Elder S. Dilworth Young's talk 'When Thou Art Converted" engaged in a plethora of scripture references and historical stories, but no references to other literature.
Elder Milton R. Hunter gave a talk entitled "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" with only one outside reference, from Parade Magazine.
The Quote
On May 17, 1970, certain newspapers reported that several prominent Christian ministers had completed a three-year study on a proposed new sex code for a prominent Christian church. Although that church is absolutely against adultery, such liberalized statements on moral behavior appear in the report of a committee as follows:
“We recognize that there may be exceptional circumstances where extra-marital activity may not be contrary to the interests of a faithful concern for the well-being of the marriage partner.
“… the difficult decision must be made ‘by and on the responsibility of the person taking the exception.’ But a principal point is that the final judge is not the Bible or the church or even God—it is the individual and his or her conscience.” (Will Oursler, “Religious Storm Center: New Sex Code,” Parade, May 17, 1970, p. 28.)
The new permissiveness, or new morality, as it is often called, is nothing more than ancient immorality dressed in new clothing.
I'm on the fence about excluding cultural quotes that are meant to be negative examples of gospel compatibility, but I haven't quite gotten there yet. I started to look for this reference, but encountered...well...let's just say that anytime you search certain terms on the Internet, it makes assumptions about things I want to see that just aren't nice to assume about someone. I abandoned that attempt pretty quickly.
However, the author of the quote from Parade Magazine, William Charles Oursler, turns out to be the husband of my sixth cousin four times removed. Interesting guy. Wrote a lot of articles about religious topics, and a lot of mystery novels. Wrote the book "Father Flanagan of Boys Town" that was made into a movie starring Spencer Tracy and Micky Rooney. Got another movie to look up later.
But I digress...and since I can't get to much of what he's written unless I make a special trip to Syracuse University to browse his collection there, we'll have to soldier on.
A Preview of Coming Attractions
The next talk by Elder Sterling W. Still, called "Great Experiences" contains not one, not two, not...okay, there's eight big and juicy literature or cultural references!
We'll start pulling those out and examining them next.
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