Warning the Squirrel

In Where Will This Lead?, President Dallin H. Oaks told a story of college students who watched a dog sneak up on a squirrel over a fairly long period of time, only to be shocked and horrified when the dog actually caught and killed the squirrel. As President Oaks pointed out, any of the students could have warned the squirrel and saved its life, but none of them did, and many of them regretted their inaction afterward. President Oaks used this story to illustrate the general principle of looking ahead and asking ourselves the question that forms the title of his talk, but I shudder to think of what a more one-to-one interpretation of this parable might mean.

All around us, we see people who are headed toward spiritual danger. We see people who commit serious sins and also encourage others to do so. Some of them don't realize that what they're doing is wrong, and some of them don't care that God considers their behavior wrong, but none of them have any idea what's in store for them come Judgment Day.

Yet, we do.

We may not know the full extent or details of their future consequences, but we do know that there are consequences for breaking God's commandments. We know that they are in great spiritual danger. We should warn them.

But we know that they don't want to know. Many of them won't believe us. Some of them may even get angry at us for "pushing our religion on them" and/or for "being bigoted." Needless to say, as prophets have proven time and time again in ancient and far-less-ancient times, people don't like being told that they're sinning, even though acknowledging those sins and repenting of them would save their spiritual lives. Warned sinners may turn against the ones who did the warning, which is precisely why I am reluctant to do that.

I see the squirrel, oblivious of all peril. I see the dog, sneaking slowly but surely up on that squirrel. Yet, I don't dare warn the squirrel about the dog because I'm afraid that the squirrel is more likely to bite me than to listen to any warning. This is, of course, a weak excuse not to even try to warn the squirrel, but if warning the squirrel is just going to get me hurt and not actually save the squirrel, I'm not sure I see the point. I know that I should warn the squirrels I know, but I worry that they would get annoyed at me and possibly even attack me for doing so.