{"id":1336,"date":"2004-09-15T00:08:52","date_gmt":"2004-09-15T04:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2004-09-17T22:51:44","modified_gmt":"2004-09-18T02:51:44","slug":"in-opposition-to-evil-and-so-called-freedoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/09\/in-opposition-to-evil-and-so-called-freedoms\/","title":{"rendered":"In Opposition to “So-Called Freedoms”"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Hinckley writes this month’s First Presidency Message, In Opposition to Evil<\/a>. After lamenting society’s “inordinate emphasis on sex and violence,” he writes:<\/p>\n

The whole dismal picture indicates a weakening rot seeping into the very fiber of society. Legal restraints against deviant moral behavior are eroding under legislative enactments and court opinions. This is done in the name of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of choice in so-called personal matters. But the bitter fruit of these so-called freedoms has been enslavement to debauching habits and behavior that leads only to destruction. A prophet, speaking long ago, aptly described the process when he said, “And thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell” (2 Nephi 28:21).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then calls upon members to “oppose the tide of evil” in four ways: <\/p>\n

The first is to reform ourselves, and to lead exemplary lives of virtue.<\/p>\n

The second is for parents to “do a more effective work in the rearing of children.” <\/p>\n

The third is to “earnestly and sincerely and positively express our convictions” to our political representatives and government officials with the responsibility of making and enforcing our laws, and to “speak to those who enact the regulations, the statutes, and the laws\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthose in government on local, state, and national levels and those who occupy positions of responsibility as administrators of our schools.”<\/p>\n

The fourth is to enlist the strength of God, “[f]or we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Hinckley writes this month’s First Presidency Message, In Opposition to Evil. After lamenting society’s “inordinate emphasis on sex and violence,” he writes: The whole dismal picture indicates a weakening rot seeping into the very fiber of society. Legal restraints against deviant moral behavior are eroding under legislative enactments and court opinions. This is done in the name of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of choice in so-called personal matters. But the bitter fruit of these so-called freedoms has been enslavement to debauching habits and behavior that leads only to destruction. A prophet, speaking long ago, aptly described the process when he said, “And thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell” (2 Nephi 28:21). He then calls upon members to “oppose the tide of evil” in four ways:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}