Doctrinal Library

Choose to Serve

The challenges to live in the world are great. In many ways these challenges are more difficult for you young people today than they were when I was your age. In a recent issue of a national magazine the whole issue of morality was examined. Let me quote from that article: … A major legal and ethical dilemma for Americans is abortion. Before 1973, it was illegal in most states and practiced sub rosa. Today, it is legal in most cases, widely practiced and under furious attack.

A Banquet of Consequences: The Cumulative Result of All Choices

Nevertheless, Lucifer has supported abortion and convinced many people in a horrific paradigm shift that children represent lost opportunity and misery instead of joy and happiness. As Latter-day Saints, we must be at the forefront of changing hearts and minds on the importance of children. The attacks on the family that I just described ultimately result in grief and misery.

The Instrument of Your Mind and the Foundation of Your Character

People write asking what is the position of the Church on the Word of Wisdom, for instance, on soft drinks or something. And we think, “Why do they have to ask?” It is a principle, and you have the freedom to do as you will. You do not have to be commanded in all things. Without having to have the Church deliver a statement on it, you should know what the Lord’s position is on abortion or cloning or same-gender marriage or birth control. All of those things are built in as a part of what we know and what we are. There are many things that cannot be understood or taught or explained unless it is in terms of the plan of redemption. Unless you understand the basic plan—the premortal existence, the purpose of life, the Fall, the Atonement, the Resurrection—unless you understand that, the unmarried, the abused, the handicapped, the abandoned, the addicted, the disappointed, those with gender disorientation, or the intellectuals will find no enduring comfort. You will not think life is fair unless you know the plan of redemption.

The Family

We can understand why our Heavenly Father commands us to reverence life and to cherish the powers that produce it as sacred.

A Light on a Hill

Breakdown of the Family. Author Charles Murray said that “illegitimacy is the single most important social problem of our time—more important than crime, drugs, poverty, illiteracy, welfare or homelessness because it drives everything else” (p. 48; emphasis added). “Since 1972, there have been more than 28 million abortions in the United States. . . . Eighty-three percent of abortions are performed on white females, and 17 percent on minority women” (pp. 68–69). “Approximately 40 percent of teenage pregnancies, about 400,000 a year, end in abortion. Teens account for more than one-quarter of the total number of abortions in the U.S. annually” (p. 75). Even so, “the rate of births to unmarried teenagers has increased almost 200 percent since 1960” (p. 72).

The Lord’s Side

Abortion rights are supported by 59 percent of the country [which is appalling] compared to Hollywood’s 97 percent. [See Chris Hicks, “Hollywood’s Values Clash with Our Own,” Deseret News, 19 July 1992, p. E9] Truly, parents and children will need to be diligent and cautious in choosing what type of entertainment to take into their homes.
Isn’t it interesting that these groups consider it “freedom of expression” to profane the Lord’s name and use obscenities, but oppose prayer in public places? These groups combat public faith yet uphold the right of anyone to have an abortion. They openly oppose good and love evil. Being on the Lord’s side means not only that we shun evil, but that we seek and cultivate the good wherever it can be found, whether within or without the Church.

Inexhaustible Gospel

Being so immersed in the gospel framework, we sometimes fail to realize how illuminating gospel truths are with regard to so many issues of the day. For instance, given the plan of salvation with our need to experience this mortal school, to acquire a mortal body, and then knowing the very preciousness of human life—we see the awful practice of widespread abortion differently. Similarly, struggling to have the “mind of Christ” includes purity of thought and letting virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly. Hence we view pornography as an awful and enslaving thing. We cannot feel otherwise concerning such practices as abortion and pornography, even if practices such as abortion and pornography are legally and constitutionally protected.

The Sacred Responsibilities of Parenthood

The attacks on the family also undermine the value of life—particularly the life of the unborn. Life is being trivialized and subjected to the vacillating whims of convenience and political correctness. You will find it troubling as I do that between 1950 and 1997, some 46 industrialized countries and nine developing nations legalized or removed most restrictions on abortion. Each year an estimated 46 million abortions take place worldwide. Indeed, some estimate that induced abortions end one-fourth of all pregnancies.

As a Little Child

I testify that [babies and children] are images of the kingdom of God flourishing on earth in all of its strength and beauty.

Fear Not: Believe Only!

In a world that so desperately needs all the light it can get, please do not minimize the eternal light God put into your soul before this world was.