For the Strength of Youth 2012

[Moliere]

I figured I'd start a different thread as I have some time on my hands to do some textual comparison. I always find it interesting to look at updated documents to see what has changed and try to determine why it changed. Just for kicks, I put the FSOY 2001 and FSOY 2012 into Word documents and compared them. I' haven't read through the results yet, but there are some interesting changes. I figure I'll use this thread to share some of the results.

Of course the most interesting section to compare is Sexual Purity. Here is a tracked changes version showing what has been deleted from and added to the 2001 version of the pamphlet:

__________________________________________________ ___________________________

Physical intimacy between husband and wife is beautiful and sacred. It is ordained of God for the creation of children and for the expression of love between husband and wife. God has commanded that sexual intimacy be reserved for marriage.

When you obey God's commandment to beare sexually pure, you prepare yourself to make and keep sacred covenants in the temple. You prepare yourself to build a strong marriage and to bring children into the world as part of aan eternal and loving family. You protect yourself from the spiritual and emotional damage that always comescome from sharing physical intimacies with someonesexual intimacy outside of marriage. You also protect yourself from harmful diseases. Remaining sexually pure helps you to be confident and truly happy and improves your ability to make good decisions now and in the future.

The Lord’s standard regarding sexual purity is clear and unchanging. Do not have any sexual relations before marriage, and be completely faithful to your spouse after marriage. Satan may tempt youDo not allow the media, your peers, or others to rationalizepersuade you that sexual intimacy before marriage is acceptable when two people are in love. That. It is not true. In God’s sight, sexual sins are extremely serious because they. They defile the sacred power God has given us to create life. The prophet Alma taught that sexual sins are more serious than any other sins except murder or denying the Holy Ghost (see Alma 39:5).

Before marriage, do not do anything to arouse the powerful emotions that must be expressed only in marriage. DoNever do anything that could lead to sexual transgression. Treat others with respect, not as objects used to satisfy lustful and selfish desires. Before marriage, do not participate in passionate kissing, lie on top of another person, or touch the private, sacred parts of another person’s body, with or without clothing. Do not allow anyone todo anything else that with youarouses sexual feelings. Do not arouse those emotions in your own body. Pay attention to the promptings of the Spirit so that you can be clean and virtuous. The Spirit of the Lord will withdraw from one who is in sexual transgression.

Avoid situations that invite increased temptation, such as late-night or overnight activities away from home or activities where there is a lack of adult supervision. Do not participate in discussions or any media that arouse sexual feelings. Do not participate in any type of pornography. The Spirit can help you know when you are at risk and give you the strength to remove yourself from the situation. Have faith in and be obedient to the righteous counsel of your parents and leaders.

In cultures where dating or courting is acceptable, always treat your date with respect, never as an object to be used for your lustful desires. Stay in areas of safety where you can easily control your physical feelings. Do not participate in talk or activities that arouse sexual feelings.

Homosexual activityand lesbian behavior is a serious sin. If you find yourself struggling with same-gender attraction or you are being persuaded to participate in inappropriate behavior, seek counsel from your parents and bishop. They will help you.

Victims of rape, incest, or othersexual abuse are not guilty of sin and do not need to repent. If you have been a victim of any of these crimesabuse, know that you are innocent and that God loves you. Talk to your parents or another trusted adult, and seek your bishop’s counsel immediately so he. They can help guide you through thesupport you spiritually and assist you in getting the protection and help you need. The process of emotional healing may take time. Trust in the Savior. He will heal you and give you peace.

If you are tempted to commit any form of sexual transgressions, seek help from your parents yourand bishop, and friends you can trust. Pray to the Lordyour Father in Heaven, who will help you resist temptation and overcome inappropriate thoughts and feelings. If you have committed sexual transgressions,transgression, talk to your bishop now and begin the process of repentance now so that you can find inner peace and have the full companionship of the Spirit. Seek the Lord's forgiveness. Talk with your bishop. He will help you obtain the forgiveness available to those who truly repent.

Make a personal commitment to be sexually pure. By your words and actions, encourage others to do the same.

EDIT: took the quotes away so it's easier to quote in a response.

[falafel]

The Lord’s standard regarding sexual purity is clear and unchanging. Do not have any sexual relations before marriage, and be completely faithful to your spouse after marriage.

I noticed that the FTSY pamphlet does not address sexual intimacy after marriage. In other words, the Church does not expect you to abstain once you have tasted of the fruit of the tree! :rockon1:

[Non Sequitur]

If I had known about that "abuse" loop hole when I was 19, I wouldn't have had to wait another year and a half to go on my mission. My girl friend used to habitually abuse me.

[Moliere]

One thing that popped out to me while doing this was in the 2001 pamphlet on abuse. The pamphlet says if you are abused you didn't commit sin, however it then tells you to talk to your bishop, which kind of leads one to believe it is a matter that needs to be cleared with the bishop. I'm glad they made the change in the 2012 pamphlet as it seems they really messed up on the previous wording/intention.

[falafel]

I'm also glad I no longer have to treat my dates with respect and can now treat her as an object to be used for my lustful desires!

[Dwight Schr-ute]

Before marriage, do not participate in passionate kissing

If I did not participate in this with my girlfriend before we were married, I would have never known what I was missing out on after we got married. Sound advice indeed!

[Sullyute]

Homosexual activityand lesbian behavior is a serious sin. If you find yourself struggling with same-gender attraction or you are being persuaded to participate in inappropriate behavior, seek counsel from your parents and bishop. They will help you.

This is an interesting statement. I wonder how "behavior" is being defined in this circumstance? It seems like this can be viewed very broadly...

[Pheidippides]

If I did not participate in this with my girlfriend before we were married, I would have never known what I was missing out on after we got married. Sound advice indeed!

My wife (very repentant about such things now) refused to kiss passionately until we were engaged. At this I drew the line in the sand: we were not getting engaged until such things happened, and if she was going to be resolute about it I'd find myself somebody less prude. I won, but not without discussion.

It is not surprising that I have some mixed feelings towards this pamphlet.

[jay santos]

I like these types of analysis. My comments.

You protect yourself from the spiritual and emotional damage that always comescome from sharing physical intimacies with someonesexual intimacy outside of marriage. You also protect yourself from harmful diseases. Remaining sexually pure helps you to be confident and truly happy and improves your ability to make good decisions now and in the future.

I like the practical point of adding the bit about disease.

I take issue with this concept that sexual sin causes you to be less confident and cause you spiritual and emotional damage. The only reason this is the case is that guilt that we as a church self inflict on ourselves. So of course if you guilt trip the hell out of someone over sexual sin from a young age, that person is going to have some emotional damage and confidence loss when they sin sexually. Maybe we could go about it from both sides. Be realistic about the level of casual, experimentation that's somewhat healthy that a young person goes through and back off the guilt thing on one side. And then help our youth be as chaste as possible on the other side. If the goal is emotional and spiritual esteem/confidence/health (and it should be), then both parts are necessary.

Do not allow the media, your peers, or others

I like tossing the reference to Satan and changing it to this. More specific and accurate, IMHO.

The prophet Alma taught that sexual sins are more serious than any other sins except murder or denying the Holy Ghost (see Alma 39:5).

The prophet Alma also taught us the appropriate response for fornication for missionaries is some preaching to get back on track and go back out and do a better job as a missionary, not to send them home or excommunicate them. So I don't know why we cherry pick Alma.

Treat others with respect, not as objects used to satisfy lustful and selfish desires.

Great addition. And getting closer to why we should teach our young men to avoid pornography.

The Spirit of the Lord will withdraw from one who is in sexual transgression.

I don't agree with this. I don't think it's biblical. It's not even BOMical. It's works based/legalist stuff that has no place in a church following Jesus Christ.

Talk to your parents or another trusted adult, and

Excellent change. The church should always promote youth to talk with their parents about these issues not the bishop as the first point of contact.

Pray to the Lordyour Father in Heaven

Lord replaced with Father in Heaven. Interesting change. More interesting that pray to the Lord was there originally. The church has been consolidating on a definition that Lord always refers to Jesus Christ for quite some time.

overnight activities

Yes! Take that, DDD. No sleepovers.

Do not participate in discussions or any media that arouse sexual feelings. Do not participate in any type of pornography. The Spirit can help you know when you are at risk and give you the strength to remove yourself from the situation. Have faith in and be obedient to the righteous counsel of your parents and leaders.

I might be taking this wrong. But I think I like this insertion. It seems to not be generally railing on porn as an evil as much as it is warning youth that porn can lead to other things. I'm very for warning and teaching against porn for specific reasons, ie it takes us in a direction we don't want to go.

In cultures where dating or courting is acceptable, always treat your date with respect, never as an object to be used for your lustful desires. Stay in areas of safety where you can easily control your physical feelings. Do not participate in talk or activities that arouse sexual feelings.

Wonder why they took this out. Seemed like a good paragraph.

and lesbian behavior

Strange they thought they needed to add the word lesbian, I thought homosexual covered it.

[Pheidippides]

The "arouse sexual feelings" bit always confuses me. Being in the same room as a member of the opposite sex is enough to arouse sexual feelings in a teenage boy. A random rainstorm can too. I think a better path would be to say, "hey, you're going to be aroused a lot for many reasons or even no reason at all and that's okay - just don't act on your arousal in these ways and you're good."

[edward777]

If I did not participate in this with my girlfriend before we were married, I would have never known what I was missing out on after we got married. Sound advice indeed!

+1

[Moliere]

Wonder why they took this out. Seemed like a good paragraph.

The paragraph is in there, it's just been divided up and placed in different paragraphs. The "date" specific language was removed.

[Moliere]

Satan may tempt youDo not allow the media, your peers, or others to rationalizepersuade you that sexual intimacy before marriage is acceptable when two people are in love. That

I like tossing the reference to Satan and changing it to this. More specific and accurate, IMHO.

I think this is an interesting change and was hoping someone would mention it before me. I get the feeling that the church is moving away from "satan" being the one that tempts us. The way the 2001 pamphlet was worded almost made it seem like the media or your peers were consciously in cahoots with satan, which no rational kid would believe today.

Instead, the church is turning more towards recognizing the fallen state of man is the main source of temptation, which is closer to what I tend to believe. Hopefully in the near future we can no longer try to mathematically try to figure out how many spirits were cast out of heaven as an exercise to scare our youth into thinking they are being surrounded by 100 devilish spirits.

[jay santos]

I think this is an interesting change and was hoping someone would mention it before me. I get the feeling that the church is moving away from "satan" being the one that tempts us. The way the 2001 pamphlet was worded almost made it seem like the media or your peers were consciously in cahoots with satan, which no rational kid would believe today.

Instead, the church is turning more towards recognizing the fallen state of man is the main source of temptation, which is closer to what I tend to believe. Hopefully in the near future we can no longer try to mathematically try to figure out how many spirits were cast out of heaven as an exercise to scare our youth into thinking they are being surrounded by 100 devilish spirits.

Yep, that's a positive step. I think it also gives us more power. If it's Satan I'm up against, what the hell, he's more powerful than me. How could I win?

[Pelado]

I noticed that the FTSY pamphlet does not address sexual intimacy after marriage. In other words, the Church does not expect you to abstain once you have tasted of the fruit of the tree! :rockon1:

I think your loophole was addressed:

The Lord’s standard regarding sexual purity is clear and unchanging. Do not have any sexual relations before marriage, and be completely faithful to your spouse after marriage. Satan may tempt you[COLOR="Magenta"]

Before marriage, do not do anything to arouse the powerful emotions that must be expressed only in marriage. DoNever do anything that could lead to sexual transgression. Treat others with respect, not as objects used to satisfy lustful and selfish desires. Before marriage, do not participate in passionate kissing, lie on top of another person, or touch the private, sacred parts of another person’s body, with or without clothing.

Or maybe you just needed to show your wife that there was no commandment for her to continue her abstinence.