Oh Rats!

One of my EFY lectures includes a powerpoint on how sneaky pornography is. But I don't tell the kids that is what it is about. Instead, I tell stories about the rats in Europe that spread disease (bubonic plague) around and they were so plentiful that children were playing with them in the streets. There was an edict to kill all of the cats and dogs so the rats had no more natural preditors. People thought cats and dogs spread the plague. (sound familiar? Aren't we experiencing the same thing in the good is evil and evil is good messages that abound in our day?)

Then I tell the story from the Other Side of Heaven of John Groberg getting the bottoms of his feet chewed off by rats because he didn't listen to his more experienced companion who told him to keep his feet covered at night.

Then I show gross pictures of rats...(my motto when it comes to teaching and reaching teens is to gross them out as much as possible, then when I have their full attention, give them a spiritual lesson), Finally I tell the kids about people who peddle porn. I tell a story about flying into the Vegas airport and stepping off the curb in the parking garage and seeing porn scattered everywhere.

Today, there are people who play with it like children played with rats, not knowing or understanding the spiritual disease it spreads. Of course, the whole idea came from President Hinckley's quote, "Avoid pornography as if it were the plague".

We talk about the plague and what it does to your body and compare the spiritual death people may experience to it.