{"id":103046,"date":"2023-12-12T12:15:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T19:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=103046"},"modified":"2024-03-14T14:23:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T20:23:33","slug":"on-the-future-of-byu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/12\/on-the-future-of-byu.html","title":{"rendered":"On the future of BYU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>

A south-looking view of part of the campus of Brigham Young University, from the BYU website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love Brigham Young University. \u00a0I believe in it. \u00a0I never wanted to teach anywhere else. \u00a0I was deeply influenced by\u00a0President Spencer W. Kimball\u2019s memorable 1975 address, \u201cThe Second Century of Brigham Young University.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 It still feels strange to me to be retired from BYU and to be, now, only a (small and insignificant) part of its history, rapidly receding into the rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n

I also worry<\/em> about the University. \u00a0So I was very interested in this article by BYU\u2019s still quite new president, C. Shane Reese. \u00a0I liked what he had to say: \u00a0\u201cPerspective: Becoming BYU: As former President Spencer W. Kimball said, the \u2018destiny of this unique university\u201d is to become an \u201ceducational Everest\u201d\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For this blog entry, I want to focus on one particular passage from President Reese\u2019s article:<\/p>\n

My immediate predecessor, President Kevin J Worthen,<\/a> frequently observed that \u201cThe most important decisions that will be made in my tenure as president at BYU are the people we hire.\u201d\u00a0This starts with our faculty.\u00a0Faculty hiring decisions are paramount because these are the people to whom our students look for examples and mentors who successfully integrate the life of the mind and the life of faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I couldn\u2019t possibly agree with that more than I do. \u00a0So I think that I\u2019ll share a story:<\/p>\n

When I first arrived in Utah Valley to assume a position on the BYU faculty, my father and one of my uncles came with the moving truck, driving it and helping with the move on both ends. \u00a0And my former missionary companion Stephen D. Ricks<\/a>, who was already teaching at BYU, kindly came over to help unload the truck.<\/p>\n

Stephen brought with him a faculty colleague whom I had not met before, who very generously gave the better part of his day unloading and carrying boxes \u2014 including many extremely heavy boxes of books \u2014 and helping to position things in our temporary Provo lodgings. \u00a0(Owing to the generosity of both of our sets of parents, and to the help of an excellent graduate school fellowship and the kind financial help of my brother through graduate studies, we were immediately in a position to begin building our house.). That colleague rapidly became a good friend. \u00a0I liked him very, very much. \u00a0He was kind and sincere, a model colleague, highly intelligent, a fine scholar, and a dedicated teacher.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I also figured out within the first hour of our moving day together that he was no longer even remotely an orthodox member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, despite being sincerely religious in his own personal way. \u00a0He had undergone a massive religious transformation somewhere between his mission and the completion of his graduate studies.<\/p>\n

I was, frankly, astonished that he was teaching at BYU, particularly in an area that had strong ties with Latter-day Saint scriptural texts, and I was amazed that nobody else seemed to have noticed his unorthodox views.<\/p>\n

However, they soon did. \u00a0Although I don\u2019t for a moment think that he deliberately set out to destroy testimonies \u2014 I think he would have said at that point that he himself had<\/em> one \u2014 we began to hear from students of his who were troubled by things he was saying, and even from one couple who altogether renounced their faith.<\/p>\n

Still, as I say, we were friends. \u00a0I liked him very much. \u00a0We traveled to conferences together, he had me proofread and critique a couple of his academic article manuscripts, our offices were nearly adjacent to each other, we interacted almost every day, and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n

One day, we were walking back to our offices from a devotional assembly in the Marriott Center. \u00a0I was trying to understand his theological position \u2014 candidly, I was struggling to understand that a person with his opinions could be, as I considered him to be, admirably honest and yet continue to be fully in both the Church and the University. \u00a0Knowing that he was active in the Church and that he held a valid temple recommend, I asked him directly how he was able to get past the interview question about sustaining the president of the Church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. \u00a0\u201cWhat,\u201d I asked him, \u201cdoes the term prophet<\/em> mean to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA prophet,\u201d he replied, \u201cis someone who stands in a particular relationship to his community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u201d \u2014 I pursued the point \u2014 \u201cMuhammad was unquestionably a prophet. \u00a0Right?\u201d \u00a0(I asked because this is a matter about which I myself am often asked, and because my own response to the question is rather tentative.)<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he answered. \u00a0\u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what,\u201d I asked, \u201cabout Jim Jones<\/a>? \u00a0Was he<\/em> a prophet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. \u00a0In my understanding of the word, he definitely was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d I replied, \u201cI really don\u2019t think that, when your bishop and a member of your stake presidency ask you that question, they\u2019re using a \u2018religious studies\u2019 or sociological definition of the term prophet<\/em>. \u00a0In the common Latter-day Saint understanding of that word, a prophet is someone who stands in a certain relationship to God<\/em>. \u00a0Whether or not he has followers<\/em> or a \u2018community\u2019<\/em> is very much a secondary matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was reminded of children and others who, when bearing public testimony, occasionally declare something like \u201cI know that President Nelson is the President of the Church.\u201d \u00a0I realize, of course, what they\u2019re intending to say. \u00a0Strictly speaking, though, nobody really doubts that Russell M. Nelson is the President of the Church. \u00a0It\u2019s a wholly uncontroversial statement and a wholly non-religious one, easily affirmed, should the occasion arise, by Pope Francis, Richard Dawkins, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and, for that matter, by the most bigoted mom-\u2018n-pop anti-Mormon ministry out there in the fever swamps.<\/p>\n

Again, I don\u2019t think that my friend was consciously trying to deceive his ecclesiastical leaders by equivocating. \u00a0Maybe he was \u2014 but, if you had known him as I then did, you would have been very reluctant to regard him as disingenuous. \u00a0He was as far from disingenuousness as anybody I knew. \u00a0Still, it was clear to me that he and those interviewing him for admission to the temple, and probably in his ecclesiastical hiring interview as well, were speaking different languages.<\/p>\n

So, without wanting to advocate some sort of churchly McCarthyism, I found myself wishing that such interviews, in such cases, were more nuanced and, in a sense, more probing.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, my friend was still at that stage of his BYU career (as I too was, when I came on) in which he was employed via renewable annual contracts. \u00a0He didn\u2019t yet have what BYU calls \u201ccontinuing faculty status\u201d (essentially the equivalent of what other schools call \u201ctenure\u201d). \u00a0Accordingly, a couple of years later, when his problematic views became impossible to ignore, he wasn\u2019t fired. \u00a0Rather, his BYU contract was simply not renewed for the next academic year. \u00a0Happily, he was given generous advance warning and he definitely landed on his feet thereafter, academically speaking.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the case drew some coverage in the local press, and the received story was that, once again, the repressive BYU administration had cracked down on academic freedom. \u00a0This story was quite inaccurate, though. \u00a0Concerned faculty colleagues across campus who worked in the same general field and with the same small group of students had begun to raise the issue with University administrators, who nevertheless continually failed for month after month to pay attention or take action.<\/p>\n

I still remember the day that my friend called to tell me that the University would not be renewing his contract. \u00a0I immediately called another friend, in a different college, who had pretty much spearheaded the effort to get University administrators to act. \u00a0I\u2019ll never forget his first reaction when I gave him the news. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t triumphant. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t a victorious war whoop. \u00a0\u201cThis is so sad<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In any case, I absolutely concur with President Worthen and President Reese that the hundreds of decisions made in connection with the hiring of faculty are fundamental to the nature of Brigham Young University and that making them correctly is essential to the University\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

The interior of BYU\u2019s Marriott Center \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result of reading President Russell M. Nelson\u2019s recent book, Heart of the Matter<\/em>, I\u2019ve resolved to keep a \u201cgratitude journal.\u201d \u00a0Sometimes, what I write will be very private. \u00a0But, not uncommonly, I will share entries from it here.<\/p>\n

Today, I\u2019m grateful that, starting quite a few years ago, my wife and I have joined with neighbors and former neighbors for dinner at some chosen restaurant followed by a play at the Hale Centre Theatre, which is now located in Sandy. \u00a0Even with those friends who still reside within our Church ward, I, at least, seldom otherwise have the opportunity to spend much unstructured time with people that we\u2019ve known for many years. \u00a0(The women are, on the whole, better at this than the men are.) \u00a0Last night, for example, we gathered for food and for good conversation and then took in Elf: The Musical<\/em>. \u00a0I enjoyed the food and the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 I love Brigham Young University. \u00a0I believe in it. \u00a0I never wanted to teach anywhere else. \u00a0I was deeply influenced by\u00a0President Spencer W. Kimball\u2019s memorable 1975 address, \u201cThe Second Century of Brigham Young University.\u201d\u00a0 It still feels strange to me to be retired from BYU and to be, now, only a (small and insignificant) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":36698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37001,1152,1149,36998,16046,37004],"class_list":["post-103046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-becoming-byu","tag-brigham-young-university","tag-byu","tag-shane-reese","tag-spencer-w-kimball","tag-worthen"],"yoast_head":"\nOn the future of BYU<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  I love Brigham Young University. \u00a0I believe in it. \u00a0I never wanted to teach anywhere else. \u00a0I was deeply influenced by\u00a0President Spencer W.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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