What makes a man a man? Living righteously
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Elder Carlos E. Asay of the Presidency of the Seventy presented two vignettes in his priesthood session address Saturday evening to refute the notion that immorality equates to manliness.
In one vignette was a young man of deacon-age, and in the other was an 18-year-old priest. Both were taunted and called disparaging names by their companions for refusing to join them in immoral activities."Such names are used by peers who equate manliness with the ability to drink liquor, blow tobacco smoke out of all the facial cavities, sow one's wild oats like some animal on the street, and break moral laws without a tinge of conscience," he said.
Elder Asay disputed the suggestion in a popular beer advertisement that consuming the beer "makes a man a man."
For a true answer to the question, "What makes a man a man?" Elder Asay turned to 2 Ne. 1:13, 21, 23, 24, in which Lehi charged his sons, "Arise from the dust . . . and be men."
"There is a lie - a vicious lie - circulating among the Latter-day Saints and taking its toll among the young," he warned. "It is that a `balanced man' is one who deliberately guards against becoming too righteous. This lie would have you believe that it is possible to live happily and successfully with one foot in Babylon and one foot in Zion.
" . . . Can a man be too righteous? too Christlike? Impossible! Can the so-called `balanced man' walk successfully the beam between good and evil? No. Each step is shaky and eventually he will teeter and fall and break himself against the commandments of God."
