Statements on Pornography

Statements by Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Concerning Pornography
By Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Š1988, by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Used by the Foundation with permission

FIRST PRESIDENCY STATEMENTS
         Pornography is sweeping across the world with increasing momentum and devastating impact. It is difficult to avoid the impact pornography has upon our lives. Its pervasive, immoral, and destructive influence is felt in the media, the workplace, conversations, social activities, and homes in every land.
         Because of the addictive influence of pornography, one at first may simply tolerate its existence, then unconsciously come to accept it until moral feelings become desensitized, no longer outraged at its content. Pornography is a poison to the mind and spirit, ruining the lives and homes of innocent men, women, and children.
         Let us resolve to keep our minds, our bodies, and our spirits free from the corrupting influence of pornography.
         Let our voices be heard in the communities where we reside. People of good will, united in a worthy cause, and aided by divine power, can have profound impact on the quality of life in their communities. Let us unitedly exercise our faith and work to find solutions, prayerfully seeking help from the God of Heaven.
         May we be blessed in our efforts as we stand in defense of those virtues that make men and women and nations strong and victorious over evil.
         The First Presidency --Ezra Taft Benson Gordon B. Hinckley Thomas S. Monson 1 June 1988

         Over the years The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have repeatedly warned in plainest terms of the growing deluge of pornographic material that is pouring across the world. Our counsel and warnings concerning these sordid and lascivious elements have been clear and consistent.
         We again ---encourage citizens of goodwill to be aware of the dangers posed by the production and distribution of obscene and pornographic materials, under whatever guise, and to join in thoughtful appropriate opposition to this evil in our society, and to support goodness, decency and virtue.
         Our efforts, of course, will not influence others the direction of virtue unless we ourselves also live lives of virtue. Adults must not only discipline themselves against the pornographic onslaught to which they may be exposed, they must also strengthen the rising generation by example and by teaching in the home.
         Parents must cultivate within the young an appreciation for the best books, reading to them the great stories which have become immortal because of the virtues they teach...
         Appreciation for what is good, and displeasure for what is bad should be part of the family experience.
         In such ways, people of good will, united in a worthy cause, may stand successfully in defense of those virtues which, when practiced in the past, made men and women and nations strong and free.
        The First Presidency ---Spencer W. Kimball, Marion G. Romney, Gordon B. Hinckley --28 October 1984

         We have long been concerned about the shocking inroads of pornography in our society, not only in the United States but around the world. Licentiousness masquerades in the robes of liberty as profiteers prey upon young and old alike and loose a veritable flood of evil.
         We ... call upon people of good will to support efforts to adopt reasonable and constitutional laws and regulations to reduce and remove the corrupting influence of pornography from our society.
        The First Presidency Spencer W. Kimball Marion C. Romney Cordon B. Hinckley (from a letter to President Ronald Reagan)
2 June 1985

WHAT IS PORNOGRAPHY?

        We hope that our parents and leaders will not tolerate pornography. It is really garbage, but today is peddled as normal and satisfactory food.....
         ...It is sad that decent people are thrown into the filthy area of mental and spiritual pollution. We call upon all of our people to do all in their power to offset this ugly revolution.
        It is ridiculous to imply that pornography has no effect. .
        It is utterly without redeeming social value. We urge our families to protect their children in every way possible. We live in a permissive world, but we must make certain we do not become a part of that degenerate world.
        We are shocked at the depths to which many people of this world go to assert their freedom.
        We fear that the trends of permissiveness toward immorality are destroying the moral fabric of our generation.
        President Spencer W. Kimball---17 January, 1976

        Pornography . . . is a growing, vile, and evil thing. It is on our motion picture screens, it comes into the homes of the people on television receivers, it is on newsstands, it reaches out in other ways to entrap and beguile and destroy those who are enticed to partake of it. I am satisfied, my brethren and sisters, that no Latter-day Saint can with impunity afford to witness or read or partake of this growing evil in any way. God help us and bless us with the self-discipline to resist and abstain and flee from, if necessary, this pernicious and growing thing which would destroy us.
        President Cordon B. Hinckley Counselor in the First Presidency General Conference, October 1982

        Pornography is a tool of the devil to twist instincts to forbidden ends The real purpose of its creation is to put dollars in the pockets of its creators. The result of its use is to warp the minds and excite the passions of those who fall into its trap.
        President Gordon B. Hinckley Counselor in the First Presidency 11 December 1982

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY?
        A diet of violence or pornography dulls the senses. . . . Soon the person is desensitized and is unable to react in a sensitive, caring, responsible manner, especially to those in his own home and family. Good people can become infested with this material and it can have terrifying, destructive consequences.
        Elder Marvin J. Ashton Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles General Conference, October 1977

        Over the past twenty years a plague of pornography has swept across most countries of the world with increasing momentum and devastating impact. What began a few years ago as a few crude picture magazines that startled sensitive people has grown to hundreds of publications, each seeking to outdo the others with increasingly shocking content. Pornography is not a victimless crime. Continued exposure desensitizes the spirit and can erode the conscience of unwary people. A victim becomes a slave to carnal thoughts and actions. As the thought is father to the deed, exposure can lead to acting out what is nurtured in the mind....
        ...Pornography degrades and exploits men, and women, and children in a most ugly and corrupt fashion.
        Elder David B. Haight Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles General Conference, October 1984

        There is an ever-growing plague of pornography swirling about us. The producers and purveyors of smut are assiduously working a mine that yields them many millions in profit. Some of their products are artfully beguiling. They are designed to titillate and stimulate the baser instincts. Many a man who has partaken of forbidden fruit and then discovered that he has destroyed his marriage, lost his self-respect, and broken his companion's heart, has come to realize that the booby-trapped jungle trail he has followed began with the reading or viewing of pornographic material.
        President Gordon B. Hinckley Counselor in the First Presidency General Conference, October 1983

        I need not tell you the influence for evil that obscenity and pornography exert on an individual and on a community.
        President N. Eldon Tanner Counselor in the First Presidency 30 January 1979

        Pornography or erotic stories and pictures are worse than filthy or polluted food. The body has defenses to rid itself of unwholesome food. With a few fatal exceptions, bad food will only make you sick but do no permanent harm. In contrast, a person who feasts upon filthy stories or pornographic or erotic pictures and literature records them in this marvelous retrieval system we call a brain. The brain won't vomit back filth. Once recorded it will always remain subject to recall, flashing its perverted images across your mind and drawing you away from the wholesome things in life.
        Elder Dallin H. Oaks Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (then president of Brigham Young University) 6 September 1973

        Our minds, which are like tremendous reservoirs . . . are capable of taking in whatever they may be fed, good and bad, righteous thoughts and experiences as well as trash and garbage. It is a long, long process to cleanse a mind that has been polluted.
        Bishop H. Burke Peterson September 1984

WHAT MUST WE DO?
In the Home

        We need to constantly guard against immorality, pornography, and sexual permissiveness that would destroy the purity of the family members, young and old...
        ... We must be constantly alert to their evil presence in our homes and destroy them as we would the germs and filth of disease. We must hunt them from the closets of our minds, freeing ourselves of such worldliness, quenching the embers of wickedness before they become destructive flames.
        President Spencer W. Kimball General Conference, April 1979

We abhor pornography that seems to be flooding the land... The best way to stop it is to have men and women, with their families, build barriers against it.
President Spencer W. Kimball General Conference, April 1975

As individuals

        Each person must keep himself clean and free from lusts. He must shun ugly, polluted thoughts and acts as he would an enemy. Pornography and erotic stories and pictures are worse than polluted food. Shun them.
        President Spencer W. Kimball The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball

        Watch what you read. No good and much harm can come of reading pornographic magazines and other such literature. They will only stimulate within you thoughts that will weaken your discipline of yourself. No good will come of going to movies that are designed to take from you your money and give you in exchange only weakened wills and base desires.
        President Gordon B. Hinckley Counselor in the First Presidency General Conference, October 1981

        So long as men are corrupt and revel in sewer filth, entertainers will sell them what they want. Laws may be passed, arrests may be made, lawyers may argue, courts may sentence men of corrupt minds, but pornography and allied insults to decency will never cease until men have cleansed their minds. . . . When the customer is sick and tired of being drowned in filth . . . he will not pay for that filth and its source will dry up. . .
        Hence it is obvious that to remain clean and worthy, one must stay positively and conclusively away from the devil's territory, avoiding the least approach toward evil. Satan leaves his fingerprints.
        President Spencer W. Kimball The Miracle of Forgiveness

        Let each of us resolve this day to keep our minds, our bodies, and our spirits free from the corrupting influence of pornography, including everything that is obscene and indecent.
        Elder David B. Haight Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles General Conference, October 1984

As Citizens

        Members of the Church everywhere are urged to not only resist the widespread plague of pornography, but as citizens to become actively and relentlessly engaged in the fight against this insidious enemy of humanity around the world ... We urge Latter-day Saints to get involved as citizens and fight obscenity ... We say to you: Teach your children to avoid smut as the plague it is. As citizens, join in the fight against obscenity in your communities. Do not be lulled into inaction by the pornographic profiteers who say that to remove obscenity is to deny people the rights of free choice. Do not let them masquerade licentiousness as liberty. ..
        Sins spawned by pornography unfortunately perpetuate other serious transgressions.
       President Spencer W. Kimball General Conference, October 1976

        We need men and women of courage and conviction in these offices of public trust if the awful tide is to be stemmed. . . Lawmaking bodies will listen to effectively organized citizens. However, too often the trend is tragically toward citizen apathy and a sense of futility ... What, then is need to reverse this ominous insult to ourselves, our families, and our communities? Only when men women concerned for their families and communities let heir voices and their influence be felt in thoughtful, rational ways will we alter the destructive course on which we are traveling ... ... Let our voices be heard in our communities... If something offends standards of decency, our voices should be heard.
        Elder David B. Haight General Conference, October 1984

CAN LAWS BE ENFORCED?

        Perhaps we have been intimidated by those who claim that producing, distributing, and using obscene materials is a basic right to be defended. This is not true. Even under the divinely inspired constitutional principles of this land, obscenity is not condoned nor protected. The United States Supreme Court has clearly held that criminal prosecution of those who produce and distribute obscene materials does not violate their First Amendment rights. (Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 1973.)...
        Unfortunately, many people assume that even hard-core pornography is legal because it is so prevalent. But that is not true. Some public prosecutors may excuse themselves from seeking enforcement of obscenity laws by explaining that community standards determine what is obscene. They therefore conclude that because the community tolerates such material, its presence must reflect the accepted community standard. Concerned citizens----you and I------can change this misunderstanding.
        Elder David B. Haight Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles General Conference, October 1984

        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.
        President Thomas S. Monson Counselor in the First Presidency General Conference, October 1979

        While pornography is a moral issue, it is also an issue of survival-survival for the individual, the family, and the nation. Fortunately we have protective laws in place which for the most part could, if enforced, keep the enemy of obscenity from our doors. But a law unenforced is as ineffective as a weapon never fired. Why do we not enforce the laws and protect our citizens?.
        Ardeth G. Kapp General President of the Young Women Organization 22 January 1986

OUR CHALLENGE
I believe the challenge to oppose this evil is one from which members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as citizens, cannot shrink. And if we are ever to begin, let it be now.... The tide of evil flows. It has become a veritable flood. Most of us, living somewhat sheltered lives, have little idea of the vast dimensions of it. Billions of dollars are involved for those who pour out pornography, for those who peddle lasciviousness, for those who deal in bestiality, in perversion, in sex and violence. God give us the strength, the wisdom, the faith, the courage as citizens to stand in opposition to these and to let our voices be heard in defense of those virtues which, when practiced in the past, made men and nations strong, and which, when neglected, brought them to decay.
President Gordon B. Hinckley Counselor in the First Presidency General Conference, October 1975

SOURCES

Ashton, Marvin J. In Conference Report, October 1977, p. 108. (Also Ensign, November 1977, p. 71.)
"First Presidency Issues Statement against the Evils of Pornography." Church News, 28 October 1984, p.3.
"First Presidency Lauds Appointment of Federal Pornography Commission." Church News, 2 June 1985, p.3.
Haight, David B. In Conference Report, October 1984, pp. 87-90. (Also Ensign, November 1984, pp. 70-72.)
Hinckley, Gordon B. Church News, 11 December 1982, p.6.
- In Conference Report, October 1975, pp. 57, 59. (Also Ensign, November 1975, pp. 38, 40.)
- In Conference Report, October 1981, p. 59. (Also Ensign, November 1981, p. 41.)
- In Conference Report, October 1982, p. ill. (Also Ensign, November 1982, p.76.)
- In Conference Report, October 1983, p.66. (Also Ensign, November 1983, p.45.)
Kapp, Ardeth G. Remarks given before the United States Attorney General's Commission on Pornography 22 January 1986 in New York City. Reported in Ensign, April 1986, p. 75.
Kimball, Spencer W. Church News, 17 January 1976, p.8.
- In Conference Report, April 1975, pp. 8-9. (Also Ensign, May 1975, p.7.)
- In Conference Report, October 1976, pp. 5~ (Also Ensign, November 1976, pp. 5-6.)
- In Conference Report, April 1979, p.5. (Also Ensign, May 1979,.)
- The Miracle of Forgiveness. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969, pp229, 232.
- The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball. Edited by Edward L. Kimball Salt Lake City; Bookcraft, 1982, p. 283.
Monson, Thomas S. In Conference Report, October 1979, p 96. (Also Ensign, November 1979, p 66.)
Oaks, Dallin H. "Challenges for the Year Ahead." Speech given at Brigham Young University, 6 September 1973.
Peterson, H. Burke. "Clean Thoughts, Pure Lives." Ensign, September 1984, pp. 70-73.
Tanner, N. Eldon. "Going Forth to Serve." Speech given 3O January 1979. In 1979 Devotional Speeches of the Year. Provo: Brigham Young University, 1979.

Copyright Š 1986,1988 Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints All rights reserved. Printed in the United
States of America. Permission obtained by the Foundation from Church March 2001.