So today I was downloading the study guide for my New Testament final off of Learning Suite and found this interesting article posted on my teachers page. So I thought I would share it! Everything that Elder Cook said in it is SO true!! Everything that we listen to and see effects us either for good or evil and the Book of Mormon is true! I know it and as Elder Cook said it has changed my life! I really don't know where I would be with the Book of Mormon in my life! Well I have said enough, Elder Cook says it all so much better than I can so here is the talk, enjoy!
An excerpt from “The Eternal
Nature of the Law of Chastity”
Elder Gene R. Cook, Ricks
College Devotional, 1989
Mr. Jagger and I were on a
flight that originated in Mexico and were headed, I believe, to either Houston
or Dallas.
As I sat down in the plane,
the seat next to me was empty. Later a
man came and sat down by me. I noticed immediately
that he was reading a rock magazine. I
offered a silent prayer as I often do when I try to talk to people about the
Church. I prayed that the Lord would
inspire me in what to say as I talked to this man. After the prayer, I said something like, “My
name is Gene Cook, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. What’s your name?” And he said, “My name is Mick Jagger.” Not realizing then who he was I said, “Well,
I’m glad to meet you, Mick.” And then he
said, “I said my name is Mick Jagger.” I
said, “I heard you, Mick.” And then he opened
up the magazine and pointed to his picture and said, “This is me.” Of course, then I finally realized who he was. I just hadn’t ever thought about sitting next
to him, but it was so.
What I’m going to say is, in
no way, speaking evil of Mick Jagger himself.
Please understand that. I’m not
speaking evil of the man, but I am of what he represents because it is
wrong. It is of the devil himself, in my
opinion.
Even before I knew who Mick
was, I noticed that his pant leg was pulled up a little on his calf. As I looked at his leg I thought for some
reason, “This fellow looks a little sick.”
I’m not sure why, but that caught my attention before I even knew who he
was.
After we visited back and
forth a minute or two about what we were doing and all, I finally said
something like, "You know, Mick, I have a question for you that I'd like
you to answer for me." He said, "Well, I'll be glad to try."
Then I said to him, "I have opportunity to be with young people in many
different places around the world, and some of them have told me that the kind
of music you and others like you sing has no effect on them, that it's okay,
and that it doesn’t affect them adversely in any way. Then other young people have told me very
honestly that your kind of music has a real effect on them for evil and that it
affects them in a very bad way. You've been in this business for a long time,
Mick. I'd like to know your opinion. What do you think is the impact of your
music on the young people?"
This is a direct quote,
brothers and sisters. He said, "Our music is calculated to drive the kids
to sex." Those were his exact words. I'm sure I had a real look of shock
on my face in receiving such a bold response. He quickly added, "Well,
it's not my fault what they do. That's up to them. I'm just making a lot of
money."
Then he told me he'd been in Mexico making a video because he
could make it for about one-third of what it would cost in the United States.
He told me this was a great day for them because now instead of just having
audio where they could portray some of what they wanted to about sex and all,
they now had videos and could have the people both hear it and see it
portrayed. He said this would have much more impact on the youth, that his
music was selling much more, and thus he was making much more money.
As I said, we talked for a couple of hours. Let me just share a
few things that happened because it teaches the importance of what we are
discussing with respect to music. As we chatted, I told him that I was married
and had eight children. He told me that he was not married but that he had three
children and was proud of it. He told me that he had one woman pregnant in
Virginia, one in New York, and one in England, as I recall. He told me that it
didn't matter what you did in life, that you could take whatever you wanted,
and that you could do whatever you wanted. He said there were no commandments,
there was no God, and nothing really mattered.
He indicated there was no judgment day and that you could
just do whatever you felt like doing. Whatever I told him in our discussion was
white he said was black. And whatever he said was white I told him was black.
He indicated that he had had the missionary lessons. In the
beginning I didn't believe that, but as we talked further I think he probably
had. He told me he had had two or three lessons, and I think that was probably
true because of some of his responses to me. According to him, he had been
taught by missionaries in England.
He said, "As I listen to you Mormons, your problem is that
you think you have all things figured out. Life isn't that simple." Then
he would go on and explain some complex things, some theory of man. I would
answer him in a very simple way from the scriptures, and he would say,
"See what I mean?" He was always trying to make things much more
complex than they really were.
Our conversation continued. He told me he believed in evolution
and that he also believed he had descended from a monkey. I told him, with a
smile, "That might be the only thing you're right about." We pursued
the idea of evolution and the fact that if one is going to subscribe to the
philosophy that he did, then he'd have to believe there was no God and that he
must have evolved. And if there is no God, there are no commandments. There are
no rules, and thus you can do whatever you want. He told me the importance, in
his view, of freeing up the youth. He felt that they ought to be able to do
whatever they wanted in spite of their parents. He said that parents were
inhibiting them too much and controlling things and they ought not be doing
that. It was truly astounding to me. He told me he was thankful the family, as
an entity, was being destroyed. And I gathered from what he was saying that he
was doing his best to help that along.
I've only been mad at two investigators in my life where I kind
of got upset, and he was one of them. As we proceeded in the discussion, he
probably had four or five alcoholic drinks.
As you know, when one does that he tends to be a little looser
in the way he talks and thinks.
Finally, in a rather loud voice towards the end of our
discussion, he said something like, "Furthermore, about your Book of
Mormon--your Book of Mormon is a lie, and any man that believes it is a
liar." He said it in such a way that most people nearby could hear it.
That really did upset me. I thought to myself, here's a man who is representing
evil and trying to announce it now to the whole cabin to try to make them feel
that the Book of Mormon is not true.
I then felt impressed to say something like, "Well, Mick,
you're mighty fortunate today. Mighty fortunate." He said, "What are
you talking about?" And I said, "Because you're sitting next to a
servant of the Lord who plans on correcting what you just said." He then
said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, you're really lucky. I
just happen to have a Book of Mormon right here in my briefcase," and
pulled out a Book of Mormon and put it on his lap. I told him something to this
effect, "Mick, this book has changed my life. I love the Book of Mormon.
And I have read it many, many times. It is the greatest book, in my mind, on
the face of the earth. In my view it has changed me, it has made me a better
man. You say it's a lie. I must have missed that part. Show me."
My young friends, there was just total, dead silence. He didn't
say a word. I finally said, "Well, maybe you were offended by the part
where Lehi told his sons to be honest men or where he taught them to rely upon
the Lord and have faith in God. Maybe you were offended when Alma told his boy,
Corianton, that he had broken the law of chastity and then told him what he had
to do to correct it. Maybe that offended you. Or maybe it was the part when
Christ came to America that really bothered you when he said that one is to
love his wife with all his heart and not commit adultery. Maybe that offended
you." I carried on a little bit with him that way, and, of course, again
he said nothing. I finally said, "Well, if you can't show me a chapter,
then at least show me a page, or maybe a paragraph will do. That would be all
right. Just show me one paragraph." And again, brothers and sisters, dead
silence. I finally said, "Well, then how about a line, or one word."
I finally bore my testimony to him and said something like,
"My friend, the lie is not in the Book of Mormon. The lie is in you. And I
bear witness to you in the name of the Lord that if you don't turn your life
around, you'll be going to hell. The devil himself will come and get hold of
you."
I bore my testimony to him as strongly as I could about
what he was doing, that it was not right, and that it was not according to the
Lord's plan.
I felt very emotionally involved when I bore my testimony
because I thought to myself, "Here I am going about the earth trying to
strengthen young people, trying to make them better, strengthen them, and turn
them to the Lord. And men like this are coming around right behind me trying to
tear it all down, destroying the family, and destroying their reliance upon
God. I bore a very fervent testimony to him and told him that I would be a
witness that I had at least given him "the word." Well, he calmed
down quite a bit in that encounter and didn't say any more. That at least
quieted him down so he didn't continue in the vein he was in.
Just before our couple of hours together concluded he said,
"Oh, now I remember something about your Book of Mormon" (referring
to my challenge to him to show me something that was out of order). He said,
"Well, here it is. It's the part about Brigham Young."
Then I informed him that Brigham Young was not mentioned
in the Book of Mormon one time.
My response kind of took him back. We talked the last
five to ten minutes in a more general way and then finally bid each other
farewell and split up.
The entire talk can
be found at this address:
