The Greatest Threat to Continued Righteousness?

In Elder's Quorum today, the lesson was about continued righteousness and what the teacher considered to be the greatest threat to it.

The greatest threat, as my teacher saw it, is pornography.

This has certainly been a topic spoken of oft by the brethren as of the last several years. It has certainly come to be a large problem, not just in the Church, but across the nation and the world. The internet hasn't help matters, as it gives everybody quick and easy access to pornography.

My teacher used the (spiritual) downfall of King David to illustrate his point.

You may recall that King David was arguably Israel's greatest king in its history. He did more for Israel and its people than any other ruler before, and perhaps since.

But that's not why we remember him, is it? We remember him because of his greatest sin, for which he was never forgiven. Though King David spent his whole life with a "heart after the LORD", and was Israel's greatest ruler, he is remembered for his murder of Uriah.

What's interesting to me is that his sin of murder started not with his affair with Bathsheba as many often think, but with his dereliction of duty.

2 Samuel 11:1 reads:

And it came to pass ... at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent ... all Israel; and they ... besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

King David should have been attending to his duties as leader of his armies, but rather, he stayed in Jerusalem. It could be argued that had David attended to his duty as king, he would not have wandered onto the roof of his house, seen Bathsheba bathing (something that he should not have been watching), and consequently entertained thoughts that resulted from what he saw, and eventually have an affair with Bathsheba.

The lesson in Elder's Quorum, in short, reminded us that by looking at pornography we begin to have inappropriate thoughts and begin to entertain these thoughts. Fantasies result, which decrease our love for our spouse, even to the point that we can no longer love.

Indeed, pornography has caused the destruction of families. Recently in the news, we have even heard of a man's addiction to pornography leading him to attempt the murder of his own wife... all because she caught him looking at porn, wanted him to stop, to which he did not wish to stop. Rather than get a divorce or discontinue doing something he knew was bad for him (he understood its evil, at least to some extent, as he had talked with his bishop regarding it), he decided to kill her!

I have a couple of thoughts regarding this:

My teacher had spoken with a man that was addicted to hard core drugs. This same man had also been addicted to pornography. He plainly stated to my teacher that, compared to giving up pornography, quitting drugs was a cake walk.

We have all heard what lengths drug addicts will go to in order to get their next fix. To think that pornography's grip on man is many-fold tighter than that of drugs is a sobering thought to say the least.

I would submit that giving up food might actually be easier than giving up pornography. A study I read regarding dieting stated that those who have successfully "starved" themselves in order to lose weight have done an amazing thing. Hunger is man's second strongest drive. The drive to eat is the second strongest drive humans have. What could possibly be stronger than the desire to take sustenance? What thesee doctors stated was a human's strongest drive is the sex drive.

Knowing this, it could be argued that giving up food is easier than giving up pornography, which is driven by our sex drives.

Satan knows this, which is why it is so incredibly prevalent. Pornography, I believe, has become Satan's greatest tool to bring others down into misery.