Policies and Announcements

The First Presidency issued the following statement in connection with National Anti-pornography Awareness Week, which was October 28–November 4 in the United States.

Over the years leaders of 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 take this opportunity to encourage citizens of good will 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 in 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. Patronage of appropriate movies, viewing of suitable television programs, and expressions of 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, have made men and women and nations strong and free.