(Isa. 5:20; D&C 121:16–17; 2 Ne. 28:22; refer in Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Bassett, to Alma 30:12–28)
Satan uses his deceptive influence to change peoples’ perception of evil… . The great switch in values has taken place in many areas, such as our music, movies, marriages, dress, and family size. Things that are wholesome, modest, or uplifting are often ridiculed or demeaned as worthless, outdated, or unrealistic. Things that bring fleeting, temporary pleasure are valued most in today’s world. Concerning this moral inversion, Elder W. Grant Bangerter declared, “The voices and enticements of the world make good seem evil and evil, good. The false attractions to engage in immorality, to view that which is forbidden on your home video, to seek unbounded pleasure as if God did not exist, are, in reality, the yawning pit of hell, set there by the one who will try to bind you with his awful chains.”
(Clyde J. Williams, Doctrines of the Book of Mormon,ed. Bruce A. Van Orden and Brent L. Top [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1992], 246–47.)
The fact that some governments and some churches and numerous corrupted individuals have tried to reduce such behavior from criminal offense to personal privilege does not change the nature nor the seriousness of the practice.
(Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Nov. 1980, 97.)
In the summertime one of our responsibilities was to haul hay from the fields into the barn for winter storage… . One day, in one of the loose bundles pitched onto the wagon was a rattlesnake! When I looked at it, I was concerned, excited, and afraid. The snake was laying in the nice, cool hay. The sun was glistening on its diamond back. After a few moments the snake stopped rattling, became still, and I became very curious. I started to get closer and leaned over for a better look, when suddenly I heard a call from my father: “David, my boy, you can’t pet a rattlesnake!” …
I would like to talk to you about the dangers of petting poisonous snakes … today’s popular entertainment often makes what is evil and wrong look enjoyable and right. Let us remember the Lord’s counsel: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” (Isa. 5:20).
Pornography, though billed by Satan as entertainment, is a deeply poisonous, deceptive snake that lies coiled up in magazines, the Internet, and the television. Pornography destroys self-esteem and weakens self-discipline. It is far more deadly to the spirit than the rattlesnake my father warned me not to pet.”
(David E. Sorensen, Ensign, May 2001, 41.)
Across the desk from me sat a handsome nineteen-year-old boy and a beautiful, shy, but charming eighteen-year-old girl… . They admitted they had broken the moral code and thus gone contrary to some standards, but they quoted magazines and papers and speakers approving premarital sex and emphasizing that sex was a fulfillment of human existence… .
Finally, the boy said, “Yes, we yielded to each other, but we do not think it was wrong because we love each other.” I thought I had misunderstood him. Since the world began there have been countless immoralities, but to hear them justified by a Latter-day Saint youth shocked me. He repeated, “No, it is not wrong, because we love each other.” …
The Savior said that if it were possible the very elect would be deceived by Lucifer. He uses his logic to confuse and his rationalizations to destroy. He will shade meanings, open doors an inch at a time, and lead from purest white through all the shades of gray to the darkest black.
This young couple looked up rather startled when I postulated firmly, “No, my beloved young people, you did not love each other. Rather, you lusted for each other.” … As far back as Isaiah, deceivers and rationalizers were condemned: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’ (Isa. 5:20).
(Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball,ed. Edward L. Kimball, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], 278–79.)
I speak of the importance of keeping covenants because they protect us in a world that is drifting from time-honored values that bring joy and happiness. In the future this loosening of moral fiber may even increase. The basic decency of society is decreasing. In the future our people, particularly our children and grandchildren, can expect to be bombarded more and more by the evils of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Too many families are being broken up. Good is called evil, and evil is called good. In our present “easiness of the way,” have we forgotten the elements of sacrifice and consecration that our pioneer forebears demonstrated so well for us? …
Today the modern counterparts of Babylon, Sodom, and Gomorrah are alluringly and explicitly displayed on television, the Internet, in movies, books, magazines, and places of entertainment.
In the last general conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley warned us about moving too far toward the mainstream of society in some areas such as Sabbath day observance, family disintegration, and other matters… .
In our society many sacred values have been eroded in the name of freedom of expression. The vulgar and the obscene are protected in the name of freedom of speech… . Of course, as individuals and as a people we want to be liked and respected. But we cannot be in the mainstream of society if it means abandoning … righteous principles… .
All forms of evil are being masked. I speak of sexual immorality. I speak of wagering for money, which in many places is called gaming rather than gambling. This is typical of how many other evils are masked to make them more acceptable… .
The breakdown of parental authority erodes the most indispensable institution of society—the family… .
Many voices tell our children and grandchildren that evil is good and good is evil… . Daily scripture study, daily prayer, regular family home evening, obedience to priesthood authority in the home and in the Church constitute a great insurance policy against spiritual deterioration.
(James E. Faust, Ensign, May 1998, 21–22.)
I wonder if money earned upon the Sabbath, when it is unnecessary Sabbath earning, might … be unclean money. I realize that some people must work on the Sabbath; and when they do, if they are compelled, that is, of course, a different situation. But men and women who will deliberately use the Sabbath day to develop business propositions, to increase their holdings, to increase their income, I fear for them. I think the Lord was speaking to them when he said: “Woe unto them that call evil good.” (Isa. 5:20.) Sometimes we salve our consciences by saying that the more we get the more we can give to the worthy causes, but that, of course, is a subterfuge. There are people who work on the Sabbath, not through compulsion but because the income is attractive… .
The Savior knew that the ox gets in the mire on the Sabbath, but he knew also that no ox deliberately goes into the mire every week… . Every time I see good folk who are willing to forego these profits, I rejoice and feel within my heart to bless them for their steadfastness, their courage, and their faith… . I know that men will never suffer, ultimately, for any seeming financial sacrifices that might be made.
(Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], 227–29.)
Growing numbers of people now campaign to make spiritually dangerous life-styles legal and socially acceptable. Among them are abortion, the gay-lesbian movement, and drug addiction… .
Some challenge us to show where the scriptures specifically forbid abortion or a gay-lesbian or drug-centered life-style. “If they are so wrong,” they ask, “why don’t the scriptures tell us so in ‘letter of the law’ plainness?” These issues are not ignored in the revelations. (See Genesis 13:13 (footnote 13b); 18:20–22 (footnote 20b); 19:4–9 (footnote 5a); JST, Gen. 19:9–15; Lev. 18:22, 29; 20:13 (footnote 13a); Deut. 23:17 (footnote 17b); Rom. 1:24–27; 1 Cor. 6:9 (footnotes 9e, f); 1 Tim. 1:9–10 (footnote 10b, c).) The scriptures are generally positive rather than negative in their themes, and it is a mistake to assume that anything not specifically prohibited in the “letter of the law” is somehow approved of the Lord… .
Always when these destructive lifestyles are debated, “individual right of choice” is invoked as though it were the one sovereign virtue. That could be true only if there were but one of us. The rights of any individual bump up against the rights of another. And the simple truth is that we cannot be happy, nor saved, nor exalted, without one another.
The word tolerance is also invoked as though it overrules everything else. Tolerance may be a virtue, but it is not the commanding one. There is a difference between what one is and what one does. What one is may deserve unlimited tolerance; what one does, only a measured amount. A virtue when pressed to the extreme may turn into a vice. Unreasonable devotion to an ideal, without considering the practical application of it, ruins the ideal itself.
(Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, Nov. 1990, 84–85.)
Many modern professors of human behavior advocate as a cure to an afflicted conscience that we … change the standard to fit the circumstances so that there is no longer a conflict, thus easing the conscience. The followers of the divine Christ cannot subscribe to this evil and perverse philosophy with impunity. For the troubled conscience in conflict with right and wrong, the only permanent help is to change the behavior and follow a repentant path.
The prophet Isaiah taught, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20).
(James E. Faust, Ensign, Nov. 1986, 10.)
One of Satan’s methods is to distract and entice us so that we will take our eyes off the danger… . He has succeeded to such an extent that many no longer recognize sin as sin. Movies, television, and magazines have glorified sin into what they think is an acceptable life-style: “[fornication], adultery, incest, … serial marriages, drug abuse, violence and double-dealing of every imaginable variety, [that is] often portrayed as [normal] behavior; where people who do good are not … rewarded and those who do evil are not punished” so stated a Los Angeles Times writer… .
Assuredly we live in a time spoken of by Isaiah when men “call evil good, and good evil” (Isa. 5:20).
(David B. Haight, Ensign, Nov. 1986, 37.)
Isaiah’s description … of a people who call evil good and good evil is very descriptive of events in our days. The attitudes and tax laws against marriage and large families are based upon evil principles “considered to be good.” … A news release in the BYU Daily Universe quoted a federal government representative calling the BYU dress standards “damaging and demeaning.” Another sign of the times is the claim by some psychologists, and other misled individuals, that premarital sex relations are “good.” Calling evil good and good evil is characteristic of an especially wicked world.
(L. La Mar Adams, The Living Message of Isaiah [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1981], 66.)
Satan offers a strange mixture of just enough good to disguise the evil along his downward path to destruction… . He forges a Rembrandt-quality representation by calling evil good and good evil. He has confused many people, even nations and leaders, to the point of an immoral approach to moral issues… .
First, he says individual agency is justification for the destruction of a human life through abortion; second, same-gender intimate associations and even marriages are acceptable; and third, chastity and fidelity are old-fashioned and narrow-minded—to be sexually active with free expression is acceptable.
At this very moment, international heroes in sports, music, and movies not only live immoral lives but teach that immorality around the world through the powerful influence of the media. They are idolized and accepted by millions worldwide. The world in general seems to have lapsed into a coma of unrighteousness.
(Durrel A. Woolsey, Ensign, Nov. 1995, 84.)