I received the following from one of my friends in regards to the KSL article on Utah being the #1 porn state (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705288350,00.html) that I forwarded yesterday. While the study referenced was not entirely accurate and a follow up article on KSL today diminishes the claim of Utah being #1 (http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5744801), my friend had some great thoughts. I included my response to him as well. I would be interested in any of your thoughts, so please reply if you want. If not, I apologize for sending over too much stuff, I never want to be that guy that forwards every little thing.
Response to article from my friend:
Ok, not great...but think about WHY. If you ask me, its because there are so many things that are denied to the people of Utah. I don't CHOOSE to look at porn, but seriously (and I am NOT a liberal weirdo) how much of Utah is controlled by the ultra conservative group? If you WANTED to look at porn, you can't get it on TV...if you WANTED to buy alcohol on Sunday, you can't get it in some Utah counties. If you WANTED a bloody pizza on Sunday, you can't get one in Utah county! Everything is closed. It's like all these debates about alcohol laws and removing the member label from clubs. What a joke!
I don't CHOOSE to do these things, but we have to remember, our Gospel is based on the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. The entire Gospel plan is comprised of FREE AGENCY. Personally, I would love it if they would destroy porn, alcohol and everything else that is unrighteous....but if we did, then really, who's plan would that be??? I am honestly grateful that these choices exist, and that I CHOOSE not to participate in them. But I also know that when the rights of one man are diminished, the rights of all men are threatened.
Guess I got on a little soap box there...
My response to friend (I added one part after I sent it to him):
Joseph Smith said “I teach them the correct principles and let them govern themselves”. What you said, and how eloquently you said it, is the primary reason I think many people struggle with choice. Many feel as though they are being forced to live a certain way, and that it is not their choice. I know the standards that are trying to be maintained, and many need those sort of additional rules to live them. However, many more rebel because they feel like they have no choice. I agree that the greatest gift our Heavenly Father gave us was our agency. It was so important that he was willing to let 1/3 of all his kids leave because Satan’s plan took agency away, the right to choose. In my opinion, there is no better gift to our Heavenly Father than when we take the gift of agency he gave us, and choose to do the right. When we choose, of our own free will, to follow Him, we then can draw upon the powers of heaven.
I do not think that Heavenly Father wants us to be told and commanded in all things. “it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.” (D&C 58:26). Heavenly Father doesn’t want a bunch of mindless followers, who make no choices. That was Satan’s plan, to force all of us to obey, have no choice, and all would return. While that might sound appealing, having all his children return to him, it would be at the cost of agency. He knew he couldn’t do that, and that he wouldn’t want to do that. He wants his sons and daughters to make choices, and choose to follow Him. He is wanting us to become Gods, not robots. The plan of salvation is a plan of choices, making good ones and bad ones. When bad ones are made, we repent, ask for forgiveness, and try to do better. In the process, we face consequences for those bad choices. When we make good choices, we don’t always have immediate blessings, but we are empowered from on high.
On a side note, agency is not free. In the scriptures it is never referred to as free agency, because the ability or right to choose came a hefty price. It cost Heavenly Father 1/3 of his children. It cost the Savior his life, to give us the ability to choose and then he would make up the debt to justice when we choose poorly. It cost so many good men and women their lives to defend our right to choose. My grandfather lost many friends, and nearly his own life in WWII when he was shot 5 times. We live in a country where we do get to choose (for the most part), and that ability to choose has been defended by brave men and women thru many conflicts. You defend our right to choose everyday as a police officer by taking those off the streets who have used their ability to choose in bad ways. How many cops have lost their lives in our service? So while the right and ability to choose does indeed exist, and it is a divinely mandated principle, it is not free, as it came at a very steep cost. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price (1st Corinthians 6:13-20). That price was the Savior’s life, and the lives of many good men and women.
Scoot over, I am joining you on the soap box (we might need a bigger one, I went on a cruise and ate way too much. Talk about your bad choices and now my shirt is tight, my belt is about to break, and I tried to play basketball last night and felt like having a heart attack. Guess I am facing those consequences for bad choices, :))
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