HOW TO JUDGE THE MEDIA

Guidelines for Evaluating Media
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
(Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man,” epistle 2, lines 217–21.)

Satan’s Tools
Uses logic to confuse.
Uses rationalizations to destroy.
Will shade meanings.
Opens doors an inch at a time.
Leads from purest white through all the shades of gray to the darkest black.
(See Spencer W. Kimball, “President Kimball Speaks Out on Morality,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, p. 94.)
Standards to Judge Media
Whatever weakens your reason
Whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience
Whatever obscures your sense of God
Whatever takes off your relish for spiritual things
Whatever increases the authority of the body over the mind
(See Ezra Taft Benson, “In His Steps,” Speeches of the Year, 1979 [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1980], p. 61.)

How to Avoid Degrading Influences

Do not see or talk about objectionable movies.
Do not look at pornographic magazines, pictures, or stories.
Have courage to walk out of an off-color movie.
Keep television shows with suggestive conversation and experiences out of your home.
(See H. Burke Peterson, in Conference Report, Oct. 1980, pp. 56–57; or Ensign, Nov. 1980, pp. 38–39.)