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Education for Eternity

Quotes From BYU Students

Birch, A. Jane.

"Laying a Foundation of Truth in Our Disciplines: What This Means to Me."Proceedings of the Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1991), pp. 17-24

The problem is not a lack of the Gospel in our disciplines; it is a lack of the Gospel in our lives. I have come to believe that it is necessary not so much to put the Gospel into our disciplines as to allow the Gospel to fully penetrate our lives so that everything we do is a testimony of our dedication and love for the Savior and His children. . . .

Our foundation must be the Savior; our relationship to Him is the only secure foundation on which to build. The scriptures tell us that under His direction we can do great works, but without Him, our works must fail. (p. 23)

. . .

Integrating the Gospel with our academic work is not a matter of strategically placing catchy Gospel phrases into the language of our discipline or importing secular phrases into the Gospel. . . . "No man can serve two masters." (Matt. 6:24) To build on His foundation we must do His work, and to do His work we must have His spirit to guide us, and to have His spirit we must be worthy. Repentance, humility, and strict obedience to God, therefore, are essential to placing the work in our disciplines on a sure foundation. (p. 23)

. . .

Here at Brigham Young University we say we seek after Truth. In reality, Truth is seeking after us, and if we do not use our work to build a wall between us and the Lord, we will be able to cleave to Him as He cleaves to us. We will find the Truth, and we will be His disciples indeed. (p. 23)

"A School in Zion: When He Shall Appear, Shall We Be Like Him?" Proceedings of the Second Annual Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1992), pp. 19-25.

The gospel can only make a difference in this university inasmuch as it makes a difference in the lives of individuals on this campus. If this university is unique, it is not because we "possess" the gospel in some abstract form. It is because there are individuals who have allowed the gospel to make a difference in their lives. If the gospel has not made us a peculiar people, it will not make this a peculiar university. (p. 24)

. . .

We cannot "teach" the truth with mere words. We must bear testimonies of truth by the way we live our lives . . . By living the truth, we invite others to live the truth also. . . . By living truthfully, educators provide hope to others of a "more excellent way." (Ether 12:11) Such educators open new possibilities to those around them. They provide encouragement and support to those who desire to change for the better. More than that, they show a way that those changes can be made and provide assistance in making them. Their lives offer living evidence of the worth of the choices they have made. (p. 25)

. . .

Education is a moral endeavor. True learning is repentance. (p. 25)

"We Have a Rich Tradition, But We Haven't Received It: Have We Sacrificed Enough?" Proceedings of the Third Annual Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1993), pp. 9-14.

One question we can ask ourselves now is, Are we willing to do what it takes to become the university and people we can become? Do we care enough? Is this important enough to us? I believe that if our desire is great enough, as manifested by our sacrifices, the Lord will bless us with the ability. But without that, His hands are tied. Do we care? Have we individually knelt before the Lord and pleaded with him to help us know what to do? Have we joined with other students in prayer and pleaded to the Lord for guidance? Have we joined with the other faculty members in our departments in prayer and fasting, pleading with the Lord to show us the direction He wants us to go in? If we have done so in the past, are we doing so now? Have we continued to plead to the Lord to show us the way? And have we listened to the counsel He has already given us in our minds and in our hearts and done those things that we have felt prompted to do? (p. 14)

Boody, Robert M.

"Not Just a Matter of Semantics, But Semantics Does Matter." Proceedings of the Second Annual Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1992), pp. 27-32.

Most people are familiar with John Taylor's prophecy that we "will see the day that Zion will be as far ahead of the outside world in everything pertaining to learning of every kind as we are today in regard to religious matters." (JD 21:100)

It seems to me that we have not yet arrived at that day, although its dawn may be beginning to show just a little. But I think that the full light of day will not come by bettering other universities at their own game just as our religion was not developed by doing better at what other Christian churches were doing. The day referred to by John Taylor will come as we do better what God wants us to do. (p. 28)

Davis, Todd B.

"Approaching the Question of Truth in Light of the Restoration." Proceedings of the Third Annual Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1993), pp. 25-30.

As an alternative to perpetuating the apostasy in our varied disciplines, I suggest we take the gospel of the Restoration more seriously than does the rest of the academy. I suggest we might take the gospel of the Restoration more seriously by seeking to answer questions of truth in ways that do not dismiss issues the gospel teaches us are important. (p. 25)

Edwin E. Gantt

Gantt, Edwin E. "Approaching Olympus or Approaching Zion: Sisyphus, Moses, and the Myth of Academic Freedom." Proceedings of the Third Annual Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1993), pp. 81-86.

Paulsen, David L.

"Address of Class Representative." Baccalaureate Service, BYU Speeches, June 1, 1961.
Only through spiritual regeneration, individual transformation of our lives, the spirit of God poured out upon us as a group, can we realize the kingdom of God. Thus, to the Prophet Joseph Smith and to all prophets of God who have envisioned the kingdom, it embraced more than just a church. Joseph Smith stated on one occasion,

I intend to lay a foundation that will revolutionize the whole world. It will not be by sword or gun that this kingdom will roll on. The power of truth is such that all nations will be under the necessity of obeying the gospel.

So the gospel was not limited to the religious sphere of life. To the Prophet Joseph Smith it extended into the area of social philosophy, where it pointed out the correct doctrine and the philosophy relative to such matters as education, recreation, and marriage. It gave the world a divine system of economics. The Lord told us that his people could never be one in heavenly things until they first became one in earthly things. (p. 3)

. . .

We have been admonished by revelation to seek knowledge in all fields, in secular as well as religious matters. Why? So that we might integrate this secular knowledge into the principles that pertain to the kingdom of God. Wilford Woodruff said:

The building up of the Zion of God in these latter days includes every branch of business, both temporal and spiritual, in which we are engaged. We cannot touch upon any subject which is lawful in the sight of God and man that is not embraced in our religion. The gospel of Jesus Christ which we have embraced and which we preach includes all truth and every lawful calling and occupation. (p. 4)

. . .

Members of the graduating class, we have been trained now for four years, five years, six years in the disciplines of men. We need to evaluate the knowledge that we have gained in these fields and integrate it into the principles of the kingdom. We who have been trained in the discipline of political science need to evaluate the political implications of the kingdom. We need to learn what our responsibilities and our duties will be in this political kingdom when it is eventually established upon the earth. We who study secular knowledge concerning the principles of economics also need to gain an understanding of the economic principles of the Law of Consecration and the Divine law of stewardship. We who study in the humanities, the social sciences, psychology, sociology, need to tie these concepts into the gospel teachings concerning the home, concerning marriage, concerning recreation, concerning education. Never must we bend gospel truths or try to reconcile gospel truths to the disciplines of men. We need to take the disciplines of men which we have been taught and integrate them into the gospel to make the gospel the focal point, the core, the center, and to integrate all knowledge into this central core. (p. 5)

Sorensen, Mollie Hobaugh.

"Turn on the Light!" Proceedings of the Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1991), pp. 13-16.

In some classes the faithful are being cheated! The money that provides the blood flow of the university comes from the faithful for the purpose of building faith in others. When this money is used instead to tear away at the foundation of faith, it is a violation of integrity--a case of fraud. It is fraudulent because money is misused in a manner contrary to the intent of the investor. Some might argue that if the spiritual takes priority over secular learning, freedom of speech, intellectualism, and even the quest for truth will be suppressed. But this is exactly the problem--in some instances, the secular has been given full reign of freedom, while the spiritual has been bound and gagged. (p. 15)

. . .

In our pursuit of a faith-promoting institution, we must not make the mistake that other churches and governments have made by suppressing freedom of knowledge and dissent. If in our attempts to teach we block intellectual inquiry and freedom of conscience, we also block the road to true faith, for faith in God and his way of life is the result of serious search of both mind and spirit. . . . As leaders of the youth we must use all the tools available to win their souls to the eternal program of progress, using knowledge, truth, doctrine, wisdom, spiritual insight, and power. (pp. 15-16)