Angela's Lesson Helps
by Angela Williams / ga09102007


 

Consider carefully the words of the prophet Alma to his errant son, Corianton, ‘Forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes’ (Alma 39:9).

“ ‘The lusts of your eyes.’ In our day, what does that expression mean?

What tools or methods does Satan use to influence people to disobey the law of chastity?
List responses on the chalkboard. Answers might include the following:

• Obscene or suggestive movies and TV shows, books
• Peer pressure (everyone is doing it).
• Alcohol and drugs
• pop music and their lyrics
• Immodest clothes on shows and magazines
• pornography

The Media today is a very powerful tool to get the youth to follow the path of immorality. Let's look at the media today, starting with the history of television in the last 60 years.

• 1947 Mary Kay and Johnny is TV's first series to show a married couple who shared a bed.
• 1952: Lucille Ball's pregnancy causes problems for TV censors because the word "pregnancy" is not allowed.
• 1971 1983: All in the Family's Archie Bunker shocks viewers with his use of racial slurs. For the first time ever, network audiences hear a toilet flush.
• 1973 First Full Female Nudity on Network TV. A broadcast on PBS of the play Steambath featured actress Valerie Perrine completely naked.
• 1977 TV's first openly gay series regular, Billy Crystal as Jody on Soap.
• 1986 First Time the Word "Condom" Used in Prime Time on Cagney & Lacey.
• 1991: The first lesbian kiss on network television occurred on the 2/7/91 episode of L.A. Law which featured a prolonged kiss between two female lawyers.

MEDIA STATS

• ABC's Desperate Housewives is the most popular broadcast-network television show with kids aged 9-12 according to Nielsen stats. It airs at 10/9. (Jan. 05)
• In 2001-2002 TV season, sexual content appeared in 64% of all TV programs with an average of 4.4 scenes per hour.
• 1 out of every 7 programs includes a portrayal of sexual intercourse.
• during the first hour of prime time are assaulted by violence, profanity or sexual content once every 3.5 minutes of non-commercial airtime.
• During the 2006-2007 study period, almost 90% of the 208 television shows reviewed contained objectionable content.
• Fox is the worst broadcast network overall, noting its 20.78 instances of violent, profane and sexual content each hour -- nearly double the amount of similar content shown on any of the five other major broadcast networks.
• By comparing this new 2006-2007 study period to a former PTC Family Hour report covering the 2001-2002 television season, the PTC found that incidences of sexual and violent content have increased by 22.1% and 52.4%, respectively

Who knows of Mick Jagger?

Excerpts from "A conversation with Mick Jagger" by Elder Gene R. Cook

“Mick. I'd like to know your opinion. What do you think is the impact of your music on the young people?" This is a direct quote, brothers and sisters. He said, "Our music is calculated to drive the kids to sex." He told me this was a great day for them because now instead of just having audio where they could portray some of what they wanted to about sex and all, they now had videos and could have the people both hear it and see it portrayed. He said this would have much more impact on the youth, that his music was selling much more, and thus he was making much more money.”

Last year, a Visiting general authority (Elder Workman) said our stake’s youth had problems with morality. He then proceeded to counsel the parents about how the media influences our lives and affect our children’s lives for worse.

INFLUENCES OF THE MEDIA

• 66% of children (ages 10 to 16) surveyed say that their peers are influenced by TV shows
• 62% say that sex on TV shows and movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young

CONSEQUENCES

• 46% of high school students in the United States have had sexual intercourse.
• 1 case of an STD is diagnosed for every 4 sexually active teens.
• 25% of high school freshman girls and (27%) of high school freshman boys have had sex.
• About 75 percent of high school seniors have had sexual intercourse at least once in their lives; about 20 percent have had more than four sexual partners by their senior year.
• At least 40% of all girls get pregnant before they turn 20 years old. 6
• Approximately 900,000 youths younger than 20 get pregnant every year. 1

Satan is trying with all his power to tear the youth away for their Heavenly Father. And in many cases, he is succeeding. People are becoming more and more immoral and there are consequences for their immorality.

What does chastity mean to you?
Why is chastity so important?

PRES. HOLLAND - Alma to warn his son Corianton that sexual transgression is "an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost" (Alma 39:5; emphasis added)?

it is LDS doctrine that sexual transgression is second only to murder in the Lord's list of life's most serious sins.

Clearly God's greatest concerns regarding mortality are how one gets into this world and how one gets out of it. He as our Creator and Father and Guide wishes most to reserve to himself.

As for the taking of life, we are generally quite responsible. Most people, it seems to me, readily sense the sanctity of life and as a rule do not run up to friends, put a loaded revolver to their heads, and cavalierly pull the trigger. Furthermore, when there is a click of the hammer rather than an explosion of lead, and a possible tragedy seems to have been averted, no one in such a circumstance would be so stupid as to sigh, "Oh, good. I didn't go all the way." No, "all the way" or not, the insanity of such action with fatal powder and steel is obvious on the face of it. No, fortunately, in the case of how life is taken, I think we seem to be quite responsible. The seriousness of that does not often have to be spelled out, and not many sermons need to be devoted to it. But in the significance and sanctity of giving life, some of us are not so responsible, and in the larger world swirling around us we find near criminal irresponsibility.

Three Reasons to Obey

As president of Brigham Young University, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles offered three reasons for choosing chastity.

First, according to scripture, the soul consists of both body and spirit (see D&C 88:15). “In trivializing the soul of another (please include the word body there), we trivialize the Atonement. … We cannot then say in ignorance or defiance, ‘Well, it’s my life,’ or worse yet, ‘It’s my body.’ It is not. ‘Ye are not your own,’ Paul said. ‘Ye are bought with a price’ [1 Cor. 6:19–20].” 4

“Second, may I suggest that human intimacy … between a man and a woman is … a symbol of total union: union of their hearts, their hopes, their lives, their love, their family, their future, their everything. … But such a total … union … can only come with the proximity and permanence afforded in a marriage covenant, with the union of all that they possess—their very hearts and minds, all their days and all their dreams. …

Third, “sexual intimacy is not only a symbolic union between a man and a woman—the uniting of their very souls—but it is also symbolic of a union between mortals and deity, … uniting for a rare and special moment with God himself and all the powers by which he gives life in this wide universe of ours. …
Surely God’s trust in us to respect this future-forming gift is awesomely staggering. … We carry this procreative power that makes us very much like God in at least one grand and majestic way.” 6

Discussion

What blessings come to a young woman who honors herself by being chaste?
How will your future family be blessed by your living the Lord’s law of chastity?

Sex is so sacred, so divine, that when it is used in its proper way, those who participate become joint creators with God. They become partners with the Almighty in the great undertaking and enterprise of bringing forth life” (Mark E. Petersen, Our Moral Challenge [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1965], p. 13).

Overcoming Temptation

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

What are some ways we can overcome temptation?

“Too many have lost themselves completely in sin through this doorway of necking and petting. The devil knows how to destroy our young girls and boys. He may not be able to tempt a person to murder or to commit adultery immediately, but he knows that if he can get a boy and a girl to sit in the car late enough after the dance, or to park long enough in the dark at the end of the lane, the best boy and the best girl will finally succumb and fall. He knows that all have a limit to their resistance” (Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 66).

Obscene music and lyrics: “Have you been listening to the music that many young folks are hearing today? … Much of it has been deliberately designed to promote revolution, [drugs], immorality, and a gap between parent and child” (Ezra Taft Benson, in Conference Report, Apr. 1969, p. 14; or Improvement Era, June 1969, p. 46).

“We counsel you, young men, not to pollute your minds with such degrading matter, for the mind through which this filth passes is never the same afterward. Don’t see R-rated movies or vulgar videos or participate in any entertainment that is immoral, suggestive, or pornographic. Don’t listen to music that is degrading” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1986, p. 58; or Ensign, May 1986, p. 45).

The handout is a gift box with Now and Later's inside and a quote attached that says:

“How glorious and near to the angels
is youth that is clean;
this youth has a joy unspeakable here
and eternal happiness hereafter.
Sexual purity is youth’s most
precious possession; it is the
foundation of all righteousness.”
Pres. James E. Faust

...and I also included a handout with all the quotes and a copy of a talk given by Pres. Holland titled "Souls, Symbols and Sacraments".