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Continue ShoppingElder Jeffrey R. Holland Warns BYU Faculty of Balance Between Love and Condoning Advocacy
Speaking to the faculty at Brigham Young University, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who formerly served at President, discussed the place that BYU had in the structure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He discussed the importance of BYU standing out and being unique and not following the trends and focuses of other universities in the country.
This talk is in part due to discussions in and outside of BYU on topics that go against school policies, as well as doctrines of the Church. In recent years, faculty have been more open on being against certain Church doctrines and policies, and even encouraging them within the campus, and wanting BYU to be like every other university. Elder Holland said in response to his:
"No, we must have the will to stand alone, if necessary, being a university second to none in its role primarily as an undergraduate teaching institution that is unequivocally true to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the process. If at a future time that mission means foregoing some professional affiliations and certifications, then so be it.”
When talking about diversity and inclusivity, including that of the LGBTQ community, he says:
“We have to be careful that love and empathy do not get interpreted as condoning and advocacy, or that orthodoxy and loyalty to principle not be interpreted as unkindness or disloyalty to people. As near as I can tell, Christ never once withheld His love from anyone, but He also never once said to anyone, ‘Because I love you, you are exempt from keeping my commandments.’ We are tasked with trying to strike that same sensitive, demanding balance in our lives.”
“Too often the world has been unkind, in many instances crushingly cruel, to these our brothers and sisters. Like many of you, we have spent hours with them, and wept and prayed and wept again in an effort to offer love and hope while keeping the gospel strong and the obedience to commandments evident in every individual life.”
Elder Holland shared a few lines from the following letter that prompted such a discussion:
You should know that some people in the extended community are feeling abandoned and betrayed by BYU. It seems that some professors (at least the vocal ones in the media) are supporting ideas that many of us feel are contradictory to gospel principles, making it appear to be about like any other university our sons and daughters could have attended. Several parents have said they no longer want to send their children here or donate to the school.
Please don’t think I’m opposed to people thinking differently about policies and ideas. I’m not. But I would hope that BYU professors would be bridging those gaps between faith and intellect and would be sending out students that are ready to do the same in loving, intelligent, and articulate ways. Yet, I fear that some faculty are not supportive of the Church's doctrines and policies and choose to criticize them publicly. There are consequences to this. After having served a full-time mission and marrying her husband in the temple, a friend of mine recently left the church. In her graduation statement on a social media post, she credited [such and such a BYU program and its faculty] with the radicalizing of her attitudes and the destruction of her faith.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Let us know in the comments!
A great resource is the book Listen, Learn, Love currently on sale at cedarfort.com
Karen
Aug 31, 2021
Thank you President Holland for addressing this. It is important to me as a parent that my child is spiritually safe from her professor’s teachings as she is about to attend BYU.
Robert J. Santholzer
Aug 31, 2021
Am a former atheist who escaped 51 years ago from the Soviet tanks in Prague (brutal socialism & communism) to Switzerland where I joined the Church 40 years ago. Have recently spoken w/ a BYU alumna sister, married w/ 4-5 kids. She graduated some 20 years ago & told me that she cried often as a conservative due to the unrelenting PC agenda of the profs & many fellow students.
Can tell you from personal experience – our family was persecuted by the Reds & the Nazis, we have the graves & the scars – that PC, wokeness, the cancel culture, CRT & other ‘progressive’ chimeras, etc., are nothing but repackaged Marxism & fascism in order to control us. They are an antithesis of the Gospel. The end of D&C 121 comes to mind: unrighteous dominion!
Being a scientist w/ lots of common sense, have a personal testimony of the existence of God & of His Church. Am not a Saint, working on it. However, nobody but me can shatter my testimony. It has been confirmed by the Spirit to be true. After all, we live in the last days. All the follies members do & say confirm that & the fallen state of mankind. We better make up our mind. Are we children of Light or Darkness? Have read this in Czech, highly recommend it: https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/039250.html
Satire re: the Wuhan bug hysteria: https://youtu.be/F_3ZrtYNsug
Last time I looked, we are mortals. Refuse to live in fear.
Jeannette
Aug 25, 2021
I’ve heard lately a lot on this topic on YouTube by many people speaking out about the goings on at BYU. Over 12 professors have conflicting views with the church doctrine and express it freely and many new young students have followed their advice and quit the covenants of the church. They have been singled out and led astray by these factions there. Still nothing has been done. This is an eye sore for the church!
I decided that there is no way that I will support the BYU’s pathway program when BYU needs to clean up it’s own house teaching doctrines against the Family, etc.! It’s time for more than talk but an internal cleansing!
Randall Barker
Aug 24, 2021
Many people are offended by the scriptural statement that “in that day many shall call good evil, and evil good.” Can’t we just stand for something without worrying about the woke crowd? The Savior loves all but does not love all that we do. Please, may BYU stand for something that is different. Love another but fear not the woke crowd and radical instructors.