It was an experience to hear President Joseph Fielding Smith pray. Even
when he was past ninety he would pray that he would “keep his covenants and
obligations and endure to the end.” The word covenant is the subject of my
message.
The Lord told the ancients, “With thee will I establish my covenant.” (Gen.
6:18.) He told the Nephites, “Ye are the children of the covenant.” (3 Ne.
20:26.) And he described the restored gospel as the “new and … everlasting
covenant.” (D&C 22:1; italics added.) Every Latter-day Saint is under
covenant. Baptism is a covenant; so is the sacrament. Through it we renew
the covenant of baptism and commit to “always remember him and keep his
commandments.” (D&C 20:77.)
Three Dangerous Life-Styles
My message is to you who are tempted either to promote, to enter, or to
remain in a life-style which violates your covenants and will one day bring
sorrow to you and to those who love you.
Growing numbers of people now campaign to make spiritually dangerous
life-styles legal and socially acceptable. Among them are abortion, the
gay-lesbian movement, and drug addiction. They are debated in forums and
seminars, in classes, in conversations, in conventions, and in courts all
over the world. The social and political aspects of them are in the press
every day.
Moral and Spiritual
The point I make is simply this: there is a MORAL and SPIRITUAL side to
these issues which is universally ignored. For Latter-day Saints, morality
is one component which must not be missing when these issues are
considered—otherwise sacred covenants are at risk! Keep your covenants and
you will be safe. Break them and you will not.
The commandments found in the scriptures, both the positive counsel and the
“shalt nots,” form the letter of the law. There is also the spirit of the
law. We are responsible for both.
Some challenge us to show where the scriptures specifically forbid abortion
or a gay-lesbian or drug-centered life-style. “If they are so wrong,” they
ask, “why don’t the scriptures tell us so in ‘letter of the law’ plainness?”
These issues are not ignored in the revelations.* The scriptures are
generally positive rather than negative in their themes, and it is a mistake
to assume that anything not specifically prohibited in the “letter of the
law” is somehow approved of the Lord. All the Lord approves is not detailed
in the scriptures, neither is all that is forbidden. The Word of Wisdom, for
instance, makes no specific warning against taking arsenic. Surely we don’t
need a revelation to tell us that!
The Lord said, “It is not meet that I should command in all things; for he
that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise
servant.” (D&C 58:26.) The prophets told us in the Book of Mormon that “men
are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil.” (2 Ne. 2:5; see
Hel. 14:31.)
Life is meant to be a test to see if we will keep the commandments of God.
(See 2 Ne. 2:5.) We are free to obey or to ignore the spirit and the letter
of the law. But the agency granted to man is a moral agency. (See D&C
101:78.) We are not free to break our covenants and escape the consequences.
The laws of God are ordained to make us happy. Happiness cannot coexist with
immorality: the prophet Alma told us in profound simplicity that “wickedness
never was happiness.” (Alma 41:10.)
Right of Choice
Always when these destructive life-styles are debated, “individual right
of choice” is invoked as though it were the one sovereign virtue. That could
be true only if there were but one of us. The rights of any individual bump
up against the rights of another. And the simple truth is that we cannot be
happy, nor saved, nor exalted, without one another.
Tolerance
The word tolerance is also invoked as though it overrules everything
else. Tolerance may be a virtue, but it is not the commanding one. There is
a difference between what one is and what one does. What one is may deserve
unlimited tolerance; what one does, only a measured amount. A virtue when
pressed to the extreme may turn into a vice. Unreasonable devotion to an
ideal, without considering the practical application of it, ruins the ideal
itself.
Abortion
Nowhere is the right of choice defended with more vigor than with
abortion. Having chosen to act, and a conception having occurred, it cannot
then be unchosen. But there are still choices; always a best one.
Sometimes the covenant of marriage has been broken; more often none was
made. In or out of marriage, abortion is not an individual choice. At a
minimum, three lives are involved.
The scriptures tell us: “Thou shalt not … kill, nor do anything like unto
it.” (D&C 59:6; italics added.)
Except where the wicked crime of incest or rape was involved, or where
competent medical authorities certify that the life of the mother is in
jeopardy, or that a severely defective fetus cannot survive birth, abortion
is clearly a “thou shalt not.” Even in these very exceptional cases, much
sober prayer is required to make the right choice.
We face such sobering choices because we are the children of God.
Man Not Just an Animal
Little do we realize what we have brought upon ourselves when we have
allowed our children to be taught that man is only an advanced animal. We
have compounded the mistake by neglecting to teach moral and spiritual
values. Moral laws do not apply to animals for they have no agency. Where
there is agency, where there is choice, moral laws must apply. We cannot,
absolutely cannot, have it both ways.
When our youth are taught that they are but animals, they feel free, even
compelled, to respond to every urge and impulse. We should not be so puzzled
at what is happening to society. We have sown the wind, and now we inherit
the whirlwind. The chickens, so the saying goes, are now coming home to
roost.
Gay and Lesbian Rights
Several publications are now being circulated about the Church which
defend and promote gay or lesbian conduct. They wrest the scriptures
attempting to prove that these impulses are inborn, cannot be overcome, and
should not be resisted; and therefore, such conduct has a morality of its
own. They quote scriptures to justify perverted acts between consenting
adults. That same logic would justify incest or the molesting of little
children of either gender. Neither the letter nor the spirit of moral law
condones any such conduct.
I hope none of our young people will be foolish enough to accept those
sources as authority for what the scriptures mean. Paul, speaking on this
very subject, condemned those “who changed the truth of God into a lie, and
worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” (Rom. 1:25.) In
that same reference the word covenantbreakers is used for the only time in
scripture. (See Rom. 1:31.)
Some choose to reject the scriptures out of hand and forsake their
covenants. But they cannot choose to avoid the consequences. That choice is
not theirs or ours or anybody’s.
All of us are subject to feelings and impulses. Some are worthy and some of
them are not; some of them are natural and some of them are not. We are to
control them, meaning we are to direct them according to the moral law.
The legitimate union of the sexes is a law of God. The sacred covenants made
by husband and wife with God protect the worthy expression of those feelings
and impulses which are vital to the continuation of the race and essential
to a happy family life. Illicit or perverted conduct leads without exception
to disappointment, suffering, to tragedy.
Local Priesthood Leaders
We receive letters pleading for help, asking why should some be tormented
by desires which lead toward addiction or perversion. They seek desperately
for some logical explanation as to why they should have a compelling
attraction, even a predisposition, toward things that are destructive and
forbidden.
Why, they ask, does this happen to me? It is not fair! They suppose that it
is not fair that others are not afflicted with the same temptations. They
write that their bishop could not answer the “why,” nor could he nullify
their addiction or erase the tendency.
We are sometimes told that leaders in the Church do not really understand
these problems. Perhaps we don’t. There are many “whys” for which we just do
not have simple answers. But we do understand temptation, each of us, from
personal experience. Nobody is free from temptations of one kind or another.
That is the test of life. That is part of our mortal probation. Temptation
of some kind goes with the territory.
What we do know is where these temptations will lead. We have watched these
life-styles play themselves out in many lives. We have seen the end of the
road you are tempted to follow. It is not likely that a bishop can tell you
what causes these conditions or why you are afflicted, nor can he erase the
temptation. But he can tell you what is right and what is wrong. If you know
right from wrong, you have a place to begin. That is the point at which
individual choice becomes operative. That is the point at which repentance
and forgiveness can exert great spiritual power.
I believe that most people are drawn into a life of drug addiction or
perversion or submit to an abortion without really realizing how morally and
spiritually dangerous they are.
A Tempter
Perhaps the worst of all conditions which we can create for ourselves is
to become a tempter and lead an innocent one into a life-style that is
destructive. The tempter entices others to come out of a “closet,” to
violate covenants which they have made with God. He promises emancipation
and exhilaration without saying that such a course may be spiritually fatal.
A tempter will claim that such impulses cannot be changed and should not be
resisted. Can you think of anything the adversary would rather have us
believe?
The Lord warned, “Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that
believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his
neck, and he were cast into the sea.” (Mark 9:42.)
Support Groups
There are support groups of many kinds which seek to fortify those
struggling to withdraw from drug addiction or to master other temptations.
On the other hand, there are organizations which do just the opposite. They
justify immoral conduct and bind the chains of addiction or perversion ever
tighter. Do not affiliate with such an organization. If you have already,
withdraw from it.
Spirit of Sympathy and Love
Now, in a spirit of sympathy and love, I speak to you who may be
struggling against temptations for which there is no moral expression. Some
have resisted temptation but never seem to be free from it. Do not yield!
Cultivate the spiritual strength to resist—all of your life, if need be.
Some are tortured by thoughts of covenants already forsaken and sometimes
think of suicide. Suicide is no solution at all. Do not even think of it.
The very fact that you are so disturbed marks you as a spiritually sensitive
soul for whom there is great hope.
You may wonder why God does not seem to hear your pleading prayers and erase
these temptations. When you know the gospel plan, you will understand that
the conditions of our mortal probation require that we be left to choose.
That test is the purpose of life. While these addictions may have devoured,
for a time, your sense of morality or quenched the spirit within you, it is
never too late.
You may not be able, simply by choice, to free yourself at once from
unworthy feelings. You can choose to give up the immoral expression of them.
The suffering you endure from resisting or from leaving a life-style of
addiction or perversion is not a hundredth part of that suffered by your
parents, your spouse or your children, if you give up. Theirs is an innocent
suffering because they love you. To keep resisting or to withdraw from such
a life-style is an act of genuine unselfishness, a sacrifice you place on
the altar of obedience. It will bring enormous spiritual rewards.
Remember that agency, that freedom of choice that you demanded when you
forsook your covenants? That same agency can now be drawn upon to exert a
great spiritual power of redemption.
The love we offer may be a tough love, but it is of the purest kind; and we
have more to offer than our love. We can teach you of the cleansing power of
repentance. If covenants have been broken, however hard it may be, they may
be reinstated, and you can be forgiven. Even for abortion? Yes, even that!
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.” (Isa. 1:18.)
God bless you who are struggling to resist or to free yourself from these
terrible temptations that now sweep across the world, and from which we are
not free in the Church. Bless those who love you and sustain you. There is
great cleansing power in the priesthood. There is great cleansing power in
the Church. It is a gospel of repentance. He is our Redeemer. Of him I bear
witness—Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, who
sacrificed himself that we might be clean. And of him I bear witness, in the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.
© 2003 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
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