Media Choices

This is a talk I gave on October 19th--but I don't know if it was in 2007 or 2008.

Good morning, brothers and sisters. I’d like to to start today by telling you a story that I’ll call “The Parable of the Green Goggles.” Picture, if you will, a pair of green safety gogglese—not just the safety glasses but the safety goggles which cover up about half of your face. They’re ugly, right? Well, I actually have to wear them at work, usually for at least a couple hours every day. When I first found out I had to wear them, as you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy about that because they’re ugly and they don’t look good. But I had to wear them, so I did. And I slowly reached the point where I didn’t’ mind them so much—oh who cares anyway? And hey, green’s my favorite color, so they’re not as bad as they could be.

Then one day, I caught sight of myself in a mirror and realized something was wrong. I looked BAD. So I kept looking, trying to figure out why I looked so bad that day—and I realized what was wrong was that I didn’t have my goggles on. Somehow, over time, I had reached the point where I thought I looked better with the goggles on than I did without them.

So, I was a little upset—and never wanted to wear them again because really, no one should ever think she looks better in those goggles than she does without them. Trust me, they’re ugly and not an improvement to anyone’s looks. Later on, though, I realized that the green goggles had taught me a valuable lesson. Our perceptions of what is normal and what is right are changed by what we are exposed to, and then our desires actually change with our perceptions. I had gone from hating the goggles, to tolerating them, to actually, subconsciously, wanting to wear them.

Like my exposure to the green goggles, our exposure to the media can change our perceptions and our desires. Speaking of the media, President Hinckley said, “Life is better than that which is so frequently portrayed. Nature is better than that. Love is better than that.”

Life is better, nature is better, and love is better than what we see in the media. We need to be incredibly careful about what we watch, listen to, and read, because if we let our perceptions change, we lose sight of what life really can be like. We lose sight of what we’re working for, and we lose our motivation to work for it. We settle for less, and anytime we settle for less than what the Lord wants to give us, we let Satan win. Satan doesn’t need us all to be addicted to pornography or to go commit adultery to destroy us; he just needs us to settle for less than the celestial.

So, how do we keep from settling for less? I think the first thing we need to do is recognize that we are not immune. All of us are affected by the media. The leaders of the Church have warned us repeatedly about the dangers.

President Monson has said, “Whatever you read, listen to, or watch makes an impression on you.”

Elder Ballard warned, “The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.”

Elder Holland said, “What were in my generation carefree moments of moviegoing, TV watching, and magazine reading have now, with the additional availability of VCRs, the Internet, and personal computers, become amusements fraught with genuine moral danger. I put the word amusements in italics. Did you know that the original Latin meaning of the word amusement is “a diversion of the mind intended to deceive”? Unfortunately that is largely what “amusements” in our day have again become in the hands of the arch deceiver.

“Recently I read an author who said: “Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. [That is because] there is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” ⁵ I believe that to be absolutely true, and no such claiming and counterclaiming anywhere is more crucial and conspicuous than that being waged for the minds and morals, the personal purity of the young.”

Please notice that none of these quotes condemned all use of media. In all of the reading I did to prepare this talk, I found nothing saying all media is bad. However, our leaders unanimously warn us about making appropriate choices. And they give us several guidelines for making those choices.

One guideline we can go by is Elder Dallin H. Oaks’ counsel from his talk, “Good, Better, Best.” He said, “Most of us have more things expected of us than we can possibly do. As breadwinners, as parents, as Church workers and members, we face many choices on what we will do with our time and other resources.

“We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.”

He also added, “As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best.”

We’re not just choosing what is good enough; we need to be selecting what is best—both in the content of the media we use and in the amount of time that we devote to it.

Another guideline we can follow is “When in doubt, kick it out.” When I was younger, I played soccer a lot, and that phrase is one that my first soccer coach taught us. “When in doubt, kick it out.” And preferably, kick it a long way out so it takes the other time awhile to get the ball and gives your team some time to reorganize. When we’re making our media choices, if we’re not sure about something, let’s kick it out—and kick it a long way out. We probably won’t miss it anyway, and if we do, we don’t miss it forever. President Monson said, “Don’t be afraid to walk out of a movie, turn off a television set, or change a radio station if what’s being presented does not meet your Heavenly Father’s standards. In short, if you have any question about whether a particular movie, book, or other form of entertainment is appropriate, don’t see it, don’t read it, don’t participate.”

One final guideline I’d like to share comes from Elder Spencer J. Condie of the Seventy in his article The Message: Mushrooms, Music, Movies, and Magazines: “In the very closing verses of the Book of Mormon, Moroni extends the invitation to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moro. 10:32; emphasis added). The real question is not whether heavy metal is worse than hard rock or whether certain TV programs are worse than certain movies. If we wish to avoid being poisoned spiritually, we must ask: Is this music, movie, TV show, or literature ungodly?” We need to deny ourselves of all ungodliness.

Let’s be careful—so careful—in our media choices. Let’s find what’s best and not settle for less. Let’s be aware of how e can and are being affected by the media, and let’s remember what Elder Holland said: our leisure time is a battleground. Satan is fighting against us, so let’s fight back and not let any song, any TV show, any movie, or any book keep us from becoming who the Lord wants us to be and receiving what He wants to give us.

As we seek His help, the Lord will guide us and strengthen us in making our media choices. He loves us, He laid down His life for us, and He will help us to have the sort of life He has—which is way better than anything the world has to offer. As President Hinckley said, life is better, nature is better, and love is better than what we find in the media. If we will follow the Lord, He will show us how beautiful life really is, how beautiful love really is, and how to have that beauty in our lives. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.