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Marriage, Atheism and Fast Drivers
By Davis Bitton I came across the following strong statement in a Deseret News editorial: Marriage is one of the highest and most sacred duties enjoined upon men and women, one of the most serious and important responsibilities they are placed under, as well as one of the most exquisite and pure delights that they are capable of enjoying. It is the state of legitimate, unvitiated, chaste, hallowed desire, unrivaled, incomparable. It is the condition of human development, satisfaction, happiness, par excellence, fraught with all the blessed charities, all the delicious ecstasies of the closest, sweetest, most grateful, most endearing, most entrancing relationship, the peculiar condition of superlative harmony and union. There is not, nor can be, any justifiable excuse, only in special exceptional instances, for neglect of or opposition to marriage.
I assume that those remaining single through no fault of their own are included in the “exceptional instances.” Failure to marry, according to this writer, leads to licentiousness. The author of this piece sounds as though he were familiar with the internet and the current scene of hanging out and hooking up. For this writer, licentiousness means “filthiness, sorrow, shame, the cultivation of the worst passions and the abuse, debasement, and debauchment of the best.” Licentiousness means “sickness, disease, moral and physical leprosy, death, the demoralization, degeneration, and degradation of the race and its ultimate extinguishment.” Here is the conclusion:
Therefore he who is a friend to marriage is a friend to mankind, a friend especially to womankind, a friend to dear little children, of whom the Savior said “suffer them to come and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Marriage means gratification, satisfaction, health, peace, joy, life, endless chains of life, the orderly and honorable continuation of the race, the godlike perfection of human nature. It is glory, alleluiah, now and forever.
On the issue of marriage, I don = t think I have ever seen the doctrine of the two ways stated more emphatically. Those who denounce efforts to protect the family, who think failure to marry and have children is just fine, should read Mark Steyn = s America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It (Regnery, 2006). Believers Hounded Have you noticed the attacks on believers in religion? We Latter-day Saints are used to it, but the venomous contempt now extends to all religion. Sam Harris = s The End of Faith (Norton, 2004) stayed on the bestseller list for many weeks, its message of enlightened atheism welcomed. For many, religion has come to mean Islamic terrorism. For others, religion also means narrow-minded, judgmental Christians who support political positions they abhor or who are so intolerant as to condemn certain behaviors and lifestyle choices. A secular Europe that has already abandoned its traditional faith, and counterparts in America and other countries, need little convincing that religious faith is at best an annoyance and at its worst a promoter of cruelty and injustice.. A letter to the editor of the Deseret News from C. D. Evans in Springville, Utah, expresses dismay at the disparagement of religion. “Truths which before were universally acknowledged as orthodox, beyond question,” he writes, “are now repudiated in toto, and indeed ascribed to the ignorance and superstition of an age far inferior intellectually to the present. Even the cardinal doctrines of the atonement, and of the holy resurrection are ignored as ‘nonsense' and set down as ‘incompatible with true learning and intelligence;' indeed the latter of these doctrines is said to be at variance with the known laws of chemistry.” The letter writer calls attention to the “alarming increase of crime,” including widespread prostitution. As he describes it, the practice is scarcely “victimless.” Desperate young women are exploited, brutalized, and trapped in a life of disease and hopelessness. He does not prove the connection but is nevertheless convinced that turning from God and the moral code expressed in the Ten Commandments produces dire results. “Certainly,” he concludes, “no people ever declined in religious sentiment and devotion more rapidly than has the Christendom of the last quarter of a century.” Driving Woes On a different level, a third concern has been in the news during the past week. With the cold temperatures and heavy snowfall of January 2007, highway accidents increased dramatically. As the bitter cold moved across the United States, sometimes accompanied by snow, ice storms, and power outages, accidents multiplied, ranging from fender benders to horrible collisions with fatalities. Standing by the highway, with mangled vehicles and flashing lights in the background, a patrol officer in Utah appealed to the public to slow down. Many of the accidents would be avoided, he pleaded, if they would just slow down a little. Thus I was interested to come across another newspaper piece:
There is altogether too much fast driving on the streets of this city [Salt Lake City], and it would be a good thing were it put a stop to. Probably the imposition of a few fines would have a salutary effect upon those who manifest criminal recklessness in this respect. The lives and limbs of children and of the aged and infirm are continually jeopardized on the street crossings from this cause, and it is really a wonder that more accidents have not occurred in consequence of reckless driving than have taken place. Anything that would stop furious driving and runaways would be a boon to the citizens generally.
History Repeats Itself Now hear this. Alarm over the breakdown of marriage, dismay over attacks on religion, and worry about fast, reckless driving — all these expressions just cited come from the year 1873. That is not a typo. The year 1873. i The problems of 1873 indeed seemed overwhelming. Our country was in the midst of a serious depression. The ranks of the unemployed grew and grew. Crime increased. Despite the corruption of his administration, Ulysses S. Grant had just been reelected president of the United States. People living in the year 1873 thought the world was going to the dogs. I do not cite these examples in order to lessen apprehension over the present trends of our society. The accelerated pace of change, the global economy, and the ease of communication combine to make us more interconnected than in the past as well as more acutely aware of what is going on. If we are on a road to disaster, we should do what we can to change direction. But some of our current problems and attitudes have been around for a long time. . Deseret News Weekly , 24 December 1873, 1, 6; 27 August 1873, 7.
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