Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Dangers of Porn

“There are forces at work in this country today which are victimizing many thousands of our youth, undermining their moral fiber, poisoning their minds. There is being spread about in this land a veritable flood of obscene photographs, movie films "for private showings," filthy books, and so-called comics that drip with depravity and obscenity. . . .

Three-fourths of these circulars are sent to our youth. . . . Our boys and girls need not have shown any interest in this vile stuff. . . .

Some parents are almost frantic because of their inability to keep this unwanted material out of their homes. . . .

What are we going to do about it? Shall we fold our arms, shake our heads dismally, and do nothing?

Shall we permit organized crime to continue and extend the obscenity racket . . . and make it really big and immeasurably more vicious?

Shall we allow more and more of our children to be victimized, allow them to be "hooked" by this menace to clean and right living, this threat to moral purity?

Shall we sit by and watch sex crimes grow and grow in number and violence?

Shall we permit these cheap peddlers of filth to undermine the moral fiber of our youth, the moral strength of our nation?

I believe I know what our pioneer forefathers would have answered to these questions.

And I think I know what you and other responsible citizens will answer. They would have said, as we say today: "Forbid it, Almighty God. We shall not sit by any longer. We shall act in defense of decency and order and in the name of our country." . . .

We must defend our youth, in the interests of this nation which God has blessed above all others. We must rise to this task, stand up and be counted on the side of decency. We must show by our lives and actions that we possess the virtues that made America great. There will be those who will cry 'censorship' and 'suppressing of freedom of information.' To these people there does not seem to be any difference between liberty and license--but there is a real difference. It is not a denial of liberty to forbid the sale of narcotics or alcohol to children, and neither is it a denial of liberty to ban the distribution of filthy, obscene, character-destroying materials.

There has developed in this country, I am sorry to say, a species of so-called "broadmindedness" which tolerates anything and everything. It is high time right-thinking citizens showed they are fed up with such false broadmindedness. I for one fail to see where this so-called "tolerance" of evil has made society any better or individuals any happier. We cannot steer a safe course without a compass. We cannot build an enduring society except on principles of righteousness.”


Ezra Taft Benson. 

1 comment:

  1. Awesome quote. I love this part especially: It is not a denial of liberty to forbid the sale of narcotics or alcohol to children, and neither is it a denial of liberty to ban the distribution of filthy, obscene, character-destroying materials.
    SO TRUE.

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