Cree-L Kofford says LDS young people should not watch R-rated movies because the prophet (Ezra Taft Benson) said so.
Cree-L Kofford, "Marriage in the Lord's Way, Part Two," Ensign, July 1998, accessed September 28, 2022
All too often, we get ourselves enmeshed in the process of trying to understand why God gave us a particular commandment. We want to rationalize. I don’t know where that is more evident than in watching movies. Young people know they should not watch R- or X-rated movies, and yet time after time I hear them say, “Well it’s only rated R because it’s violent.” What difference does it make why it is rated R? The fact is, a prophet of God has said not to go to R-rated movies (see, for example, Ezra Taft Benson, “To the ‘Youth of the Noble Birthright,’” Ensign, May 1986, 45). That ought to be good enough.