A Hidden Threat to The True Church

Many people who think they are following the gospel of Jesus Christ are instead following Moral Therapeutic Deism, a watered-down creed that requires little by way of commitment or conversion. This counterfeit gospel makes personal happiness and "nice-ness" the only virtues that matter and imagines a God whose only job is to love and serve us and then to let us all into heaven without asking anything of us. Moral Therapeutic Deism is a danger to the true church because it can lead to stunted faith and spiritual starvation. This vacuous way of thinking is also causing young people to leave organized religion in droves all across America. What can you and I do to prevent this popular "self-made" religion of complacency and convenience from taking root in our own hearts and homes?

Recent national studies have suggested that more young adults are leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now than ever before.[i] This worrying development follows a larger trend across the country, in which particular groups or demographic cohorts (such as Millennials and Generation Z, or young men without a college degree, etc.) have been observed to be increasingly rejecting traditional religion, and moreover appear to be leaving these religions in droves. Seeing this, some have declared that “Religious commitment is in sharp decline, almost free fall.”[ii] Others have observed that “Almost every organized religion is experiencing losses in this new climate.”[iii] While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not experienced the dramatic losses which other American churches have faced, it is clear that we are not immune to this trend. Even the highest leaders of the Church have acknowledged the growing dissatisfaction among many people with organized religion.

We know something of today’s religious shortcomings that still leave the hunger and hope of some unfulfilled. We know a variety of those dissatisfactions are leading some away from traditional ecclesiastical institutions. We also know, as one frustrated writer wrote, that “many religious leaders [of the day] seem clueless” in addressing this kind of decline, offering in response “a thin gruel of therapeutic deism, cheap symbolic activism, carefully couched heresy, [or sometimes just] uninspiring nonsense”—and all at a time when the world needs so much more, when the rising generation deserves so much more, and when in Jesus’s day He offered so much more.[iv]

I believe this situation is part of the fulfillment of a prophecy made by the prophet Amos more than 2,500 years ago:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.[v]

People all over the world are still searching desperately for spiritual nourishment and fulfillment, but all they can find are poor substitutes that offer little in the way of genuine religious experience. With this in mind, perhaps it is natural that so many are becoming disillusioned with organized religion. However, many people who suppose they have found the answers they seek, and a system of belief which suits their lifestyle, are actually subsisting on nothing more than “a thin gruel of therapeutic deism” and self-made religion, and they do not even know it.[vi]

They remain deeply spiritual without being traditionally devout, avoiding church and preferring instead to browse the internet and libraries for makeshift pieces of a religious self. ‘They [are] attempting to renegotiate their relationship with religion by picking and choosing elements of various religious traditions they [find] appealing.’[vii]

Such individuals think they have found what they are looking for, but in truth they are still starving for the genuine spiritual guidance and fulfillment that can only come through the true Church of Jesus Christ.

However, Church members are not immune from this problem, either. A danger to the Church which has been gaining strength even among supposedly faithful members is an increasing tendency to substitute “self-made religion,” for the genuine principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the teachings of the prophets and apostles who lead His Church today.[viii] In recent years, those who study faith and religious life in America have noted that many Americans follow a new “watered-down faith” which these experts have dubbed “Moral Therapeutic Deism.” In this new quasi-religious system, “God is viewed as ‘something like a Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he’s always on call, takes care of any problems, professionally helps people feel better about themselves, and does not become too involved in the process.’”[ix] As a system of belief, Moral Therapeutic Deism is a “personally convenient faith that does not demand much of its adherents and whose primary function is to make…people feel good.[x]

Although many who subscribe to Moral Therapeutic Deism believe themselves to be Christians, in practice it is distinct from and incompatible with true Christian discipleship. This is what makes Moral Therapeutic Deism so dangerous. It is a counterfeit religion that grows inside another religion. It is like a cuckoo’s egg. The cuckoo bird slips its own egg into the nests of other birds so that they will raise and protect it as if it was one of their own, essentially making the Cuckoo and its offspring parasitical in nature. This analogy is apt, because Moral Therapeutic Deism is actually something worse than just watered-down religion. It grows inside other religions and infects their adherents with false beliefs and misconceptions, which can stunt their spiritual development.[xi]

            However, there are also many who profess no religion at all who nevertheless follow the principles of Moral Therapeutic Deism. Many of these people have rejected organized religion altogether. Often, they claim to be “spiritual, but not religious.” Some of these individuals came to Moral Therapeutic Deism on their own, without any grounding in organized religion. However, many who follow this philosophy were raised in a church or faith tradition, even if they left that tradition behind by the time they reached adulthood.[xii] In either case, adherents of Moral Therapeutic Deism tend to hold beliefs that look something like this:

I personally have a hard time with all the rules of religion. God is supposed to be our father and love us all equally, so when I hear someone tell me that god loves someone more because they go to church every Sunday or because someone doesn’t drink coffee or alcohol it makes no sense to me. I believe wholeheartedly that god loves us all and that as long as you are a good person and try to do good for the world and mankind then heaven awaits you when you die. God to me is all that is good in the universe.[xiii]

            The young man who shared this statement appeared to be entirely unaware of the concept of Moral Therapeutic Deism, or what it entails. Yet it is particularly striking how much his statement seems to check almost every box of the beliefs that make up Moral Therapeutic Deism. Compare his statement with the tenets of Moral Therapeutic Deism, which are roughly as follows:

1.     A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

2.     God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3.     The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4.     God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

5.     Good people go to heaven when they die.[xiv]

Moral Therapeutic Deism is characterized by a certain vagueness about who and what God actually is, and what it is that he actually requires of us. As a form of deism, this philosophy acknowledges the existence of a supreme being; however, in this version of deism God only intervenes in the world if you or I need him to solve a problem. Otherwise, we don’t need to think about him very much. Moreover, this “butler” God, who only appears when he is required to carry out a task on our behalf, makes no real requirements of his children, beyond the loosest and vaguest standards of “niceness” and “fairness.” In other words, God is only there to serve our whims, and is not expected to make any demands of his children. Accordingly, the morality of Moral Therapeutic Deism is roughly equivalent to that demanded by Santa Claus, and it is just as ill defined.

Personal happiness and “niceness” are the only moral principles which are paramount in this philosophy. While niceness is no doubt prized by adherents of Moral Therapeutic Deism precisely because its vagueness leaves room for a certain flexibility in definition, one can only assume that in order to be accepted by the God of Moral Therapeutic Deism all that one has to do is to be “pleasant, agreeable, [and] satisfactory.”

In Moral Therapeutic Deism, there is no hint of a God who requires obedience to a gospel or a series of commandments, and who condemns wickedness. Any suggestion that God expects his children to follow divine commandments (beyond a vague standard of “niceness”), or that there might be divine consequences for disobeying those commandments is not considered “pleasant,” or “agreeable” enough, and is rejected out of hand. In Moral Therapeutic Deism, God is supposed to love and serve us, rather than the other way around.

The idea that there might be a system of morality that goes beyond personal fulfillment, or doing what makes you happy above all else, is not “pleasant,” or “agreeable,” therefore it is incompatible with Moral Therapeutic Deism. In other words, Moral Therapeutic Deism, “is a functional religion of "whatever works," so long as one does not criticize others, or receive criticism from others, for one's choices or beliefs.”[xv] Any hint of moral judgment, be it divine or institutional, is seen as violating the standards of “niceness.” This attitude appears to characterize how many young people view and approach religion, even within the Church.

It [is] interesting how many [Latter-day Saint] Millennials, in describing their own religious beliefs and values, [use] phrases like “I don’t want to judge them, but…” or “We all struggle with different things, so let’s not judge each other.” This is a generation that does not want to be judged harshly themselves, and seems careful about not judging others in turn.[xvi]

In fact “feeling judged or misunderstood” is a major reason cited by many people to explain why they decided to leave the Church.[xvii] This preoccupation with feeling judged is why many of the most bitter criticisms aimed at the Church in recent years tend to focus on how certain policies and doctrines are “mean” and “hurtful.” Such criticisms reveal more about the preoccupations of the critics who make them than perhaps they were meant to do.

In a world where true Christian discipleship is increasingly being replaced with Moral Therapeutic Deism, the worst thing you can say about someone is that they are “mean,” or “hurtful.” In other words, when these critics accuse Church leaders of being “mean,” they are actually accusing them of the gravest sin imaginable in their worldview. They are essentially saying that because a Church leader is not “nice,” that leader is therefore not “good,” and therefore what he teaches cannot be true, and is in fact “evil.” It is precisely this kind of tortured logic which the prophet Isaiah warned of when he said “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”[xviii]

Sometimes we as leaders of the Church are criticized for holding firm to the laws of God, defending the Savior’s doctrine, and resisting the social pressures of our day. But our commission as ordained Apostles is “to go into all the world to preach [His] gospel unto every creature.” That means we are commanded to teach truth. In doing so, sometimes we are accused of being uncaring as we teach the Father’s requirements for exaltation in the celestial kingdom. But wouldn’t it be far more uncaring for us not to tell the truth—not to teach what God has revealed? It is precisely because we do care deeply about all of God’s children that we proclaim His truth. We may not always tell people what they want to hear. Prophets are rarely popular. But we will always teach the truth![xix]

The Savior did indeed teach that we should “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” but He also taught that we should “judge righteous judgment.”[xx]  It is certain that Church members and leaders should never make anyone feel unloved or misunderstood, however there is an important nuance in the application of righteous judgment which adherents to Moral Therapeutic Deism cannot understand or accept. The true Church of Jesus Christ must stand for the truth, at all costs, or else it will no longer be the true Church. That means that the prophets and apostles are obligated to teach true principles and God’s commandments and standards for righteousness, without abrogating or compromising them to please the popular mind.

This Church can never “dumb down” its doctrine in response to social goodwill or political expediency or any other reason. It is only the high ground of revealed truth that gives us any footing on which to lift another who may feel troubled or forsaken. Our compassion and our love—fundamental characteristics and requirements of our Christianity—must never be interpreted as compromising the commandments…In this regard—this call for compassion and loyalty to the commandments—there is sometimes a chance for a misunderstanding, especially among young people who may think we are not supposed to judge anything, that we are never to make a value assessment of any kind…The Savior makes it clear that in some situations we have to judge, we are under obligation to judge…The alternative is to surrender to the moral relativism of a deconstructionist, postmodern world which, pushed far enough, posits that ultimately nothing is eternally true or especially sacred and, therefore, no one position on any given issue matters more than any other. And that simply is not true. In this process of evaluation, we are not called on to condemn others, but we are called upon to make decisions every day that reflect judgment—we hope good judgment.[xxi]

Moral Therapeutic Deism is dangerous because those who follow it often think they are faithful Christians, and in many cases, they may suppose that they are actually MORE faithful than those Christians who actually follow a true life of discipleship. Moral Therapeutic Deism produces a form of “faith” which is actually intolerant of and threatened by Truth (capital T). Thus, many who follow its precepts (whether they know it or not) often demand that others surrender their principles in order to conform to the tenets of Moral Therapeutic Deism. Moreover, these individuals often lack the ability to evaluate themselves and their own beliefs critically and objectively, and thus they are unable to recognize their own bad thinking.

This likely happens because Moral Therapeutic Deism actually rejects much of what is essential in helping one to objectively discern truth from convenient fiction. This includes certain essential Christian practices and beliefs, including “practices like studying Scripture, moral accountability to a community, self-denial and explicit [and specific] talk (and love) of Jesus.”[xxii]

More problematic is the fact that Moral Therapeutic Deism is missing the heart and soul of Christian discipleship. Those who follow this philosophy, but who mistake it for authentic Christianity, may genuinely believe they have developed a robust faith, but what is faith without surrender and sacrifice, devotion and discipline? “Niceness” may be nice, but compared to “love thine enemies,” it is lukewarm, watered-down, milquetoast. Moral Therapeutic Deism holds that all “good” people go to heaven, but there is no good which can be achieved by its precepts alone which can hold a candle to the goodness of God, and which goodness defines a life devoted to following Him.

As a system of belief, Moral Therapeutic Deism is incredibly shallow and devoid of any real meaning or fulfillment. It is religion with the religion taken out of it, and that doesn’t leave much of substance. Moral Therapeutic Deism replaces the saving doctrines of Christ with vague self-help platitudes. “Believe in yourself, etc.” While these things are certainly “nice” to hear, and they might even make someone “feel good,” they lack any power to save. Moral Therapeutic Deism attempts to replace salvation with “feeling good” as the crowning experience of religious life.

Moreover, Moral Therapeutic Deism requires no discipline to follow, and so it represents a false Christianity which is entirely devoid of discipleship. For many years it confused me why, when I would ask people to describe their relationship with God, or what they thought God was like, they would just look confused for a minute, and then start talking about building houses in Mexico. I can’t tell you how many Americans I have talked to who could not give me a simple and coherent description of their relationship with the God they claim to worship!

I have friends who fell away from the Church, either when they were still young or later on, and it’s clear they did so because it never meant much to them in the first place. Church was just a place their parents dragged them to on Sunday. Accordingly, even when they were still attending church, their religious life was largely made up of half-remembered platitudes and vague ideas about God, none of which were based in any kind of understanding of faith or doctrine. It was easy for them to fall out of the church, because they were never really in it to start with.

In essence, they might have been nominal Mormons, but they were never actually members of the Church of Jesus Christ. In many cases their main impression of the Church was that it was about a list of “do’s and don’ts,” and a whole series of superficial cultural markers. They essentially followed a cultural church that focused mainly on modesty culture, youth dances, rooting for the BYU football team, and forbidding coffee, tea, and alcohol. These aspects are only distinctive (in and of themselves) in that they mark the in-group from the out-group. This is why many people who have left the Church describe the Church community in terms of “tribe” and social culture. They often talk about how they cherish (or at least don’t mind) the cultural traditions they grew up with, but they usually follow that with some statement along the lines of how they have grown out of or beyond the Church of their youth. However, in speaking to these friends, it has become clear to me that (in many cases) they fell away from (or grew out of) the wrong church!

The “church” they thought they were following teaches a doctrine of warm fuzzies and CTR rings. This is the church of memes and t-shirt slogans in place of devoted scripture study and humble prayer. This is a church that stressed fitting in more than developing a personal relationship with a loving and interested Father in Heaven. This is why it is so common to hear people in this group declare that they never felt the spirit when they were “active.” No one ever taught them about real faith, how to hear the voice of the spirit, how to persevere in righteousness day in and day out, even when it is difficult or boring, or not “nice” or agreeable. No one managed to open their eyes to the true cost and joy of discipleship. The church they left felt so irrelevant and meaningless because it WAS irrelevant and meaningless. The church they left wasn’t the Church of Jesus Christ at all. It was the counterfeit; the cuckoo’s egg. The only church they ever really knew was the church of Moral Therapeutic Deism. It breaks my heart, but I know so many people who never learned the substantial Christian teachings that would have served as an anchor to their souls, and as a foundation for true faith, and so they slipped away without much of a fight, because the false church they followed offered nothing of substance with which to hold them in place.

What can you and I do about it?

The term “Moral Therapeutic Deism” was coined to describe the operation of the religious and spiritual lives of 21^st century teenagers and young adults.[xxiii] However, it is adults in the Church, and especially parents, who bear much of the responsibility for shaping the religious and spiritual understanding of their children. The reason why these people I described were confused (as children) about what church they belonged to is because they only ever knew what their parents taught them about their own faith and praxis, whether word or by example. Their conversion never extended beyond that of their own parents. In many cases, these kids had good parents, who (for one reason or another) failed to communicate to their children their love for the Savior and their testimony of the gospel which they themselves held so dear. However, I have also observed that too many of these people whose testimonies never grew into a firm and unshaken faith had parents whose own faith and devotion was sometimes less than rock solid. This is unfortunately still a common problem among many members of the Church. In fact, I have found that there are just as many (if not more) adults as teenagers in the Church who subscribe to Moral Therapeutic Deism (whether they know it or not), “therefore this deism is much more the problem of the adult…church than of teens.”[xxiv]

So how can we keep ourselves, and our children safe from the spiritual rot and complacency that makes us substitute self-made religion for the true gospel of Jesus Christ? This is one instance in which the so-called “Sunday School answers” can be incredibly helpful, so long as they are coupled with a healthy dose of clear-eyed self-awareness, and critical self-assessment, as well as a sincere heart and true intent.

These Sunday School answers include principles such as consistent scripture study, constant prayer, and regularly and worthily partaking of the Sacrament. I call these principles “The Three Pillars of Personal Testimony/Spiritual Worthiness,” and together these pillars can help shore up the foundation of our faith, and help keep us from building our houses on the shifting sands of Moral Therapeutic Deism

Partaking of the Sacrament in particular involves self-reflection and self-evaluation which (if done correctly and in the right spirit) can help us rid ourselves of the rot of complacency, and the accumulation of “nice” ideas instead of true ones. Attending church in this spirit is also important.

Along these same lines, regular, deep study of the scriptures, which is accompanied by a focus on being taught by the spirit, and a genuine desire to learn the truth and to change one’s life according to that truth, is an incredibly powerful antidote to the creeping poison of Moral Therapeutic Deism. The scriptures are an unassailable and objective measuring stick by which we can measure the value and validity of the popular and tempting ideas which hold sway in our culture. In their light, it will be difficult to persist in holding on to the comforting (and yet false) ideas and philosophies represented in Moral Therapeutic Deism.

Moreover, these principles, coupled with constant prayer, will help us to develop a genuine relationship with our Father in heaven. While this is an important blessing for many reasons, this practice is also crucial in helping us to avoid creating a convenient God for ourselves who does what we want him to, and who does not bother us otherwise.

If we want to prevent Moral Therapeutic Deism from creeping into the lives and attitudes of our children, we have to develop a life shaped and defined by the discipline of gospel discipleship, and one in which the light of truth destroys the creeping falsehoods which make up Moral Therapeutic Deism. It is only by our example of genuine and heartfelt Christian faith and practice that will enable our children to develop the faith necessary to begin to build a life of meaningful discipleship, modeled on Christ and His teachings, instead of the philosophies of men.

In a more concrete sense, our job is to help our kids (and our fellow members) to have real, and meaningful experiences with the Holy Ghost, and to develop a vital relationship with their Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. Our church meetings on every level ought to focus on teaching meaningful principles and true doctrine. There should be no confusion about what church our kids belong to, and what that church teaches. No one should ever confuse the platitudes and meaninglessness of Moral Therapeutic Deism with what is taught in the true Church of Jesus Christ.

This is why the new emphasis on the home as the primary site of religious teaching is an incredible blessing, and evidence of the inspired calling of our prophet Russell M. Nelson. Now more than ever we have an opportunity to demonstrate to our kids what the true Church of Jesus Christ looks and feels like. In a home filled with the Holy Ghost, and led by inspired parents who love and serve the Lord, and who love each other and their children, counterfeit religion will struggle to take hold. This is supported by research which suggests that “the best chances for successful transmission of…religious identity from one generation to the next remain within the family.”[xxv]

Research at Fuller Theological Seminary…confirms that the most important factors in “sticky” religion continue to be the classic ones: being raised in homes where parents practiced their faith openly and with warmth, and where children were enmeshed in intergenerational networks that also supported the family’s religion.[xxvi]

Our children will be better equipped to face the world, and to discern true faith from the convenient falsehoods of Moral Therapeutic Deism, if their parents have a vital and living faith which is an indispensable part of their own character, as well as their daily life and actions. If we will cultivate the gospel in our homes, we (together with our children) can be nourished with the good word of God, even while others hunger and thirst for it. If we will learn the gospel and live by its precepts until it is written on our hearts, we will never have to settle for “the thin gruel of therapeutic deism” which can never satisfy, and which can never replace the true church of God.[xxvii]

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[i] Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 5-6.

[ii] R. J. Snell, “Quiet Hope: A New Year’s Resolution,” Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute, Dec. 31, 2019, thepublicdiscourse.com.

[iii] Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 6.

[iv] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Perfect Brightness of Hope,” Ensign, May 2020, churchofjesuschrist.org.; See also R. J. Snell, “Quiet Hope: A New Year’s Resolution,” Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute, Dec. 31, 2019, thepublicdiscourse.com.

[v] KJV Amos 8:11-12

[vi] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Perfect Brightness of Hope,” Ensign, May 2020, churchofjesuschrist.org.; See also R. J. Snell, “Quiet Hope: A New Year’s Resolution,” Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute, Dec. 31, 2019, thepublicdiscourse.com.

[vii] Derek Thompson, "Elite Failure Has Brought Americans to the Edge of an Existential Crisis," The Atlantic, September 5, 2019, theatlantic.com.

[viii] See ESV Colossians 2:23.

[ix] C. R. Smith and M. L. Denton, Soul searching: The religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005), 62 & 165, quoted in Chris J. Boyatzis, Kaye V. Cook, Cynthia Kimball, Kathleen C. Leonard, Religiousness and Spirituality among Highly Religious Emerging Adults, Journal of Psychology and Christianity 34, no 3 (2015): 253.

[x] Chris J. Boyatzis, Kaye V. Cook, Cynthia Kimball, Kathleen C. Leonard, Religiousness and Spirituality among Highly Religious Emerging Adults, Journal of Psychology and Christianity 34, no 3 (2015): 253.

[xi] Boyatzis, Cook, Kimball, and Leonard, Religiousness and Spirituality among Highly Religious Emerging Adults, 253.

[xii] Boyatzis, Cook, Kimball, and Leonard, Religiousness and Spirituality among Highly Religious Emerging Adults, 253.

[xiii] Juston Hunsaker, Facebook comment, Dec. 20, 2018.

[xiv] Christian Smith, Christian America? What Evangelicals Really Want, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000.

[xv] Tom Beaudoin, “Teen Spirit,” America 203, no. 12 (Nov. 1, 2010): 27, accessed December 7, 2018, http://americamagazine.org/.

[xvi] Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 226.

[xvii] Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 226.

[xviii] KJV Isaiah 5:20

[xix] Russell M. Nelson, “The Love and Laws of God” (Brigham Young University Devotional, Provo, UT, September 17, 2019).

[xx] KJV Matthew 7:1; John 7:24.

[xxi] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Israel, Israel, God Is Calling” (speech, CES Devotional Broadcast, St. George, UT, September 9, 2012), churchofjesuschrist.org.

[xxii] Beaudoin, “Teen Spirit,” 27.

[xxiii] Beaudoin, “Teen Spirit,” 27.

[xxiv] Beaudoin, “Teen Spirit,” 27.

[xxv] Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 24.

[xxvi] Jana Riess, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 24.

[xxvii] Jeffrey R. Holland, “A Perfect Brightness of Hope,” Ensign, May 2020, churchofjesuschrist.org.; See also R. J. Snell, “Quiet Hope: A New Year’s Resolution,” Public Discourse: The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute, Dec. 31, 2019, thepublicdiscourse.com.