Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Council of the Twelve said Sunday morning he was speaking as an environmentalist. Stating his message was on the moral and spiritual environment, not the physical, he declared the pollution index is spiraling upward, and that "deliberate pollution of the fountain of life now clouds our moral environment."

He proclaimed the capacity to kindle life a supernal blessing, but noted there is in the world a deterioration of values characterized by a preoccupation with the procreative act.Abstinence before marriage and fidelity within are scoffed at, he said, and the virtue of modesty is all but gone.

Society teaches the physical process of reproduction to school children and provides teenagers with devices to protect against pregnancy and disease. Yet, Elder Packer said, any effort to teach values to those same youth is protested as an imposition of religion, an infringement upon freedom.

"While we pass laws to reduce pollution of the earth, any proposal to protect the moral and spiritual environment is shouted down and marched against as infringing upon liberty, agency, freedom, the right to choose," he said.

He explained there are moral and physical laws "irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world" (D&C 130:20) that man cannot overrule.

"No greater ideal has been revealed than the supernal truth that we are the children of God, and we differ, by virtue of our creation, from all other living things," Elder Packer explained. "No idea has been more destructive of happiness, no philosophy has produced more sorrow, more heartbreak and mischief; no idea has done more to destroy the family than the idea that we are not the offspring of God, only advanced animals, compelled to yield to every carnal urge."

Elder Packer advised, "The only legitimate employment of the power of procreation is between husband and wife who have been legally and lawfully married. Anything else violates the commandment of God."

Of challenges to raising families in the darkening mists of today's moral environment, Elder Packer acknowledged responsible parents sometimes lose children to influences over which they have no control. "It is my conviction that those wicked influences will one day be overruled," Elder Packer said.

He quoted Joseph Smith who taught that though some sheep may wander, ". . . the eye of the shepherd is upon them. . . . Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold onto them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, til you see the salvation of God."

Elder Packer said the twin principles of repentance and forgiveness exceed the adversary's power. "I know of no sins connected with the moral standard for which we cannot be forgiven. I do not exempt abortion," he declared.

Saying civilizations like Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed themselves by disobedience to the laws of morality, Elder Packer enjoined: "God grant that we will come to our senses and protect our moral environment from this mist of darkness which deepens day by day. The fate of all humanity hangs precariously in the balance."