"Finding Light in Babylon: Reflections on Molly's Gemini Room and the Illusion of Erotic Empowerment"

 "Finding Light in Babylon: Reflections on Molly's Gemini Room and the Illusion of Erotic Empowerment"

By Bobby Darvish

Recently, in the heart of Salt Lake City — a place once known as Zion, a sanctuary for God's people — I met a girl who works at Molly's Gemini Room, an establishment now famous (or infamous) for its headline: "Erotic Empowerment Amid Chaos."

At first, speaking with her was disarming. She was warm, intelligent, and searching. Yet beneath the surface, it was clear: like many young women today, she had been fed the lie that selling one's body, parading it for the hungry eyes of lost men, is somehow empowering. In reality, it is not empowerment — it is the oldest form of slavery, dressed up in the slick language of "feminist liberation" and "personal agency."

In traditional Christian doctrine, including the teachings preserved by the LDS Church, the human body is a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). We are counseled that sexual purity and modesty are gifts of strength, not shackles. True empowerment comes from knowing your eternal worth as a child of God — not from turning sacred intimacy into public spectacle. In Doctrine and Covenants 121:45, we are reminded, "Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God." Virtue strengthens the soul; its loss drains it.

Having been raised Muslim, I know what real oppression looks like — not the fake kind the Marxist feminists in America constantly cry about. Islam crushed the value of women through forced veiling, child marriages, and honor killings. Ironically, in America today, the opposite perversion is now being marketed: not forced veiling, but forced unveiling, where women are told their greatest power lies not in their minds, spirits, or eternal souls, but in stripping down for strangers. Both Islamism and secular Marxist feminism view women as mere instruments — just in opposite extremes.

What I saw at Molly's Gemini Room — and in the girl's bittersweet, searching eyes — was the same spiritual hunger I see in so many today. Behind the neon lights, loud music, and clumsy laughter of drunken men, there's a battlefield for souls. As Christ Himself warned, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36). In the chaos of modern America, especially after the decay of traditional Christian and Latter-day Saint values even here in Utah, these places multiply because people are spiritually starving.

But hope is not lost. Christ can heal. Repentance is real. True empowerment is to be found not in selling one's image, but in standing clothed in righteousness, crowned in dignity, embraced by God.

I pray for the girl at Molly’s Gemini Room. I pray for all the lost sons and daughters of Zion. We have not been abandoned — but we must turn back from Babylon and remember who we are.

As a former Muslim and now a Christian Latter-day Saint Iranian-American, I know firsthand: the world promises freedom, but delivers only bondage. Only in Christ is there true liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). The Lord is calling us all home — even those dancing in the darkness of Salt Lake City's forgotten streets.

Sources:

• The Holy Bible, King James Version, 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

• Doctrine and Covenants 121:45, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• The Holy Bible, King James Version, Mark 8:36

• The Holy Bible, King James Version, 2 Corinthians 3:17

• "Molly's Gemini Room: Erotic Empowerment Amid Chaos," Salt Lake Tribune (https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2024/02/28/mollys-gemini-room-erotic-empowerment/)

• https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI9FzfIJS2N/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link