LDS Church leaders urged their members to seek spiritual safety by keeping the covenants they have made with God, standing firm in their testimonies of truth and being peaceable followers of Christ.

A few LDS Church members jawed with vociferous street preachers outside the Conference Center throughout the weekend, and on Sunday the spats grew into two minor confrontations. Yet President Gordon B. Hinckley closed the 173rd Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday with a petition for civility.

"I pray each of us will be a little more kind, a little more thoughtful, a little more courteous. I pray that we will keep our tongues in check and not let anger prompt words which we would later regret. I pray that we may have the strength and the will to turn the other cheek, to walk the extra mile in lifting up the feeble knees of those in distress."

Several speakers during the two-day conference noted that the LDS Church will continue to stand firm on moral positions, despite societal pressure to the contrary.

In his Sunday morning address, President Hinckley said it is the mission of the church to stand as an ensign to nations and a light to world.

"There are forces all around us that would deter us from that effort. The world is constantly crowding in on us. From all sides we feel the pressure to soften our stance, to give in, here a little and there a little. We must never lose sight of our objective."

President Hinckley lauded church-owned KSL-TV's recent decision not to air the new NBC series "Coupling," though he did not refer to the program by name.

The sitcom revolves around the sex lives of six friends — three male, three female. It has been described as one of the most "adult" shows ever scheduled by a broadcast network.

"Life is better than that which is so frequently portrayed. Nature is better than that. Love is better than that. This kind of entertainment is only an evil caricature of the good and the beautiful."

President Hinckley noted that a station in South Bend, Ind., home to the University of Notre Dame, also chose not to broadcast the program. "It is comforting to know that there are others who feel as strongly as we feel and are willing to do something about it."

Turning his attention to young people, the 93-year-old church leader lamented "binge drinking" on college campuses, saying, "It diminishes abilities. It destroys lives. It wastes money and time and constructive effort. What a sorry sight it is to see bright young people damage themselves and ruin their opportunities with excessive drinking."

It was a "great tribute" to Brigham Young University, President Hinckley said, that The Princeton Review found it to have "the most stone-cold sober" student body in America, a distinction bestowed on BYU five years running.

There were no major pronouncements made nor new general authorities called during the two-day conference. Three members of the First Quorum of the Seventy were given emeritus status, while three members of the Second Quorum of the Seventy were released Saturday.

President Hinckley's plea was among many familiar chords struck in the five conference sessions. Church leaders issued warnings about society's moral decay, the pervasiveness of salacious entertainment and the decline of the family. They admonished members to stay on a righteous course even in the face of criticism and ridicule, which has followed the church since the days of founder Joseph Smith.

Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve said there is great strength and power in the fact that millions of Latter-day Saints worldwide share the same testimony of God, the Savior and the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith.

"We have never been encouraged to be blindly obedient; it is an intelligent obedience that characterizes us as members of the church," he said. "Brigham Young is reported to have said that the greatest fear he had was that members of the church would take what he said as the mind and will of God without first praying and obtaining a witness of the same for themselves."

Persecution has followed the church since the day Joseph Smith received what church members believe was a vision 183 years ago that led to the restoration of Christ's true church on the Earth.

"From 1820 on, Joseph Smith was steadily attacked in a pattern of accusations — followed by eventual vindications. The pattern continues," said Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve.

"As prophesied, fools deride him, hell rages against him, and his name is 'both good and evil spoken of.' This swirl needlessly preoccupies a few who seem to prefer chewing on old bones in the outer courtyard instead of coming inside the resplendent, revelatory banquet, thus diverting them from giving due attention to Joseph's mission as a 'choice seer.' "

Elder Maxwell admonished church members to ignore those who deride them.

"Others will see us a quaint or misled. Let us bear the pointing fingers which, ironically, belong to those being born who find 'the great and spacious building' to be a stale and cramped, third-class hotel. Let us revile not the revilers and heed them not.

"Instead, let us use our energy to hold up the shield of faith to quench the incoming, fiery darts — aided perhaps by a touch of spiritual Teflon."