*Priesthood Session
Pornography still plagues the lives of many brethren in the Church today and must be overcome, counseled President Gordon B. Hinckley in his Saturday night conference address.
“It is a much more serious problem now,” he said. “It grows increasingly worse. It is like a raging storm, destroying individuals and families [and] utterly ruining what was once wholesome and beautiful.”
The subject of pornography is not new to the brethren. Even though he has spoken about it recently, President Hinckley said he needed to talk about pornography again because of letters that he receives from broken-hearted wives.
He read parts of one such letter that he recently received, at the consent of the writer.
The writer’s husband of 35 years passed away not too long ago, and on his deathbed told her of his life-long addiction to pornography.
Even though he held many important church callings throughout the years, the husband told her that he had grown tired of living a double life and wanted her forgiveness before he died.
Feeling hurt and violated, the writer told President Hinckley of her reflection of her entire marriage, and the betrayal she felt.
Her husband was cruel to her and caused her to go into serious depression, even contemplate suicide. She said she could barely handle the idea of “being compared to the latest porn queen.”
In marriage counsel, her husband “began to rip [her] apart in his criticism and disdain of [her].”
On his deathbed, she told her husband of the pure heart that she had brought into their marriage, and of her intent to keep it pure. She asked him why he could not return the same.
“All I ever wanted was to feel cherished and treated with the smallest of pleasantries, instead of being treated like some kind of chattel,” she wrote.
She grieved not only that her husband was gone, “but over a relationship that could have been beautiful, but was not.”
Pornography strangles the life out of sacred relationships and hurts those most deserving of love.
After reading the letter, President Hinckley remarked,
“What a pathetic and tragic story.”
With the internet as one of the main sources of pornography today, President Hinckley quoted some of the statistics he read about the combination:
· Pornography is a $57 billion industry worldwide with $12 billion generated solely within the U.S.
· Pornography produces more revenue in the U.S. than the combined revenues of all professional baseball, basketball, and football franchises or the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC
· 20% of men and 13% of women admit to accessing pornography at work
· 10% of adults admit to having internet sexual addictions
· Approximately 40 million people within the U.S. are sexually involved with the Internet.
· 1 in 5 children ages 10-17 have received a sexual solicitation over the internet
· 3 million of the visitors to adult websites in Sep. 2000 were age 17 or younger
· Sex is the number one topic searched on the Internet
“I am by nature optimistic, but in such matters as this I am a realist.”
President Hinckley asked the Young Men:
“Can you imagine John the Baptist, who restored the priesthood which you hold, being engaged in any such practice as this?”
To the men he posed the question:
“Can you imagine Peter, James, and John, apostles of our Lord, engaging in such?”
He continues, “If there be any within the sound of my voice who are doing so, then may you plead with the lord out of the depths of your soul that he will remove from you the addiction which enslaves you.
“May you have the courage to seek the loving guidance of your bishop, and if necessary, the counsel of caring professionals.
“Let any man who may be in the grip of this vice, get upon their knees in the privacy of their closet and plead with the Lord for help for freedom from this evil monster.”
Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Oct 2004
