Self-respect shows in dress, manners
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In an address at the October 1973 general conference, President Harold B. Lee spoke of "the shocking lack of self-respect by so many individuals, as is evidenced by their dress, their manner, and engulfing waves of permissiveness which seem to be moving over the world like an avalanche."
President Lee quoted Paul: " 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.' " (1 Cor. 3:16-17.)
Further, President Lee quoted Paul's declaration to those who had been baptized members of the Church that they had received the gift of a special endowment known as the Holy Ghost: " 'What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? . . . therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' "(1 Cor. 6:19-20.)
President Lee said: "If we can get a person to think what those words mean, then we can begin to understand the significance of the words of [a] renowned psychologist [who said], 'The first thing to be done to help a man to moral regeneration is to restore, if possible, his self-respect.' How better may that self-respect be restored than to help him to fully understand the answer to that question, 'Who am I?'
"When we see one devoid of respect for himself, as indicated by his conduct, his outward appearance, his speech, and his utter disregard of the basic measures of decency, then certainly we are witnessing the frightening aspect of one over whom Satan has achieved a victory, as the Lord declared he would try 'to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will . . . to destroy the agency of man.' (See Moses 4:1-4.) This is the fate of 'even as many as would not hearken unto my voice' (Moses 4:4), so declared the Lord to Moses."
