The liberal philosophy is meant to make you feel good and to make you feel that you care.
There is in the world a great push towards taking the easy road. This is not just about spiritual things, but is also about temporal or worldly things. The comment from the Lord is instructive-
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Mathew 7:13-14).
This quote begs for additional discussion as it applies to the world in temporal things and as it applies to spiritual things.
In our country there has become a great divide between the thinking of conservatives and liberals. This was not so much the case in generations past. There were different ideas between so called liberals and conservatives of the time, but not like we see today. The liberal view-point today has become the easy path- “broad is the way…” The liberal philosophy is meant to make you feel good and to make you feel that you care. Take the following comments-
“Everyone should have affordable health-care.”
“Everyone should have affordable housing.”
“There is no right or wrong values- do whatever makes you feel good.”
“Recycling, driving a hybrid, closing backcountry roads will 'save' the planet.”
When we start putting together a list of today's liberal ideals, we can see an underlying philosophy that starts to appear. Liberals want to take care of everyone because they “care” so much. Who else wanted to take care of us all?
“…That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying-Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.” (Moses 4:1)
Satan wanted to take “care” of everyone so that everyone would be saved in the end (doesn't that sound nice?). To do this, though, he wanted to remove our agency (our liberty). Because of his revolt in heaven, he was cast down to earth to become the devil. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12) Extreme examples of evil in our day show us that Satan has not changed his strategy that he used in heaven. He no longer wants to save any one, but now “… he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” (2 Nephi 2:27) The extreme examples would be situations in the world like the Taliban government in Afghanistan. They controlled everything in people's lives, what they could read, hear, sing, and where they could go. While it is recognized by most that this was an oppressive government, the leaders thought that they were doing the work of God by forcing everyone to do what they thought was “right.”Â
While not extreme in its example, the liberal ideals of today are following a similar theme. The mantra is “we care about all the little people and we will take care of all their needs.” The “feel good” statements of the liberal ideals avoid all discussion of the realities of what these ideas mean; they avoid any open look at what impact these ideas put in practice would have on us individually or on our country. One example to look at here is global warming. Today if you question global warming as a reality, or if you question what our impact is on it, it is considered sacrilegious.
The liberal ideals are the easy way “wide path.” If we choose to follow these ideas and to surrender our intellect to the liberal leadership who “know better,” than we do, how to take care of ourselves we are following that easy path. What is a truth in all things in life whether it is political, spiritual, or temporal is that the easy way is usually not the right way. Anything worthwhile that we can achieve takes effort. We must be careful that we are not lulled into a false sense of security “And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well-and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.” (2 Nephi 28:21). Indeed he would like to convince us that “I am no devil for there is none.” (2 Nephi 28:22)
Another tactic that is used by Lucifer is fear- “…Satan cried with a loud voice, and ranted upon the earth, and commanded, saying: I am the Only Begotten, worship me. And it came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell.” (Moses 1:19–20). “And he received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word.” (D&C 40:2) Not long ago at a concert to benefit the planet (of all the good things that people could be doing) several of the performers made comments that they did not know much about global warming but that they were scared to death about it. It is common tactic of today's liberals to make us feel bad, scared, or angry if we do not follow “them” and put “them” in power.
What can we make of this? In the political and temporal world, we need to consider what the implications are of the ideas being put forward (has it been tried before, how well did it work, what are the personal and national economic implications, why should we think we can do it better than it has been done before). We need to not over-react to the emotional “feel-good” phrases that are designed to pull at our heart-strings.
Does all of this really apply to us spiritually as well? When the Lord said “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Mathew 7:14) he was talking about the path to eternal life. Satan's tactics apply first and foremost to the spiritual realm. What is the biggest “feel-good” statement of today's religions? “All you have to do is believe in Christ and you are saved.” Or how about “Once you believe and are saved, you can't out sin the grace of God.” (Quote taken from a modern televangelist)
Is this what Timothy warned about when he said “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Tim. 4: 3). What does it mean to “heap” teachers “having itching ears?” If we have itching ears, we are seeking for someone to tell us things to make us feel better to sooth our itching ears. This seems to be a clear reference to us wanting to be told that “all is well” and that the pathway- “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat,” is actually the correct path “and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.”Â
We must be careful with these things because we don't want to incorrectly feel that “all is well” when we are on the wrong path! Peter warned that those “easy” or “feel-good” doctrines would bring about our destruction.
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2 Pet. 3: 16)
He was talking of the epistles of Paul here, and wrest means to distort. Indeed the writings of Paul are used to support the modern “saved” doctrine by Christian religions today. Is this “saved” doctrine not the easy way?
The common thing we see today is this idea that being amoral or the “whatever makes you feel good” morality is the proper way to live your life. Or-
And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God-he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God (2 Nephi 28:8).
In Paul's letter to the Philippian saints he said to “… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philip. 2: 12) Why would he say this if all these people already believed in Christ (remember he is writing to believers not non-believers). Surely Paul was telling them that the “wide gate” “broad way” or easy path was not the right way.
We can see in all of this that whether we are looking at our spiritual, temporal, or political life we can see that broad, wide, easy, and “feel-good” paths are not the right path and we need to put forth a little effort in all aspects of our life to follow the straight path with the narrow gate. If we take the effort to put ourselves on the right path we find that the Savior's teaching “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11: 30) is not contradictory to what I have been saying in this article. We find that once we are through the narrow gate and on the straight path that it becomes easy to stay on the path with the help of the Lord. The difference is we do not want to be seeking to “feel good” about our current path, but rather want to be seeking to experience the real joy which comes from following the Lord. “Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” (Alma 27: 18).
Roger Lindsay resides in Idaho and works as and engineer in R&D for a semiconductor company. He holds 11 US patents for methods of building semiconductors. He has a BBA in business from Boise State University and will soon hold an MBA from Westen Governors University.
