MAY 2006 NEWSLETTER
Fourth Annual Guardian of the Light
Award Dinner
May 3, 2006
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
“Let There Be Light”
I
am honored to be with you this evening.
For some time I have heard of the Lighted Candle Society and
particularly of the leadership John Harmer has given to this effort. Furthermore, Jim and Metta Christensen have
been dear friends for more than 25 years.
But until tonight it has not been my good fortune to see them or you or
your group in action.
As you know and surely would assume,
we in the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have
been intensifying our efforts regarding the modern plague of pornography. Indeed, I suppose it was in a meeting in my
office on this problem in which Jack Sunderlage of your board was present that
the possibility of my participation on your program tonight was born. In any case I salute all good people and all
good agencies everywhere who are doing battle against this insidious modern
enemy. Your mission statement speaks of
this as a “war against the production and distribution of pornography.” It is that; it is a war and we are happy to
join arms with any who are willing to honorably and resolutely fight this. Your use of “five smooth stones” sounds good
to one who loves the Old Testament and admires what a sling, accurately aimed,
can do to bring down a very large enemy.
And I am honored to be here on an
evening when JoAnn Hibbert Hamilton and Dr. Judith Reisman have been so
appropriately honored. Congratulations—again—to
these two exceptional women. And any
evening is wonderful that features the marvelous Michael Ballam.
Let me fulfill my assignment to say
something on the topic at hand. The
evening has already been a success. I
will try to add to that success by being brief.
What may be the most disturbing fact
of all for us in a world as repulsive as the world of pornography is the reach
of pornography into the lives of those least prepared to resist it—our
children. As you know, reliable
statistics accessing the online use of pornography are hard to come by, but a
few years ago a Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR survey found that 31 percent of
children aged 10 to 17 with computers at home had seen a pornographic Web
site. In another study by the Kaiser Foundation,
70 percent of teens aged 15 to 17 said they had accidentally come across
pornography on the Web. A survey
revealed that, nationally, 5 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 17
using the Internet had received a solicitation for sex in the past year (see
The National Academy of Sciences, Youth,
Pornography, and the Internet, 2002, 132-33).
Since these studies, now dated only
by a few years, the problem has become worse.
The number of homes with Internet access has increased dramatically, and
cell phones and other technology popular with youth can now connect with the
Web. Blogs, chat rooms, and community
Web sites like Myspace.com have proliferated, along with the potential for
contact with online sexual predators.
But of course we must always be vigilant to note that
the problem is so much larger than this.
As much as there is at least something of a national consensus on the
evils of child pornography, there is, sadly, none whatever—yet—on pornography
for and featuring adults. The scope and
significance of the problem in the adult world is more pervasive than ever.
The simple fact of the matter is pornography
victimizes everyone—those who are addicted to it, those who live with them,
a society that fosters it, a society that is trying to oppose it, even those
who create it. It contaminates everyone.
Not long ago a Protestant periodical gave an account
of a woman, now a believing, practicing Christian, who at one time acted in the
kind of films a generation ago were found only in back alley movie theaters and
are now openly sold in stores and shown on cable TV. She writes:
“[Pornography is] one of the greatest deceptions of all time. Trust me, I know. I did it all the time, and I did it for the
lust of power and the love of money. I
never liked [men or] sex. . . . In fact
I was more apt to spend time with Jack Daniels than [any other man of my
choosing. Who wouldn’t] hate being
touched by strangers who care nothing about [you. Who wouldn’t] hate being degraded. . . . Some women hate it so much you can hear them
vomiting in the bathroom between scenes. . . .
One of my friends went home after a long night of numbing her pain and
put a pistol to her head and pulled the trigger. That was her way out.
“The truth is there is no fantasy in
porn. It’s all a lie. A closer look into the scenes of a porn
star’s life will show you a movie [that] industry doesn’t want you to see. The real truth is [if] actresses want to end
the shame and trauma of our lives [in that world] we can’t do it alone. We need you . . . to fight for our freedom
and give us back our honor. . . . We
[need] you to throw out our movies and help [us] piece together the shattered
fragments of our lives. We need you to
pray for us . . . so God will hear and repair our ruined lives” (Shelley
Lubben, www.blazingrace.org/thetruth.htm).
Did you catch her references to
money and power? The industry we’re
fighting is not about men or women or love or intimacy—it’s about money, and
the power money supposedly brings. The
tragedy here is that the human soul is not a commodity of exchange, not a thing
to be consumed and discarded, a thing one can buy for $19.99 plus tax and then,
when tired or ashamed of it, throw in the trash bin.
And deep-down everyone knows that,
even those who are mired into the depths of this. One of our national associates in this fight
wrote, “When I ask men who are sex addicts if they would want their wife or
daughter to be in porn, 100 percent say, ‘No,’” she said. “All of them say, ‘No.’ They want it to be somebody else’s wife or
daughter. They know this material is
damaging [and the practice degrading.]”
Years ago one of my personal LDS heroes made this
observation:
“‘We have witnessed the reduction of
persons to things in a code number, a subscriber, a punched card. Each reduction indicates that the person is
expendable, replaceable.’ This renders
men [and women as] functionaries and destroys their being and loses for them
their self. . . . This is hauntingly
true as people are ‘used’ to gratify physical passions in illegitimacy.
“We really do not ‘love’
things. We use things like
doormats, automobiles, clothing, machines; but we love people by serving them
and contributing to their permanent good” (Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 155-56;
emphasis added).
I really don’t intend to document
the problem ad nauseam for this
audience because you are documenting it far more skillfully than I ever
could. I also don’t want to be guilty of
simply “wringing my hands and shaking my head,” a rather useless response
decried in your founding documents. So
let me light a candle or two.
Of all the characteristics ascribed to Jesus
Christ—whom the scriptures call the Light of the World—love is His most
fundamental and most enduring virtue.
We must remember that not only those who view pornography but also those
who perform it are children of God, and furthermore are someone’s son,
someone’s daughter here on earth as well.
For all their sin we need to love them, serve them, save them if we can,
and contribute to their permanent good.
We can do t hat, in the spirit of
your society, by following the pattern set by God at the outset of our earthly
experience.
The book held sacred by Jews and
Christians worldwide begins with these words:
“In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. . . .
“And God said, Let there be light:
and there was light.
“And God saw the light, that it was
good: and God divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:1, 3-4).
Our work is to divide the light from
the darkness by lighting more and more candles.
I can think of a few ways we could begin to do that.
First,
let us be clear about the holder of the candles. I find it interesting that the first thing
light reveals when a candle is lighted is the hand holding it. The Lord made this fascinating observation
about personal light.
“The light of the body is the eye:
therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but
when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
“Take heed therefore that the light
which is in thee be not darkness.
“If thy whole body therefore be full
of light, having no part dark, the whole
shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee
light” (Luke 11:33-36).
The candles we hold up for others to
see ought to be extensions of the light within ourselves. What we are shines more brightly than
anything we say or do. If we are to fill
the world with light, we must first face any tattered remnant of darkness that
remains in our own souls. Tonight, I
invite each of you to join me in regularly turning inward to confront there anything
we wouldn’t want others to see. It may
not be pornography. I am assuming it wouldn’t
be pornography for us, but it may be arrogance or unkindness, impatience or
vanity, or any number of other flaws we need to remedy. Whatever it is let us trim our lamps, add
oil, and make those changes necessary that allow us to hold up a brighter
candle, a purer light. Christ focused
some of His most pointed opprobrium for the hypocrite. We must never be guilty of that in
this battle. We must be the best person
we can be in every way we can.
Second,
let us educate ourselves. Light is
not the absence of darkness; rather, darkness is the absence of light. Light and truth exist independently. This being the case, the more light we have,
the more independent we are. The freer
we are to choose. With truth lighting
the way, we are able to see and make choices we otherwise couldn’t make.
Since we are agents with the ability
to choose, the responsibility for our education rests first with us. Others may help—teachers, parents, leaders,
friends, even those who are not friends but whose negative examples and
misguided perspectives serve to instruct what not to do or what not to
believe. Ultimately, however, the
responsibility for getting the facts straight is ours. The work is ours. The choices are ours.
Keep in mind that any knowledge we
gather can be both negative and positive.
Yes, we will gather statistics and horror stories about the impact of
the darkness on our society. But more
important, we must also fill our hearts and minds with truth and light, with
love and the Spirit of God. Too often we
allow ourselves to be forced into a defensive, remedial position when we could
be more effective by taking positive, constructive action. And nothing is more constructive than a good,
powerful, pure personal life.
Third,
as we educate ourselves, we need to educate others. The promoters of darkness often seem to have
direct access to the media microphone.
We may not be able to take that away from them, but we can at least
raise our own voices. We can teach
correct principles often and in as many ways as possible.
Since darkness is the absence of
light, surely the most powerful way to counter darkness is to fill the world
with light. One of my associates
observed recently:
“Light and darkness cannot occupy
the same space at the same time.
“Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished
and must depart. More importantly,
darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs”
(Robert D. Hales, in Conference Report, Apr. 2002, 80-81; or Ensign, May 2002, 70).
Is it not part of our work as sons
and daughters of God to encourage creative efforts that dispel darkness and
replace it with light? Indeed, one
objective of the Lighted Candle Society is to promote “positive and uplifting .
. . education and entertainment.” How
powerful a force for good would be a renaissance in literature, art,
technology, and science that adds light rather than takes it away! Such a renaissance is possible. There are among us artists and artisans who
need only to receive a little more support and encouragement from men and women
of conscience to produce works that could rival those that half a millennium
ago marked the end of Europe’s Dark Age and the rise of a wonderful new
cultural and spiritual Renaissance.
As we fill the earth with art (and
media) that is good and uplifting—as we fill the earth with light and
knowledge—our children will see the darkness for what it is. They will see that it is counterfeit, that it
brings only sorrow, pain, and emptiness.
They will come to prefer light and be attracted to that which is good
and true.
Fourth,
we can be vigilant. Some of the
most effective work we can do, as was said about the Watergate scandal, is
“follow the money.” We can keep money
out of the pockets of the merchants of immorality. Owners perspire when profits fail. We can work against the profitability of
those who merchandise in human suffering and degradation. We can alert media moguls that we will ignore
their services and the products they advertise as long as they remain in league
with those who abuse the individual, undermine the structure of the family, and
attack the moral fiber of society.
But again, if that is all we do, we
have not filled the void with light. We
must also support, encourage, and finance that which is positive and
life-affirming, art and beauty—in short, truth—that encourages people to come
out of the darkness into the light.
Lastly,
as parents we must control use of the Internet in our own homes. We need to set and enforce family rules that
protect us and our children from those who would sneak into our homes and there
replace light with darkness. As
citizens, we can seek controls on Internet use in public places. We can understand and teach others how to use
the Internet safely. This wonderful tool
is too valuable to all of us to let greedy individuals use it for their own
selfish ends.
You are well aware of the Harry
Potter books and movies by J. K. Rowling.
One of the reasons the books are so popular, I think, is that they show
children victorious in battle against dark forces. They give readers hope that, even in total
darkness, there is that spark of light.
Despite the powerful evil arrayed against them, they know they can
defeat the darkness.
But fundamental to the message of
the Harry Potter books is the idea that children don’t—indeed, can’t—fight
their battles alone. In fact, the one
gift that saves Harry over and over again is the love of his mother, who died
protecting him from evil. Without any
question one of those best “defenses against the dark arts”—to use a phrase
from the Harry Potter books—is close family ties. Parental love, family activity, gentle
teaching, and respectful conversation—sweet time together—can help keep the
generations close and build bonds that will never be broken. A strong home and the love of parents is not
infallible; we all know of children and teachers who give in to the darkness
despite the best efforts of their loved ones.
But both research and experience show that parental love and a happy
home is the strongest defense our children have against anything the lords of
darkness can throw at them.
In this regard, recent findings
bring good news: “The use of filters in
families with teens has grown 65% in four years, from around 7 million users at
the end of 2000, to close to 12 million today.
Of all families in the
These and similar statistics are
encouraging. More parents are
recognizing the need to protect their families.
Most teens (73%) report that “their household computer is located in a
public place inside the house,” and most parents (64%) reported that they set
rules about what their children do on the Internet. Unfortunately, 65% of all parents and 64% of
all teens say that teens do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents
to know about” (“Protecting Teens Online,” ii).
We still have work to do.
In my attempt this evening to add to the lighted
candles you share so generously, I hope something of what I have said finds a
place in your hearts. The second
greatest poet in the English language once wrote:
He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself his own dungeon. (
Lighting candles can be a great
adventure. Whatever else is revealed by
the light, nothing becomes as clear as what we find in our own souls.
May our journey into light be
inspirational. And may the light you
share show others the way to pure light, Eternal Light, God’s light. Thank you and God bless you.
Thank you all for your generous support!
Executive Offices -The Lighted Candle
Society
109 E. South