When Fairness Becomes a False God
Agency, Compulsion, and the Spiritual Cost of Forced Goodness We live in a world where unfairness is real, visible, and often heartbreaking. It’s natural to want to correct it—especially when we see people suffering because of the choices of others. Recently, I’ve been talking with people who feel deeply that the world’s inequalities must be fixed by forcing people to be more charitable, more giving, more socially responsible. The intention is noble. The method is not. Because spiritually—and doctrinally— compulsory goodness is not goodness at all . The Plan That Promised Perfect Fairness Latter-day Saint doctrine teaches that in the premortal world, agency was the central issue. God declared, “I gave unto him his agency” ( Moses 7:32 ), and modern revelation affirms that “every man may act… according to the moral agency which I have given unto him” ( D&C 101:78 ). But there was another proposal. A plan that promised perfect fairness. A plan that guarant...