By STEVE JENSE
President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told a gathering of 6,000 LDS Institute students in the Salt Lake Tabernacle Sunday to shun pornography.
“There are storms blowing all around you. There is the clever exploitation of sex and violence to be seen on television, through videotapes, salacious magazines, long-distance telephone services and even the Internet,” Hinckley told the audience at the Institute of Religion Fireside.
“You can shun like a plague the renting or acquisition of videotapes designed to titillate and lead you into regrettable paths. Only the producer profits from such things. The buyer or the renter never does.”
Hinckley told the students about his recent interview with Mike Wallace, senior correspondent of the CBS program 60 Minutes, which will air in February.
“I hope and pray that he and his associates will be kind to the church and to me, although I don’t see much kindness in that program,” Hinckley said.
Hinckley said the CBS reporters told him that they learned from their interviews with LDS students that it was easy to turn down a cigarette or refuse beer, but with sex it was harder to draw the line.
“I replied, ~`Those students know where to draw the line. They do not have to have that defined in clinical detail. They know when they are on slippery ground,” he said.
