Excerpt from an April 1969 General Conference address by Apostle Mark E. Petersen, The Dangers of the So-called Sex Revolution: ¹

“That law is irrevocable and inescapable and applies to all, whether we believe in God or not. Everyone is subject to its penalties, no matter how they may try to ignore them, The wage of sin is death (Rom. 6:23)—even to the unbeliever!

Immorality is next to murder in God’s category of crime, and always brings in its wake both destruction and remorse, even to college students who carry the pill with a mother’s consent.

This nation was built upon a foundation of morality and spirituality. It is just possible that a rejection of these basic factors may bring about its fall. It was so with Greece and Rome. It can happen to us unless we repent.

Every one of us would do well to remember that the “mills of the Gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small.” No one can flout the divine law with impunity.

Every right-thinking person should be willing even to die if necessary in defense of virtue, whether that death be physical or social.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14) will forever stand as an immutable law to all human beings. This generation may rationalize itself into complete intoxication with sin and proclaim to high heaven that it is old-fashioned to be clean, but it will yet wake up to the stem reality that God does not change and that the moral laws are his and not man’s to shift with every whim.

Adultery is still next to murder in the Lord’s category of crime (Alma 39:5).

Homosexuality was made a capital crime in the Bible (Lev. 20:13).

It was the Almighty who decreed that men and women must cover their nakedness by wearing proper and modest clothing (Gen. 3:21).

No amount of rationalizing can change God’s laws. No amount of fashion designing can turn immodesty into virtue, and no amount of popularity can change sin into righteousness.

Once again we Latter-day Saints affirm the reality of the existence of Jesus Christ. Once again, as his humble servants, we define his law of personal purity, and solemnly declare that sex sin is an abomination in the sight of God (Jacob 2:28).

No one on earth can ever cancel the divine command that says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14).

To this I humbly testify in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Leviticus 20:13, The Holy Bible: ²

13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.