Cancer of the Mind

 "Pornographic or erotic stories and pictures are worse than filthy or polluted food. The body has defenses to rid itself of unwholesome food. With a few fatal exceptions, bad food will only make you sick but do no permanent harm. In contrast, a person who feasts upon filthy stories or pornographic or erotic pictures and literature records them in this marvelous retrieval system we call a brain. The brain won't vomit back filth. Once recorded, it will always remain subject to recall, flashing its perverted images across your mind and drawing you away from the wholesome things in life."
It seems to me that, lately, I have heard a lot of depressing pornography statistics. Did you know that 82% of college age men admitted to viewing pornography regularly (that's admitted...). In a BYU-Idaho study 62% of male students admitted to having/had pornography problems. Those odds are terrible! Ladies- we are not immune! 32% of college age women admitted having a pornography problem. This epidemic is growing on all planes. No one is immune.
Pornography is such a scary thing. It is terrifyingly accessible and literally impossible to avoid-- even unintentional contact.
For an assignment in my Family Foundations class we were asked to read several talks regarding the issue. The most influential talk (for me) was Pornography given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks in the April 2005 General conference. I received a lot of comfort from this talk and thought I'd share. I hope that you can find some hope in Elder Oaks' words like I did.
The body/mind analogy can be somewhat depressing, but I saw it as a defense mechanism. The first step to protection is prevention. I take comfort in knowing that I can prevent pornography by staying away from all filth, not just that found on the internet. I know I can improve in the areas of the music I listen to, the movies and TV I watch, and the media I read. Elder Oaks says "the test of what is evil is not the degree but its effect." By eliminating the "smaller" evils in life, the "bigger" ones become less of an issue.
My biggest source of comfort came from this statement; "an endowed priesthood bearer's fall into pornography never occurs during periods of regular worship in the temple; it happens when he has become casual in his temple worship." What a great promise! As long as we are renewing our covenants and diligently attending the temple...we cannot fall into pornography. No wonder we have been counseled to have a photo of the temple in every room. The spirit will make us strong and we will be able to resist temptation and our Heavenly Father will bless us.

That's enough from me! I hope that someone, somewhere will benefit from reading this and that we can all protect ourselves from this cancerous addiction.