Why Sin Is Forbidden

There is a statement accredited to Benjamin Franklin which says, “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.” Perhaps few truths are more important for youth to learn than this. Young people sometimes profess to feel that instructions and counsels and restrictions are arbitrarily imposed upon them; that there is no basic reason for such precautions except that parents and other elder advisers seek to saddle the standards of their generation on the succeeding generation. Superficially this may sometimes seem to be so, because the outward things of life do change: foods and fashions, language and literature, customs and conveniences. But all the rules are not arbitrary rules. There are some things which in the experience of all men of all times have proved to be degrading and ultimately destructive of character, of peace of mind, of happiness in life; and there is no escaping the consequences of setting them aside. Such timeless verities are not moved by the passing parade nor altered at the commands of convenience. They, therefore, are laws⎯commandments, if you choose to call them such⎯and not merely arbitrary prohibitions. They are basic to the nature of man and inscribed in holy writ as the word and will of God to His children. And so we would say to youth everywhere: When parents thus counsel and caution, they aren’t trying to spoil your fun or “cramp your style,” as you sometimes seem to suppose. They aren’t forbidding merely to be forbidding. They know the road and the rules; and in their way and in their wisdom, they are only trying to pass on what many men in many generations have tragically proved: that “sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.” Trust them when they so counsel and caution, for they are speaking out of their great love for you and out of their concern for your unblemished happiness.