The Vital Nature of Change and Repentance (Quotes)

Hello friends!

Lately I think about change often; at work my job is essentially focused on the act of helping others change and I have found that by seeking to change myself first, the positive change I desire in others seems to come more naturally. So, in praise of change, and in the spirit of the Easter season, I present a list of inspiring and fun quotes about change (with some commentary).

Quotes and thoughts regarding change:

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi
This is the quote that came to mind throughout my recent trip with my wife to Sedona. We meditated and prayed and studied the gospel a lot on the trip, especially in the car and during our evening devotionals/studies and I felt the Lord’s spirit sinking this line (the one above) as well as the following one from Moroni (Book of Mormon) deep within my psyche. “Be an example of the peaceable followers of Christ.”

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. - Leo Tolstoy

These first two quotes contain truths which have taken root deep within me thanks primarily to my current leadership position at work. I did the math the other day and I serve and support nearly three hundred people and I started this position with the intent and belief of making people change (their behavior). Oops.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. - Andy Warhol

People underestimate their capacity for change. There is never a right time [easy time] to do a difficult thing. – John Porter

I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. - Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
(see the later quote by Shaw as an example of the paradoxes change forces us to confront)

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. – Henri Bergson

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. - Anatole France
This one is particularly poignant, in my opinion because there is an inherent “death” that must take place in the process of change and the ego is very afraid of death, indeed it finds ways to repel and avoid change. Fear is the enemy of change.

All great changes are preceded by chaos. - Deepak Chopra
This describes the state of education right now as we’re on the precipice of great change so there is a collective fear and clinging to the old mingled with a sense of wonder and excitement. Strange times.

The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing. - Theodore Roosevelt
This stands out to me as a manager. Everyone loves to steer from the back seat but few are willing to come up front and take the wheel. Inevitably you make a wrong turn as a leader as you well know from your many leadership roles current and past.

I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.... - Erica Jong

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them. - Andy Warhol
This is a hard truth for me to accept. I want to bend people, to change them, to help them “see” the truths that have opened my own mind and expanded my horizons and provided me greater depth and breadth of experience and happiness. This, I have found after much introspection, is one of the roots for my desire to use language to help others; I have found, however, that it is impossible to help people change unless they are willing and motivated. It is better to listen and ask questions, rather (as any therapist knows). But there is also truth in preaching and lecturing of truth. It’s the balance that is hard to strike. This is why I write.

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” -Karen Lamb

“In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” -Warren Buffett

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” –Life’s Little Instruction Book


“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain
My mother-in-law recently said I have “alternative views.” I’d agree. I think conforming to a profoundly sick society is a sign of a profoundly sick psyche. 

“By changing nothing, nothing changes.” -Tony Robbins

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” -Tony Robbins
I’ve found this is particularly true with our beliefs. If what we have are a bunch of beliefs, rather than truths which have been tested, we have very little.


“Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.” -Leo Tolstoy
It’s sort of hard to accept this truth. It also means not allowing others to persist in wrong behaviors. If we love one another we will speak up, we will, at times, reprove with sharpness but afterward show an increase in love. Sarah and I worked through this a lot in the first 5-6 years of our marriage and I now find we can be quite honest and blunt with one another without excessive emotional responses. When I try this with others, however, it does not always go over so well (especially, I think, with many of those whom I love the most such as my family members).


“As soon as anyone starts telling you to be “realistic,” cross that person off your invitation list.” –John Eliot


“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw

I love that one! It seems to contradict some of the other lines on change but—and this is another line that sunk into my psyche many times in Sedona—we have to become comfortable with the paradoxes the truth requires us to confront and accept.

FINAL WORDS:
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.” -Mary Anne Radmacher

Twenty years from now you will be disappointed more by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

Some additional thoughts about change and how it pertains to repentance:
Change has been on my mind a lot lately. I can only speak for myself, but I have many things about myself that need to be changed and I know that at the heart of our spiritual practice, change is vital. In other words, I feel the need to repent. The word repent, if we go back far enough, means the following:
c.1200, "to repair," from a shortened form of Old French amender (see amend). Meaning "to put right, atone for, amend (one's life), repent" is from c.1300; that of "to regain health" is from early 15c. Related: Mended; mending.

Going back to the root languages we find the following:
In Biblical Hebrew, the idea of repentance is represented by two verbs: שוב shuv (to return) and נחם nicham (to feel sorrow). In the New Testament, the word translated as 'repentance' is the Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia), "after/behind one's mind", which is a compound word of the preposition 'meta' (after, with), and the verb 'noeo' (to perceive, to think, the result of perceiving or observing). In this compound word the preposition combines the two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by 'after' and 'different'; so that the whole compound means: 'to think differently after'. Metanoia is therefore primarily an after-thought, different from the former thought; a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, "change of mind and heart", or, "change of consciousness".

What is the True Meaning of "Intelligence?"

While I do pretend to submit to you an authoritative definition of this term since its use is highly debatable and subjective, my personal definition is something like this: The term "intelligence" is one linguistic symbol we can use to describe the individual idiosyncratic beings, or points of consciousness (sometimes called "spirits" or "spirit children" in my spiritual tradition) that inhabit reality; in other words, you and I are "individual intelligences" with the capacity to create and develop eternally.

Below you'll find a statement about the word "intelligence" from a neo-gnostic source which I think adds a valuable dimension to my own definition. I hope you find this uplifting and helpfulin some small way:

"...intelligence is synonymous with the capacity to create. When understood in this way, our modern understanding of the word “intelligence” is revealed as being flawed. Real intelligence is creative power. Genuine intelligence is the ability and the means to create. But this is not the entire definition of intelligence. If we were to state a definition for intelligence, we would say: Intelligence is the intention and the ability to act in a beneficial way.

In other words, intelligence is the capacity to act, to create; but true intelligence—transcendental intelligence, superior intelligence—is creative power that is beneficial. In whatever scenario, in whatever situation, it is the ability to act in a beneficial way.

Another way of looking at this is to say that intelligence is the understanding of how to convert energy into a useful consequence, a result—how to work with matter and energy in order to produce the desired result.

When we look at the miracle of this physical body that we have, we see that it implies the existence of tremendous intelligence. The awe-inspiring sophistication of the many interdependent systems that sustain the moment to moment life that we enjoy, is so enormous that our simple mind cannot grasp it; we cannot comprehend it. Even the top scientists and doctors of these times cannot explain the physical body that we have; they have a limit to how much they can understand.

This is also true when we look at nature as a whole. In the entirety of nature we see an enormous, sophisticated, delicately balanced system of interlocking and interdependent laws, whose beauty and sophistication is beyond the capacity of our simple intellect to truly grasp."

Source:
http://gnosticteachings.org/the-teachings-of-gnosis/lectures-by-gnostic-instructors/689-intelligence.html

The Everlasting Yea and No

The Everlasting Yea and No

The Everlasting Yea is Carlyle's name for the spirit of faith in God in an express attitude of clear, resolute, steady, and uncompromising antagonism to the Everlasting No, and the principle that there is no such thing as faith in God except in such antagonism against the spirit opposed to God.^[11]

Carlyle in 1848.

The Everlasting No is Carlyle's name for the spirit of unbelief in God, especially as it manifested itself in his own, or rather Teufelsdröckh's, warfare against it; the spirit, which, as embodied in the Mephistopheles of Goethe, is for ever denying – der stets verneint – the reality of the divine in the thoughts, the character, and the life of humanity, and has a malicious pleasure in scoffing at everything high and noble as hollow and void.

In Sartor Resartus, the narrator moves from the "Everlasting No" to the "Everlasting Yea," but only through "The Center of Indifference," which is a position not merely ofagnosticism, but also of detachment. Only after reducing desires and certainty and aiming at a Buddha-like "indifference" can the narrator move toward an affirmation. In some ways, this is similar to the contemporary philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's "leap of faith" in Concluding Unscientific Postscript.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle#Heroes_and_Hero_Worship

The Merciful Obtain Mercy

"The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans said that those who pass judgment on others are 'inexcusable.' The moment we judge someone else, he explained, we condemn ourselves, for none is without sin. Refusing to forgive is a grievous sin—one the Savior warned against. Jesus’s own disciples had 'sought occasion against [each other] and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened.'"

—President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Merciful Obtain Mercy", General Conference, Apr. 2012
Topics: Forgiveness

Thought for the Week

"Do you want to contribute to create a happy world? Help your neighbor to find within himself what he has lost: The Love" - Goethe

To Contemplate....

"Just as one understands the difference
Between wishing to go and going on a journey,
The wise should understand these two,
Recognizing their difference and their order."

Doctrines, principles, applications

Doctrines, principles, applications
"As teachers and leaders, it is vital that we nourish those we teach and lead by focusing on the fundamental doctrines, principles, and applications emphasized in the scriptures and the words of our latter-day prophets" (Elder Daniel K. Judd, "Nourished by the Good Word of God," October 2007 General Conference).

Doctrines
Doctrines are statements/sentences.
For example, "We are all children of God."

Principles
Principles are not statements/sentences. (They seem to generally be nouns.)
For example, the first 2 principles of the gospel are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance.
Every principle is a "key word," because pondering a key word "unlocks" one's personal spiritual treasury and suggests to one's mind the associated acquired doctrines and experiences.
Applications

Applications are ways to implement doctrines and principles.
For example, Family Home Evening is one current way to implement the doctrine that parents should teach their children.

Credit to Elijan for this

Added to His Greatness

"My father had a unique experience when he was the age of a priest. There were no high schools where he lived, and he wanted an education. He received permission from his father to leave the farm and seek his education elsewhere, but he had to make it on his own. Arriving in Salt Lake City, he heard of an employment position being offered in the home of President Joseph F. Smith. He was hired to care for the prophet's two cows. . . .". . . The Smith family took this poor farm boy from Idaho into their home while he finished high school and attended the University of Utah. They included him in their family activities, around the dinner table, and at family prayer. My father shared with us his witness that the prophet Joseph F. Smith was truly a man of God: 'When I kneeled with the prophet, in family prayer, and listened to his earnest supplications for the blessings of the Lord upon his family and their flocks and their herds, I realized that those same humiliating cows were the subject of his blessings, my feet were brought solidly to earth. . . . Every common everyday act added inches to his greatness. To me he was prophet even while washing his hands or untying his shoes.' "

L. Tom Perry, "Becoming Men in Whom the Spirit of God Is," Ensign, May 2002, 39

Prison Temple

"Most of us, most of the time, speak of the facility at Liberty as a 'jail' or a 'prison'—and certainly it was that. But Elder Brigham H. Roberts (1857–1933) of the First Council of the Seventy, in recording the history of the Church, spoke of the facility as a temple, or, more accurately, a 'prison-temple.' Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) used the same phrasing in some of his writings. Certainly this prison-temple lacked the purity, beauty, comfort, and cleanliness of our modern temples. The speech and behavior of the guards and criminals who came there were anything but temple-like. In fact, the restricting brutality and injustice of this experience at Liberty would make it seem the very antithesis of the liberating, merciful spirit of our temples and the ordinances performed in them."So in what sense could Liberty Jail be called a 'temple,' and what does such a title tell us about God's love and teachings, including where and when that love and those teachings are made manifest? In precisely this sense: that you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced."

Jeffrey R. Holland, "Lessons from Liberty Jail," Ensign, Sept. 2009, 28

Topics: Faith

Man is a mystery to himself...

“Man is a mystery to himself, and but few of the inhabitants of the earth inquire into their own organization . . . A man cannot find out himself without the light of revelation; he has to turn round and seek to the Lord his God, in order to find out himself” (Brigham Young, JD 7:1, 4:271).

I hope that each of us, especially those who claim to be "spiritual" or "religious" spend time each day, if not in every moment, inquiring as to our "own organization." What am I? Who am I? This question is not to be asked once and then forgotten but should pervade our waking consciousness. In time, one will find that while his physical body sleeps, he begins to awaken in the dream state as well.

Some of My Favorite Albert Einstein Quotes

Although I am no "big" Einstein fan, I have always found what he said during his life fascinating, primarily because he was not a religious thinker but a scientist, and one of the greatest the world has ever known! The fact that the physical world can offer up so much profound knowledge is very, very intriguing and worthy of great meditation. Here are some of his famous quotations. I thought many were profoundly insightful--or simply funny--and thought I'd pass them on. Enjoy!

My commentary is italicized by the way.

* "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
* "Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Although there are issues with semantics in this one, I believe this is a profound statement with great, great truth. Knowledge is VITAL, but one of the most important aspects of knowledge is righteous imagination. It is how worlds are created!
* "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
* "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
* "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
* "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
* "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
* "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
* "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
* "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
* "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." Ask the martyrs, they know.
* "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
* "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
* "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
* "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
* "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." As a professional educator, I am constantly aware of this seeming paradox. I don't teach, I provide tools.
* "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
* "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological
criminal."
* "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
* "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
* "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Deeply profound. This is worthy of great ponder.
* "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
* "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
* "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
* "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
* "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
* "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
* "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means
nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction
between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."


You know, we often hear--and for good reason--how much misinformation and nasty stuff is on the net, but there is so much wonderful information too! Technology is constantly derided for its ill effects, but I think the most important thing to remember is that technology always magnifies, or intensifies, what already exists in the hearts and minds of men.

Why Chastity is Necessary to Walk the Path

I'm sad to report that it has come to my attention that many of the young men I know in the various spheres of my life have become entrapped by internet pornography. Furthermore, my father told me about a visit from a general authority and at a meeting, this leader stood and issued a stern warning to the men of the church. In some way, pornography has affected us all, some more than others. So, I had been thinking about the evil of pornography leading up to latest general conference. I was struck when the gentle Pres. Monson looked directly ahead and commanded, "Cease now!" He was talking to those who are ensnared by this evil. So, I have been studying chastity and meditating on why it is so vital. Here, in my opinion, are some of the reasons that chastity is so important to any true disciple who desires to partake of the fruit of the Plan of Happiness, of Exaltation in the Realms of our Father. My hope is that I--in some way--can be a champion and helpmate to those brothers who continue to struggle under the great weight of this sin. I sympathize with them and know how much happier they can be once they make the choice to do the work to remove themselves from this terrible state of being.

The mind and our sexual energy are totally united. Someone who is addicted to fornication (including mental fornication/pornography), to lust, has a mind that is filled with passion, with desire for self-satisfaction. This is antithetical to CHARITY, the most important of all godly traits. It is poisonous to charity, because lust seeks to feed itself. Pride seeks to feed itself. Anger seeks to hurt other people in order to feed itself. So all of these qualities perform wrong action and hurt other people and feed the natural man, or self. The more powerful the natural man is, the more of an enemy one is to God.

The work begins by transforming the sexual energy that we have through conscious will: self-sacrifice.

We have to understand that the positive traits of the true disciple (patience, generosity, etc.) are interrelated with each other, and they build on each other. The disciple who comprehends in his self the true nature of Charity, of Generosity, is understanding how to perform action for the benefit of others without a sense of self: that means, without self-interest. Such a person acts because it benefits other people. It can be said that when the the True Disciple acts, he acts on behalf of others without concern for his own needs.

Lust, fornication, pornography, masturbation are in direct opposition to charity. They are the polar opposite and he who engages in these acts embodies the spirit of selfishness and embody the devil and his demons. They feed these negative spiritual energies and generate great woe not only for themselves, but for others.

------------------------

Pornography is any material depicting or describing the human body or sexual conduct in a way that arouses sexual feelings. It is distributed through many media, including magazines, books, television, movies, music, and the Internet. It is as harmful to the spirit as tobacco, alcohol, and drugs are to the body. Using pornographic material in any way is a violation of a commandment of God: "Thou shalt not . . . commit adultery . . . nor do anything like unto it" (D&C 59:6). It can lead to other serious sins. Members of the Church should avoid pornography in any form and should oppose its production, distribution, and use.

Pornography is tragically addictive. Like other addictions, it leads people to experiment and to seek more powerful stimulation. Those who experiment with it and allow themselves to remain caught in its trap will find that it will destroy them, degrading their minds, hearts, and spirits. It will rob them of self-respect and of their sense of the beauties of life. It will tear them down and lead them to evil thoughts and possibly evil actions. It will cause terrible damage to their family relationships.

Because of the addictive nature of pornography and the harm it can cause to body and spirit, servants of God have repeatedly warned us to shun it. Those who are caught in the trap of pornography should stop immediately and seek help. Through repentance, those who have been addicted can receive forgiveness and find hope in the gospel. Bishops and branch presidents can provide counsel on how to overcome this problem. The Atonement of Jesus Christ can provide the needed healing as people prayerfully seek the Lord's help.

First Presidency Message Pornography, the Deadly Carrier

By President Thomas S. Monson
First Counselor in the First Presidency

I remember reading about woodcutters laying their massive axes and power saws to the stately and once mighty elm trees that graced the countryside surrounding England’s Heathrow Airport.

It was said some of the majestic monarchs were over 100 years old. One wondered how many persons had admired their beauty, how many picnics had been enjoyed in their welcome shade, how many generations of songbirds had filled the air with music while capering among the outstretched and luxuriant branches.

Yet the patriarchal elms were dead. Their demise was not the result of old age, recurring drought, or the strong winds which occasionally lash the area. Their destroyer was much more harmless in appearance yet deadly in result. We know the culprit as the bark beetle, carrier of the fatal Dutch elm disease. This malady has destroyed vast elm forests throughout Europe and America. Its march of death continues. Many efforts at control have failed.

Dutch elm disease usually begins with a wilting of the younger leaves in the upper part of the tree. Later the lower branches become infected. In about midsummer most of the leaves turn yellow, curl, and drop off. Life ebbs. Death approaches. A forest is consumed. The bark beetle has taken its terrible toll.

How like the elm is man. From a minute seed and in accordance with a divine plan, we grow, are nurtured, and mature. The bright sunlight of heaven, the rich blessings of earth are ours. In our private forest of family and friends, life is richly rewarding and abundantly beautiful. Then suddenly, there appears before us in this generation a sinister and diabolical enemy—pornography. Like the bark beetle, it too is the carrier of a deadly disease. I shall name it “pernicious permissiveness.”

At first we scarcely realize we have been infected. We laugh and make lighthearted comment concerning the off-color story or the clever cartoon. With evangelical zeal we protect the so-called rights of those who would contaminate with smut and destroy all that is precious and sacred. The beetle of pornography is doing his deadly task—undercutting our will, destroying our immunity, and stifling that upward reach within each of us.

Can this actually be true? Surely this matter of pernicious permissiveness is not so serious. What are the facts? Let’s look! Let’s listen! Then let’s act!

Pornography and Crime

Pornography, the carrier, is big business. It is evil. It is contagious. It is addicting. It is estimated that in recent years Americans alone spent $8–10 billion per year on hard-core pornography 1—a fortune siphoned away from noble use and diverted to a devilish purpose!

Apathy toward pornography stems mostly from a widespread public attitude that it is a victimless crime and that police resources are better used in other areas. Many state and local ordinances are ineffective, sentences are light, and the huge financial rewards far outweigh the risks.

One study points out that pornography may have a direct relationship to sex crimes. In the study, 87 percent of convicted molesters of girls and 77 percent of convicted molesters of boys admit to the use of pornography, most often in commission of their crimes. 2

Some publishers and printers prostitute their presses by printing millions of pieces of pornography each day. No expense is spared. The finest of paper, the spectrum of full color combine to produce a product certain to be read, then read again. Nor are the movie or Web site producer, the television programmer, or the entertainer free from taint. Gone are the restraints of yesteryear. So-called realism is the quest.

One leading box office star lamented: “The boundaries of permissiveness have been extended to the limit. The last film I did was filthy. I thought it was filthy when I read the script, and I still think it’s filthy; but the studio tried it out at a Friday night sneak preview and the audience screamed its approval.”

Another star declared, “Movie makers, like publishers, are in the business to make money, and they make money by giving the public what it wants.”

Some persons struggle to differentiate between what they term “soft-core” and “hard-core” pornography. Actually, one leads to another. How applicable is Alexander Pope’s classic “Essay on Man”:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 3

The constant, consuming march of the pornography beetle blights neighborhoods just as it contaminates human lives. It has just about destroyed some areas. It moves relentlessly closer to your city, your neighborhood, and your family. Pornography is now more available than ever. At the click of a button, evil can be viewed in our homes on televisions and computer screens, in our hotels and movie theaters, or even in our places of employment, where access to the Internet is often provided.

Warning

An ominous warning was voiced by Laurence M. Gould, former president of Carleton College: “I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I don’t think our civilization will die that way. I think it will die when we no longer care. Arnold Toynbee has pointed out that 19 of 21 civilizations have died from within and not by conquest from without. There were no bands playing and flags waving when these civilizations decayed. It happened slowly, in the quiet and the dark when no one was aware.” 4

I remember reading a review of a new movie. The leading actress told the reporter that she objected initially to the script and the part she was to play. The role portrayed her as the sexual companion of a 14-year-old boy. She commented: “At first I said, ‘No way will I agree to such a scene.’ Then I was given the assurance that the boy’s mother would be present during all intimate scenes, so I agreed.”

I ask: Would a mother stand by watching were her son embraced by a cobra? Would she subject him to the taste of arsenic or strychnine? Mothers, would you? Fathers, would we?

From the past of long ago we hear the echo so relevant today:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” 5

Today we have a rebirth of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. From seldom-read pages in dusty Bibles they come forth as real cities in a real world, depicting a real malady—pernicious permissiveness.

Our Battle Plan

We have the capacity and the responsibility to stand as a bulwark between all we hold dear and the fatal contamination of the pornography beetle. May I suggest three specific steps in our battle plan:

First, a return to righteousness. An understanding of who we are and what God expects us to become will prompt us to pray—as individuals and as families. Such a return reveals the constant truth: “Wickedness never was happiness.” 6 Let not the evil one dissuade. We can yet be guided by that still, small voice—unerring in its direction and all-powerful in its influence.

Second, a quest for the good life. I speak not of the fun life, the sophisticated life, the popular life. Rather, I urge each to seek eternal life—life everlasting with mother, father, brothers, sisters, husband, wife, sons, and daughters, forever and forever together.

Third, a pledge to wage and win the war against pernicious permissiveness. As we encounter that evil carrier, the pornography beetle, let our battle standard and that of our communities be taken from that famous ensign of early America, “Don’t tread on me.” 7

Let us join in the fervent declaration of Joshua: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 8

Let our hearts be pure. Let our lives be clean. Let our voices be heard. Let our actions be felt.

Then the beetle of pornography will be halted in its deadly course. Pernicious permissiveness will have met its match. And we, with Joshua, will safely cross over Jordan into the promised land—even to eternal life in the celestial kingdom of our God.