Foolish and Blind Guides

Yesterday we read the following scripture in Sunday School:

"But behold, if a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; yea, walk after the pride of your eyes, and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet. Yea, ye will lift him up, and ye will give unto him of your substance; ye will give unto him of your gold, and of your silver, and ye will clothe him with costly apparel; and because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well, then ye will not find fault with him. O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light?" (Helaman 13:27-29).

This description really blows me away. An amoral character telling us to do whatever we want, telling us that our pride, or doing only what is best for ourselves, not others, such as fighting for their freedom, is all that matters. Then this amoral character is treated like a special being, even a prophet. Then by many people he is held in higher esteem that the general public, where people give him money, even thousands of dollars. Meanwhile these same people find no faults in him, especially the media, only singing his praises because he tells us flattering things like guaranteeing certain things to everyone, even though anyone who actually thinks about it realizes it would be impossible to pay for everyone to have health care and higher education without severely restricting our freedom in how we use our money and handing it over him as our new leader. This truly is a foolish and blind guide, filled with darkness that many have chosen to follow.