10/23/2025 .

Introduction

Why do people go to church? Why do they want religion? Why do they get so excited about Jesus?

I’m sure there are many answers to these questions. And to be fair, the answers are complex, and they differ with each individual, but I think it is also fair to make some generalities about this.

In most cases, people do not go to church only to worship God or for religious reasons; most go because it fulfills many emotional, social, and psychological needs. Moreover, it provides them with a sense of belonging, validation, and emotional security. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting basic needs met, but as with all things, our approach should be honest.

The Craving for Connection and Validation

At the core of human nature lies the longing for connection. People are social beings; they want to be seen, heard, and valued. Churches—especially vibrant, emotionally engaging ones—offer this in abundance. They provide community, a sense of belonging, and a shared narrative that helps people feel they matter.

But beyond social connection, there is an even deeper craving: the desire for validation. People want to be told they are good (or at least good enough), that they are loved, and that their lives have meaning.

In a confusing world where truth often challenges and condemns, religion can act as a warm blanket of emotional and moral reassurance. Many find comfort in hearing that God loves them unconditionally, that they are “forgiven,” and that heaven awaits. This is profoundly soothing, but it often replaces the hard pursuit of truth with cheap emotional appeasement. After all, anyone can learn to tell you what you really want to hear, and many do. There’s big money in this.

The Substitution of Truth for Emotional Comfort

Religion, ideally, should be more about truth, especially moral truth, and about aligning our characters more with God. It should be about learning those things that we really need to hear, even when it hurts. But in practice, most people really do not want the truth, especially not the truth that hurts. Understandably, people don’t want to feel guilt or negativity; they want to feel happy. They want to feel pleasant and joyful feelings. Hence, the natural man does not love truth; what he loves is that version of truth that entertains, validates, and costs as little as possible.

People say they want truth, but when truth exposes their dishonesty, hypocrisy, selfishness, or pride, they recoil. When light shines into their darkness, they resist it and get really upset.

The Book of Mormon describes this dynamic with brutal clarity: “The guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.”[1] Likewise, Jesus said, Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.[2]

So, while churches often claim to be houses of worship where truth is spoken, instead they frequently become theaters of emotional gratification, places where people come to feel good rather than to become good. Sermons are tailored not to convict but to console; worship is designed not to humble but to excite; and Jesus is presented not as a demanding Lord but as a sentimental sympathizer and easy supplier of human happiness.

When we worship a version of Jesus that does not represent who and what He really is, it is idolatry. This is worshiping a god after our own image, an outwardly benevolent god that is exceptionally tolerant of sin. For this false god, it is a “come as you are party,” not a divine mandate to have faith in Christ, be obedient, repent, and be transformed into the likeness and image of Christ.

People often say that Mormons worship a different God, and maybe they are right. In the Book of Mormon we read, “Thus saith the Lord God—Cursed shall be the land, yea, this land, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, which do wickedly, when they are fully ripe; and as I have said so shall it be; for this is the cursing and the blessing of God upon the land, for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” [3]

The Book of Mormon God is not just a God of mercy, but a God of law, justice, and judgment. As is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Old Testament.

When God revealed Himself to Moses, He declared His eternal nature: “I AM THAT I AM… the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” [4] This God is both merciful and terrifying — a being who can both bless and destroy, who upholds covenant and executes judgment.

“The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty.” [5] That is the divine paradox: He forgives, but He does not excuse. His mercy invites the sinner to repentance, but His justice guarantees that unrepentant sin must be judged and condemned. This aspect of God’s character is not one that modern churches often discuss.

The Cult of Entertainment

The natural man does not love truth—he loves affirmation and entertainment. And so, he invents a religion that accommodates and provides what he loves. Accordingly, modern Christianity, especially in the West, has become a theatre of spectacle and emotion. Stage lights, rock bands, motivational preaching, sound bites, and social media slogans have replaced the quiet disciplines of repentance, obedience, and self-denial.

People want to feel something transcendent, but they really are not interested in doing the hard work to become sanctified and holy. They want to sing, cry, and sway in the music of religion—but they do not want to crucify their old selves, or become truly baptized in the name of Christ, as Jesus commanded. They crave the illusion of spirituality and righteousness without the sacrifice or discomfort that transformation into the likeness of Christ requires.

The Apostle Paul foresaw this very era: “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; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” [6]

Validation Over Conversion

What people truly love in religion is not holiness, but affirmation. They want to be told that their lives are acceptable as they are—that God approves, that grace covers all, that they need not change too much. Real repentance, as taught by the ancient prophets, is perceived as just far too difficult or painful.

The irony is that people say they love Jesus, but in most cases, they love the idea of Jesus—the safe, smiling, domesticated version popularized by modern religion. They do not love the real Jesus, who said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”[7] That Jesus was not entertaining. He was confronting, dividing, and demanding.

The Rejection of Real Truth

You can test a person’s love of truth by offering it to them. Tell them something that challenges their comfort, exposes their hypocrisy, or demands change, and watch how quickly they vanish.

Consider this personal example: I emailed sixty friends about my website, GreaterLightandTruth.com, listing several essays and topics that obviously contained controversial, hard doctrine. Twenty visited the website, but almost none returned. Why? Because what I wrote did not entertain them or make them feel validated. It made them think. It held up a mirror. And for most people, that is intolerable.

Human beings are addicted to self-deception. They will cling to lies that soothe rather than truths that challenge and sanctify. The Book of Mormon warned of this too: “There shall be many who shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.”[8] This is the religion of comfort, the religion of validation, not the religion of Christ that requires obedience, repentance, sacrifice, and sanctification, a turning away from the natural man by taking upon oneself the name and nature of Christ.

The Tragic Reality of the Human Heart

It cannot be denied that most people are shallow, dishonest, and self-serving. They want the rewards of virtue without the labor of virtue; they desire the comfort of religion without the discipline of righteousness. They want to be loved, forgiven, and blessed, without real repentance, humility, or obedience.

In Revelation, John records, “Blessed are they that [keep] his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city [of God]. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify [of] these things [unto] the churches.”[9]

John is speaking of those people who do not love truth; they love lies. They love whatever lie makes them feel happy, accepted, and important. They want to be told they are “good people” even when they are not.

This is why Jesus warned, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”[10]

True worship requires honesty before God, an honesty few are willing to bear.

Conclusion:  The Narrow Path Few Will Take

Religion, in its truest form, should lead people to confront themselves, to tear down illusions and rebuild their characters in truth and righteousness. But most use religion as a mirror that flatters rather than corrects, that perpetuates ignorance rather than reveals, that damns rather than sanctifies.

Authentic followers of Christ are those who can bear to confront the truth about themselves and still press forward, willing and eager to improve themselves, hungering for truth and righteousness more than comfort. They are rare. They are the ones who love the truth and are not ashamed of it.

“[Be] not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…” [11]

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord… but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God…” [12]

True Christians understand that discipleship requires grave trials, hardship, sacrifice, and authentic transformation into the image and character of Christ. This is their religion. They accept it, embrace it, and live it. But for the rest, for the masses, religion will remain what it has always been: a social club for validation, an emotional drug for the lonely, and a comforting illusion for the unwilling and the damned.

Jesus said, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”[13]

Be one of the few.  

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[1] 1 Nephi 16:2

[2] John 3:19

[3] Alma 45:16

[4] Exodus 3:14–15

[5] Numbers 14:18

[6] 2 Timothy 4:3-4

[7] Luke 9:23

[8] 2 Nephi 28:7-8

[9] Revelation 22:14 – 16

[10] Matthew 15:8

[11] Romans 1:16

[12] 2 Timothy 1:8

[13] Matthew 7:14

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