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I was told to talk to you about the hard times that are ahead, and they are real. And they are coming. . . . As the world becomes darker and more dangerous, we must keep climbing. It will be our choice whether to move up or to stay where we are. But the Lord will invite and guide us upward by the direction of the Holy Ghost, which He sends to His leaders and to His people who will receive it. . . . The Lord is anxious to lead us to the safety of higher ground, away from the path of physical and spiritual danger. (Elder Henry B. Eyring, Raise The Bar, BYU-Idaho Devotional (audio version), January 25, 2005)
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FULLNESS OF TIMES
Essay
Inappropriate Jokes
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Yesterday, pop singer Michael Jackson died at age 50. This morning while having my hair cut, my barber, and elderly man, shared a joke about Jackson's death that was both inappropriate and tactless—mocking the man and his death. While others in the room laughed, I just sat in silence. Regardless of what Jackson may have done or become, the joke was uncalled for.
I thought how sad it was that this man is not even in the grave yet and sick jokes are already being circulated. I later recalled sitting in my high school English class, 28 January 1986, watching the classroom television set as the space shuttle Challenger lifted off and then blow up in the sky killing all seven on board including the first teacher in space. We were all shocked!
Yet, on the short break between classes I must have heard at least fifteen jokes about the catastrophe and deaths of those on board, most of which were directed toward the female teacher—and this in the days before cell phones and texting, before the internet, email and chat. These were jokes made up on the spot by fellow classmates in my very own school—kids who lacked respect for the dead, the sanctity of life, and the families of those lost. I was appalled then as I am appalled now by these kids of jokes.
We, as Latter-day Saints, must hold to a higher standard and not take part in such base cruelty masked as humor—a tool Satan uses all too often and all too well to break past our defenses and get us to accept and participate in things that we should not.
©2009 Gregory Scot Collins. All rights reserved.
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