Editorial June 13, 1977 Issue

Project: To Clean Up Thought

Naomi Price

Cleaning up the earth and its atmosphere has become a popular concern in today's world. Cities such as London and Pittsburgh have done wonders in freeing themselves from the fog and smog for which they were once notorious. Elsewhere, energetic efforts have helped to clean up the ground we walk on, as well as some lakes and rivers. For all that has been achieved so far we can be grateful, as it tends toward making the world a better and pleasanter place.

But while these improvements have been taking place, another, and even more objectionable and lethal, kind of pollutant has been proliferating. Increasingly, the deadly poison of pornography and other obscene material has been clouding our mental atmosphere, despite legislative efforts in some countries to maintain a high standard of propriety in literature and entertainment.

Does "deadly" seem an extravagant word to use in this connection? The Apostle Paul did not compromise when he said, "To be carnally minded is death." Rom. 8:6; The effect of most obscene and pornographic material is to stifle spiritual thoughts and stimulate material-mindedness. It draws thought earthward to a condition of mesmerized absorption in physicality until those who indulge in it are wallowing in the dust of the carnal mind and are liable to be engulfed in it. Surely, then, if only in the interests of self-preservation, we must feel deeply concerned to clean up not only the earth but the mental atmosphere in which we live—to free the world from the death-imposing images of thought that in this decade are increasingly poisoning human consciousness.

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