In the early 70's Russ and I were immersed in the hippy culture. I wouldn't say we were into the "drug culture" because all we did was smoke pot/marijuana/weed, and maybe occasionally hashish. We even grew our own marijuana because we had a nice garden space and it was cheaper to grow our own than to buy. It was illegal, of course, and our parents knew but didn't approve. We justified it to ourselves (and each other) by comparing being stoned to being drunk. We figured it was actually a superior way to seek an altered state in order to "have more fun" by escaping reality. Alcohol had all kinds of problems like angry drunks who caused destruction, drunk driving, addiction, liver and other physical ailments, etc. Pot just made you "mellow", albeit a bit irresponsible. So when we would toke up before gathering with our family at our parents' homes or go out in public, we thought it was pretty funny that, unlike being drunk, our "high" wasn't detectable by most people. Then in 1974, we began to wonder about being more adult and responsible and what to teach our children, especially about religious things. In that search for greater knowledge, we ended up studying with LDS missionaries: two young guys just about our age. One time they dropped by, unexpectedly, when we had been indulging and were feeling pretty good. We were surprised at our feeling of shame. We had always thought ourselves pretty clever when we were stoned around straight people and might even chuckle about how the minister, cop, parent, or other "authority" figure might not even have a clue as to what we had been doing. It was different with these two pleasant young men. Somehow we had a gut feeling that they were pure and really wanted to help guide us in our spiritual search. We felt guilty for being stoned enough to not be quite capable of fully comprehending or appreciating whatever they might try to teach us. Why?
Recently we were talking about the looser moral standards to be found in many other countries, especially European countries. Many of them are quite tolerant of prostitution, nudity, adultery, drugs, and alcohol. All of it seems to go pretty much hand in hand. If you accept one sin, you accept another. If you go over one limit, why stop at any limit? I would not suggest going to the extreme of societies that claim outward restrictions of moral standards while ignoring them behind closed doors. I have no use for the hypocrisy of nations who decry immodest dress while men are expected to be free to have sex with unwilling young girls. I have no respect for people who claim to not want to promote gambling so it's illegal where they live but they happily travel across state or national borders to try for a big win. I believe that when people justify any surrender to urges that are not in the best interest of society in general, they want to insist that it's okay for themselves to do just about anything. Sometimes they even take hypocrisy to an extreme and are violently opposed to the open acts of sin by others when they commit equally wrong acts themselves. A prophet once explained, "the light of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil." Just as Russ and I had the light of Christ which caused us to feel guilt in the presence of young men we hardly knew- LDS missionaries, every man and woman on the planet Earth has the light of Christ. Some call it "conscience". We can choose to ignore it but when we ignore it repeatedly, we soon become numb to it. We begin to justify ourselves more and more in doing wrong things, including calling evil good and good evil. "The light of Christ will lead the honest soul who hearkeneth to the voice to find the true gospel and the true Church and thereby receive the Holy Ghost" then "by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
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