Testimony in Print – Sunday, January 31, 1943
Our world entered upon a new day when it became possible for the great truths of the universe and the lofty thoughts of men not only to be written laboriously for the eyes of the few, but also to be spread in print across the face of earth, so that the thoughts of all who choose to write could be known by all who choose to read—and so the Bible, inspired by the living God, and the great works of science, philosophy, and literature, found their way into the hands of the many instead of just into the hands of the few. Thus printing, the art of preserving for the present and for the future the thoughts of the present and of the past, became the common medium of exchange among all enlightened peoples. But along with the printing and circulation of good ideas, of course, there has also been the printing and circulation of bad ideas.
Some of the things we see in print cause us to give thanks for the glory of God and the intelligence of man, and some of the things we see in print make us ashamed—ashamed of our own kind. Filth has been circulated in the name of realism. Vicious suggestion has been circulated in the name of liberalism. Too many have found it profitable to peddle pulp that has excited the imagination and poisoned the minds of our youth—to popularize a type of literature which is called “frank,” but which is really rotten, which is called “realistic,” but which is really immoral backwash. And if we must face curtailment in the use of paper, which we now do, it would seem that here would be a good place to start—curtailment in its use for those purposes which offend decent minds and which poison the thinking of the highly impressionable. Of course, there is freedom to be considered, freedom in literature as well as in all other things; but freedom will not long remain where decency has departed, and certainly much of the trash that is purveyed, much of the printed filth by which our youth are victimized, is recognized and condemned by all thoughtful men as a prostitution of literary freedom.
As we judge the past largely by the tangible record it has left, so may future generations judge us, of our day, by the testimony we leave in print—and may the Lord God help us to surmount the shame we must certainly feel when some of our print comes to the light of future times, for, as spoken by the prophet—”our words will condemn us; … and our thoughts will also condemn us . . ” (Book of Mormon, Alma 12.14) We shall see a better world and a safer generation when our youth, and all of us, are freed from the influence of filth in print—when we have undergone a literary housecleaning wherever it is needed.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Jan. 31, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
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January 31, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,702