Revisiting President Hinckley's 6 b's talk

Tonight I got my ears re-pierced. Four holes in my head restored. I rather reluctantly took my earrings out the night of November 12^th, 2000. I was riding with friends in the car on our way home from the Conference Center. We had just listened to President Hinckley deliver his now famous 6 be’s talk.Out came the earrings. Girls all over the car were slipping them into pockets and purses.

Until tonight I remembered almost nothing of the talk. (In honor of getting my piercings restored I reread the whole thing). No tattoos. No earrings for boys and only "one modest" pair for girls.

Those two new commandments were lumped into the "be clean" part of the talk which was targeting moral cleanliness. Earrings and tattoos were dirty just like porn, sex, drugs, and most of the media.  

The talk sent a shockwave through my small part of the Mormon kingdom. Though Mr. Hinckley’s message almost immediately morphed from earrings = morally dirty to earrings = disobedient. Don't know which of those messages is worse to be honest. 

Over the following weeks I remember leaders reinforcing Hinckley’s new commandments. One of my young women’s leaders shared her personal struggle with taking out her second immodest pair. She told us how she had felt an immediate flood of spirit upon being obedient to the Lord’s servant.

I still remember the bishop’s fervent thank-a-mony one fast and testimony meeting following the talk where he spoke about raising righteous children who were obedient to the prophet’s voice. He tearfully recounted how his son came home from the Conference Center and without a word went straight into the bathroom and promptly removed his earrings. He had not had to be asked by his parents or coaxed to do it. He immediately heeded the counsel of the prophet all on his own. As the bishop spoke the message seemed to morph again, "Parents! You are failing and raising disobedient and unrighteous children if you let them have tats and earrings."

Soon showing up at church with more than one pair of earrings almost automatically labeled you as “less-faithful”. The new stigma really hasn't changed over the years. A sure sign of apostasy still seems to be that damn second pair of earrings, or third, or definitely the fourth pair.  

In rereading the talk tonight I’m sad that the main take away became earrings, tattoos and conformity.

Other parts of the talk were actually things that if applied could be inspiring and lifting. Some parts of the talk could actually make you a better person if cultivated, but the parts about developing gratitude, being true to yourself, and getting a good education seemed to have been almost totally lost. Part of the reason that such things seemed to disappear are probably because developing gratitude, being true to yourself, or getting more education are a bit ambiguous and not super straightforward things. Nor are those things necessarily visible and obvious.

Taking out a pair of earrings is pretty darn simple, socially reinforceable, and can easily be checked off the “righteousness check-list”.