Comments on: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (1921)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:54:23 +0000

Thanks, Maurine. Keepa’ninnies make a good collaborative team!

By: Maurine Ward

Maurine Ward — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:52:58 +0000

N. T. Porter is Nathan Tanner Porter of Centerville.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:10:46 +0000

Um, wow. How would a teacher even begin to get some of the suggested questions folded into a lesson? How does one show “Sunday, March 13, 1921 – Lesson Topic II. Violations. 2. Physical Phase of.

Questionnaire

1. Show the impossibility of the sex impulse or desire stopping at the boundary line between the mental and the physical self.” Maybe the word “show” meant something else back then?

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:47:09 +0000

I would love to be a fly on the wall during these discussions.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:27:17 +0000

I’m having a hard time believing that all the word choices here were accidental. It’s as if the author was playing with the whole concept. “Really? I have to write 3 months of lessons about the same topic?” The March 27th lesson seems to be full of loaded words and phrases.

Also, such gems as “the sublime fruitage of maturity” are topped only by your own “prostituting the source of his pedagogical climax.” Ardis FTW!

By: Left Field

Left Field — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:21:17 +0000

My gg-grandfather’s brother was N. T. Porter. This would have to be his son by the same name. That would make the author my fourth cousin thrice removed.

By: Frank Pellett

Frank Pellett — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:24:24 +0000

Ok, note to self: only two years to prepare to teach this in Primary. Hope it will be enough.

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:08:31 +0000

Frank,

Primary does indeed have (a version of) this lesson for the 8 to 12 year olds. I had the fun of teaching it to a large class of 11 year olds a couple years back. It is lesson 44 in the Primary 5: Doctrine & Covenants Manual (next time up = 2013). It’s found under the innocuous title of “The Salt Lake Temple is Constructed and Dedicated,” but don’t let that fool you: the introduction to the lesson for the teacher begs the reader to be fearless:

Note to the teacher: President Howard W. Hunter, fourteenth President of the Church, said: “Children need to be taught about morality at an earlier age than ever before. This can be accomplished by teaching the commandment to be chaste in clear terms children can easily understand and by establishing specific standards by which children can live. Adult members of the Church reinforce this instruction as they exemplify virtue and modesty in their dress and manner. As children grow and come to understand the love the Lord has for them, their behavior will likely reflect their feelings of love for the Lord by following his counsel regarding modesty and chastity” (memo to the Primary General Presidency, 27 August 1994).

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:00:07 +0000

Bwaak! Bwak bwak bwaak!

I am chicken. No way would I raise them unless I were the teacher! I think I shall look for volunteer substituting to do in Primary.

By: Frank Pellett

Frank Pellett — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:33:35 +0000

Wow. I do agree that three months on sex is quite a lot, and would likely make a lot of people decide not to attend Sunday School, but I also think we’re not talking about the good things of sex enough in church. I’ve not been to classes for a while now, being in Primary (which absolutely should not have this lesson) – has there been a good lesson about this in the RS/PH/YW/YM manuals lately?

I see the lament on the lessening of adultery being next to murder more about a change in how the world has seen adultery, rather than a lament that the Church is no longer going hard on sexual sin. Of course, now some people have taken it to the extreme of any sexual misdeed being next to murder, but I dont see this as always being the churches’ stance. Yes, fornication is serious, but its not nearly murder.

I find it also funny that in some ways we can be more reluctant to talk about sex than those almost a hundred years ago. I think now after even half of a lesson on sex many would find themselves reacting like teenagers and daydreaming of something else. “yeah, yeah, I know all this, move on already”.