Secular agendas are striving to thwart the spiritual progression of faith-driven organizations, the education commissioner for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints warned this week, reiterating that Brigham Young University’s distinctive mission can help prevent that.
In an address Monday to more than 3,500 faculty members at the Provo school’s University Conference, Clark G. Gilbert, a general authority Seventy for the global faith, said BYU needs to be “increasingly deliberate about its distinctive mission.”
And the “unique mission” touted by Gilbert — to cultivate religious faith in classrooms and across the campus — has endured some backlash after administrative alterations during his tenure changed how the school operates in regards to its faculty, students and staff.
With the approaching 150th anniversary of the university, these changes, including a shift toward greater orthodoxy, can largely impact BYU’s academic workforce. Gilbert acknowledged some of these worries but reaffirmed the importance of the institution’s direction.
“From time to time, questions about our ability to realize this mission surface,” Gilbert said. “These concerns are not without merit. This does not reflect a lack of confidence in you [the faculty], but a recognition that what we have asked you to do is hard.”
The church leader noted that the current academic climate can be hostile to the BYU’s religious mission and that “worldly” ideologies — such as moral relativism and human sexuality — sometimes run counter to its spiritual standards.
This happens, Gilbert said, referencing Rabbi Ari Berman, because the aspiration from religious institutions “for academic freedom has often left moral clarity as its casualty.”
“At BYU,” Gilbert declared, “we don’t see academic freedom and moral clarity in conflict.”
Bumper lanes or ironclad safeguards?
Despite faith-based restrictions at BYU — including its Honor Code, religious classes, academic freedom policy and preferential hiring — the church’s education boss said these boundaries act as “bumper lanes,” preventing the school from veering away from spiritually.
Gilbert recounted a conversation he had with church apostle Jeffrey R. Holland. While talking about these restrictions set by the school, Holland expressed to Gilbert that although BYU made use of these bumper lanes, they were also “very different than bowling for a strike.”
He said that if these boundaries captured attention and concerns, people are missing the mark.
“Hiring and promotion standards establish boundaries but are not the goal,” Gilbert said. “Bowling for a strike means we move past what should be clear guidelines and choose to be more deliberate in our stewardship.”
Listen to church leaders
One way faculty and staff can “bowl for a strike,” Gilbert said, is to refer students to the counsel of church leaders. He extended an invitation for employees to mentor students using messages from church President Russell M. Nelson.
Among the messages were three themes he emphasized:
• Truth is truth.
• Students can know the truth through the Holy Ghost.
• We teach truth with love, but we teach truth.
Gilbert told faculty members that while it was important to be compassionate toward those with differing beliefs, they should not minimize religious standards and personal accountability.
Using former church President Spencer W. Kimball’s defining “Second Century” BYU address in 1975 as the framework for his speech, Gilbert assured that he and the church will continue to safeguard the university, its standards and the institutional expectations for faculty and staff, saying the church board of education is “deeply engaged” in carrying out BYU’s expansive mission.
Note to readers • Dylan Eubank is a Report for America corps member covering faith in Utah County for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories.