You could call it straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel.

Or maybe it is better characterized as missing the forest because of the trees.

Either way, a young man, out for a jog while visiting Las Vegas, Nev., found more than just a little irony in the words of a sign — complete with a little smiling fish — adjacent to storm drains in a city street.

"Don't pollute; drains to Lake Mead."

In and of itself, the sign held no irony. Certainly protecting our physical environment is a worthy cause. In fact, this earth is a precious resource given to us by a wise and kind Heavenly Father. And, while in mortality, we may appropriately enjoy the wondrous beauties that a generous God has created for our benefit. And we should do all we reasonably can to preserve and protect those creations.

No, in and of itself, there is no irony in the storm-drain sign.

The irony comes from the surrounding smut that litters the streets near the storm drain. The scene is common in many cities.

One need walk or run only a few steps in any direction to step on cheap publications, disseminated via free vending machines that seem to be everywhere, depicting scantily clad or nude women and touting services that, ultimately, will destroy those who indulge.

How ironic that a society worries about dirty stream water while apparently ignoring the pollution of the soul.

The contrasting issues bring to mind the admonition given by the Savior to the Scribes and Pharisees, who were careful to pay their tithes of mint, anise and cumin, but rejected the weightier matters of the law. Both, said the Savior, are important and neither should be left undone. (See Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42.)

As true today as it was when Jesus taught it, that principle suggests that we moderns should not salve ourselves by attending to our physical surroundings while ignoring our spiritual environment.

While it can, perhaps, be rationalized that these street-corner publications do not meet the U.S. legal definition of pornography and are, therefore, acceptable, honest individuals will readily agree that the material is trash, that it brings nothing of value to society and that its promulgation and spread is harmful to children and adults alike.

While many countries have laws guaranteeing freedom of expression — laws that are absolutely necessary to create, in this telestial existence, a free society — nothing requires a society to take those freedoms to such absurd extremes.

Reasonable people can and should disagree on what might pollute our physical environment, or, for that matter, on any of the hundreds of other secular issues that face our society. In such dialogue, diversity of opinion should be highly valued and no one should randomly run roughshod over someone else.

But no matter one's religious — or non-religious persuasion — no valid argument can be made to support the supposed benefits of unbridled appeal to sexual appetites.

In this mortal existence, there is no easy or effective way to grant freedoms necessary to allow good and honest people to achieve their best while disallowing those who seek evil to propagate their ideas and actions. So the same laws and constitutional mandates that allowed Joseph Smith to publish the Book of Mormon allow profiteers and rogues to publish smut, filth and garbage.

Freedom, then, depends — utterly depends — on people making good choices. Latter-day Saints know that preserving the freedoms promised to our Nephite forefathers requires our choosing to serve the God of the land, who, of course, is Jesus Christ. But even beyond the religious context, all can recognize that we must choose to keep our communities free of that which causes harm.

Agency, the principle that provides that we have choice, is one of God's greatest gifts to humankind. Used to its full advantage, agency's choices are really quite simple: We must choose that which is noble and right.