious for children. But they had dismissed that thought. He would
never leave her to face her trial alone. He was responsible, and he would meet
that responsibility even though it blighted the future of which he had dreamed.
I admired his courage, his determination to make the best of a difficult situation;
but my heart ached as I watched them, bereft and sobbing. Here was tragedy. Here
was heartbreak. Here was entrapment. Here was bondage.
They had been told of freedom, that evil was only a thing of the mind. But they
found they had lost their freedom. Nor had they known peace. They had bartered
their peace and their freedom—the freedom to marry when they chose to marry,
the freedom to secure the education of which they had dreamed, and, more important,
the peace of self-respect.
My young friend in the airport might have countered my story by
saying that this couple was not smart. Had they been wise to the things available
to them, they would not have found themselves in this sorry situation.
I would have replied that their situation is far from unique and
that it is daily growing more acute.
Can there be peace in the heart of any person, can there be freedom
in the life of one who has been left only misery as the bitter fruit of indulgence?
Can anything be more false or dishonest than gratification of passion
without acceptance of responsibility?
I remember seeing in Korea the tragic aftermath of war in the thousands
of orphans born of Korean mothers and soldier fathers. These abandoned children
became creatures of sorrow, unwanted, the flotsam of a miserable tide of immorality.
It was so in Vietnam also—tens of thousands of fatherless
children were abandoned. Peace and freedom? There can be neither for anyone
who has wantonly indulged nor for those left as the innocent and tragic victims
of lust.
Certain kinds of men are prone to gloat over their immoral conquests.
What a cheap and sullied victory. There is no conquest in gloating, only self-deception
and a miserable fraud. The only conquest that brings satisfaction is the conquest
of self. It was said of old that he who governs himself is greater than he who
takes a city. (See Prov. 16:32.)
Are not the words of Tennyson still appropriate: “My strength is as the
strength of ten, Because my heart is pure.” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Sir
Galahad.”)
Listen to the conclusion of renowned historians Will and Ariel Durrant. Out of
the vast experience of writing a thousand years of history, they wrote: “No
one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such
fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions
of his society, for these are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment
in the laboratory of history. A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he
should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by
custom, morals, or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently to
understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred
restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group.”
(The Lessons of History, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968, pp. 35–36.)
Self-discipline was never easy. I do not doubt that it is more
difficult today. We live in a sex-saturated world. I am convinced that many
of our youth, and many older but no-less-gullible adults, are victims of the
persuasive elements which surround them—the pornographic literature which
has become a multi-million-dollar-a-year business in the U. S. alone, seductive
movies and television shows that excite and give sanction to promiscuity, dress
standards that invite familiarity, judicial decisions that destroy legal restraint,
parents who often unwittingly push the children they love toward situations
they later regret.
A wise writer has observed that “a new religion is emerging
throughout the world, a religion in which the body is the supreme object of
worship to the exclusion of all other aspects of existence. The pursuit of its
pleasures has grown into a cult; … for its ritual no efforts are spared.
We have bartered holiness for convenience, … wisdom for information, joy
for pleasure, tradition for fashion.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, The
Insecurity of Freedom, New York: Schocken Books, 1966, p. 200.)
Nakedness or near-nakedness has become the hallmark of much public
entertainment. It reaches beyond this into the realm of sadistic perversion.
As one seasoned New York critic remarked, “It’s not only the nudity;
it’s the crudity.”
Can there be any reasonable doubt that in sowing the wind of a
sex-saturated world, we are reaping the whirlwind of decay? We need to read
more history. Nations and civilizations have flowered, then died, poisoned by
their own moral sickness. As one commentator has remarked, Rome perished before
the Goths poured over its walls. “But it was not that the walls were low.
It was that Rome itself was low.” (U. S. News & World Report,
May 28, 1962, p. 90.)
As with the bud, so with the blossom. Youth is the seedtime for
the future flowering of family life. No nation, no civilization can long endure
without strength in the homes and lives of its people. That strength derives
from the integrity of those who live in those homes.
No family can have peace, no life can be free from the storms of
adversity unless that family and that home are built on foundations of morality,
fidelity, and mutual respect. There cannot be peace where there is not trust;
there cannot be freedom where there is not loyalty. The warm sunlight of love
will not rise out of a swamp of immorality.
To hope for peace and love and gladness out of promiscuity is to
hope for that which will never come. To wish for freedom out of immorality is
to wish for something that cannot be. Said the Savior, “Whosoever committeth
sin is the servant of sin.” (John 8:34.)
The prophet of the Lord, President Ezra Taft Benson, has clearly
spoken on these matters:
“The Book of Mormon warns us of the tactics of the adversary
in the last day: ‘And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal
security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all
is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away
carefully down to hell.’ (2 Ne. 28:21.)
“The plaguing sin of this generation is sexual immorality.
This, the Prophet Joseph said, would be the source of more temptations, more
buffetings, and more difficulties for the elders of Israel than any other. (See
Journal of Discourses, 8:55.)
“President Joseph F. Smith said that sexual impurity would
be one of the three dangers that would threaten the Church within—and so
it does. (See Gospel Doctrine, pp. 312–13.) It permeates our society.”
(Ensign, May 1986, p. 4.)
Is there a valid case for virtue in our world? It is the only way
to freedom from regret. The peace of conscience which flows therefrom is the
only personal peace that is not counterfeit.
And beyond all of this is the unfailing promise of God to those
who walk in virtue. Declared Jesus of Nazareth, speaking on the mountain, “Blessed
are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8.) That is a
promise, made by him who has the power to fulfill.
And again, the voice of modern revelation speaks an unmatched promise
that follows a simple commandment:
“Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.” And
here is the promise: “Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence
of God. …
“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, …
and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means
it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.” (D&C 121:45–46.)
May I comment on this marvelous promise. It has been my privilege
on various occasions to converse with presidents of the United States and important
leaders in other governments. At the close of each visit, I have reflected on
the rewarding experience of standing with confidence in the presence of an acknowledged
leader. And then I have thought, what a wonderful thing, what a marvelous thing
it would be to stand with confidence—unafraid and unashamed and unembarrassed—in
the presence of God. This is the promise held out to every virtuous man and
woman.
I know of no greater promise made by God to man than this promise
made to those who let virtue garnish their thoughts unceasingly.
Channing Pollock once remarked: “A world in which everyone
believed in the purity of women and the nobility of men, and acted accordingly,
would be a very different world, but a grand place to live in.” (Reader’s
Digest, June 1960, p. 77.)
I assure you that it would be a world of freedom in which the spirit of mankind
might grow to undreamed-of glory, a world of peace—the peace of clear conscience,
of unsullied love, of fidelity, of unfailing trust and loyalty.
This may appear an unattainable dream for the world. But for each member of
this church it can be a reality, and the world will become so much the richer
and the stronger for the virtue of our individual lives.
God bless each of us to realize this freedom, to know this peace, to gain this
blessing. As a servant of the Lord, I promise you that if you will sow in virtue,
you will reap in gladness now and in all the years yet to come.
Gospel topics: agency, freedom, morality, Word of Wisdom
