John 2 Don't desecrate the Temple
Excerpt: Elder
Christofferson “Sense of the sacred” CES Fireside for Young Adults November 7,
2004.
How are we to
preserve the sanctity of this most important and sacred of God’s creations? At
a minimum, we would not in any way defile our bodies. To be specific, if we
possess a sense of the sacred, we would not deface our body as with tattoos and
piercings. Some wonder at the fact that the President of the Church has taken
notice of this matter. They are puzzled at the directness and specificity of
his counsel on this subject. He has stated:
“A tattoo is
graffiti on the temple of the body.
“Likewise the
piercing of the body for multiple rings in the ears, in the nose, even in the
tongue. Can they possibly think that is beautiful? It is a passing fancy, but
its effects can be permanent. . . . The First Presidency and the Quorum of the
Twelve have declared that we discourage tattoos and also ‘the piercing of the
body for other than medical purposes.’ We do not, however, take any position
‘on the minimal piercing of the ears by women for one pair of earrings’—one
pair” (Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, Oct. 2000, 70–71; or Ensign, Nov. 2000, 52).
Why would the
prophet of God talk about things so seemingly insignificant? Because they are
not insignificant. Defiling or defacing God’s creation, His temple, makes a
mock of that which is sacred. This can be perceived as insignificant only to
one who has lost a sense of the sacred. Don’t do it.
Immodest dress also
tarnishes the sacredness of the human body. Many rationalizations have been put
forth to justify immodest fashion and pornography. Some vigorously assert that
no law can be adopted to prevent such expression and then argue that it can’t
be wrong because there is no law against it…Whatever the rationalizations, you
will often find that the real motivation underlying immodesty is someone’s
desire to profit from titillation, someone’s lust for money.
The body is a temple of God, and
pornography and revealing clothes are evidence that money changers are again
desecrating the temple.
We could speak of
the Word of Wisdom and a number of other things, but of all that could be cited
as defiling the body, the most harmful, the most destructive, the most
distressing act of irreverence is sexual immorality —and its cousin, sexual
abuse.
One cannot imagine a
more fundamental defiling of God’s creation than to profane its most sacred
use. You simply must not do anything of the kind. Don’t even skirt around the
edges. “Flee fornication. . . . He that committeth fornication sinneth against his
own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).
“Flee also youthful lusts” (2
Timothy 2:22). “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). “Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you” (James
4:7). Keep your body holy as a living offering to God (see Romans 12:1).