PROVO — LDS women should be defenders of right and truth and seen as lights in a world where the family is under attack, Sister Julie B. Beck said Friday.

"We are in those times, when we are the ones who must preserve our families amidst the gathering of evil around us," said the Relief Society general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Speaking during a general session of Women's Conference at BYU, Sister Beck said LDS women can protect their families by clearly keeping their focus on the temple and the blessings of eternal life.

"We see decline everywhere," she said, noting that marriage rates are down, and there is an increase in unmarried couples living together. Divorce, abortion and out-of-wedlock births have increased and low birth rates are reported and dropping everyday, she added.

"Children are less valued and families are less valued," she said. "Families are about 'us' and 'we.' The doctrines we are hearing preached by the world today are about 'I' and 'me.' "

Quoting from a 1980 address by former church President Spencer W. Kimball, Sister Beck said there are those "who would define the family in such a nontraditional way that they would define it out of existence.

"We of all people should not be taken in by the specious arguments that the family unit is somehow tied to a particular phase of development a moral society is going through. We are free to resist those moves which downplay the significance of the family and play up to the significance of selfish individualism. We know that families are eternal. We know that when things go wrong in the family, things go wrong in every other institution in society. … Many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. The time will come when only those who believe deeply and activity in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us."

Sister Beck said Christian women should never forget that "anti-Christ teachings and principles are always anti-family" and that "anti-family teachings and policies are also anti-Christ."

"We know and believe and testify of Christ. We are baptized into a covenant with him and we support and sustain his doctrine and his theology.

Sister Beck said she is so grateful for her parents, that were intentional about preparing their family by having family prayer, scripture study, family home evening, and encouraging their children to get an education, serve missions and work hard.

Part of the responsibility of Latter-day Saint "women who know" is to bear children and make time for their family — even at the expense of their children's other activities. At a time when pornography when so prevalent, women should fight against it, she said.

Most important, they should prepare their families for the blessings of the temple and eternal life.

"This is a faith-based work," Sister Beck said. "It is not a social organization. It is not a fad. We have to call upon our faith."

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