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From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: Sexual obsession is destroying our nation and way of life. Society is throwing out the Ten Commandments to make room for vulgarity in every form. Why can't our society see this destruction and stop calling it freedom of speech? -- S.S.

A: Western society has become so obsessed with sex that it seeps from all the pores of our national life. No longer is it covered in brown paper and stashed in back of the checkout counter. Novelists splash it across the covers in lewd pictures and vulgar titles. Advertisers lay it out graphically and clearly. Entertainers flaunt loose living, and the masses follow.

Today, freedom of speech implies the freedom to corrupt the minds of the people, inciting every form of sexual perversion. There've been laws forbidding open sewers and cesspools so there should be laws forbidding pornography and obscenity, but people stumble over the definition of the word "obscenity." If we cannot agree on the length of a foot, it is because we have lost our yardstick. No one has ever improved upon the moral yardstick given to man in the Ten Commandments. We have changed our moral code to fit our behavior instead of changing our behavior to harmonize with God's moral code.

Pornography is anything that depicts lewdness in such a way as to create impure thoughts and lusts. However, the sewers continue to flow, destroying the moral fabric of our society. No one can deny that dirty appetites are becoming the principle satisfaction of life.

Just because society says that immorality is a form of freedom of speech does not make it right. The Ten Commandments are just as valid today as they were when God gave them, and God is watching and listening, and one day He will bring judgment. May those who follow Him continue to stand on the Word of God, for it leads to right living.

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

(c)2019 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.