The Courage of Our Convictions: How Religious Expression Goes Beyond Religious Liberty

Clark G. Gilbert, General Authority Seventy
Adapted from Elder Gilbert's talk at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society – Jan 17, 2025
Religious Liberty Religion & Culture

Introduction

Last year at BYU’s Religious Freedom Annual Review, I articulated the idea that religious expression goes beyond religious liberty and that there is a stewardship for our first freedom. 1 Tonight, I would like to build on those ideas, focusing on the relationship between 1) religious freedom, 2) institutional governance, and 3) our stewardship to God.I will make the argument that the first two factors are necessary but not sufficient conditions for religious expression. The context for my remarks will be the modern religious university, though I believe these concepts have relevance for religious institutions more generally.

 

The Foundation of Religious Freedom

T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral opens with a foreboding chorus from Canterbury chanting that Thomas à Becket’s return to the cathedral will lead to his death. Eliot pens: “A Christian martyrdom is never an accident, for Saints are not made by accident.” 2 For context, Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury was martyred for his his efforts to preserve the religious integrity of the Church against incursions by King Henry II of England. Becket’s courage has inspired generations willing to stand by their religious convictions even in the face of tremendous secular pressures.

Today Thomas à Beckett motivates us in the face of modern authoritarian forces that would deny religious expression. In my role as the Commissioner of Education in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these threats come from secular agendas in the media, regulators, and even from other academic contemporaries.

It is significant that the namesake of Becket Law, the nation’s leading religious liberty law firm, is this same Thomas à Becket. The highest honor Becket Law gives is the Canterbury medal, recognizing individuals who have demonstrated courage in defending religious liberty. Past recipients include Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, President Dallin H. Oaks, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Dr. Robert George, and others. Last year Becket celebrated 30 years of religious liberty victories, including milestones that impact religious higher education: 3

·      For example, Hosana-Tabor (2012) 4 which was described as “the most important religious liberty case in half a century,” 5 was a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court affirming ministerial exceptions for religions to choose their own teachers without government interference.

·      In Trinity Lutheran Church vs. Comer (2017) 6 the Supreme Court determined that the government cannot discriminate for funding solely because an organization is a religious institution.

·      In Our lady of Guadalupe vs. Morrissey-Berru (2020) 7 the Supreme Court extended Hosanna-Tabor to affirm that the government cannot dictate who religious schools hire to instruct students about their religious faith.

·      Then in Caron vs. Makin (2022) 8 the Supreme Court extended the Trinity Lutheran decision to rule that the government cannot exclude religious schools from tuition assistance programs simply because they are religious. This has implications for Pell Grant funding, and perhaps even more immediately for proposed discriminatory legislation in California tied to Cal Grants.

The fact that most of these cases were strong majority victories shows that the legal protections for religious freedom in higher education are strong and well reinforced. We are grateful that these judicial supports for religious liberty are also supported by the able legal and educational work of members of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.

 

Clear Governance

At BYU, we are sustaining efforts to preserve religious freedom in higher education, including the International Center for Law and Religious Studies, and the Wheatley Institute initiative on the Constitution. But all these efforts will count for naught if we simply mark these legal victories and fail to actively steward our religious aims.

James Burtchaell’s classic volume, The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches, is instructive on this point. 9 Looking across academia, the loss of religious identity was not one of narrowing legal restrictions, but rather a failure of organizational and administrative governance. This loss of religious identity did not happen all at once but through the recursive drift of everyday decisions deep inside these organizations. In Burtchaell’s analysis, this happened when religious schools allowed outside, secular entities to circumvent religious governance through three primary mechanisms:

Funding Sources: First, as the operating expenditures of running a modern university increased, religious schools began outsourcing their funding sources to non-religious entities, including donors, state and federal government, and increases in tuition.

Leadership Selection: Second, the growing reliance on outsourced funding often led to selection of university leadership by stakeholders not affiliated with the sponsoring institutions. Presidents and other university leaders increasingly felt less accountable to the sponsoring religious institutions.

Peer Review: Third, the specialization of academic disciplines often meant that internal university leadership did not always have the academic training to review the scholarly work of the faculty. Over time, peer review increasingly came from outside scholars who did not support and were even antagonistic to religious perspective.

This loss of administrative governance will not happen in the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For example, the primary funding of BYU comes from the Church, and not through grants, government funding, donors, or student tuition. Similarly, the selection of the university president is made by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On these first two points, the unique governance of the Church Educational System was described by Elder Ronald A. Rasband at the inauguration of President C. Shane Reese:

“In the case of Brigham Young University, it is important to recognize that the governance of this institution operates under the guidance of a unique and distinctive board of trustees. . . The BYU Board of Trustees is led by the First Presidency, with President Russell M. Nelson serving as chairman . . . This prophetic charge and BYU’s governance structure create a tremendous advantage for BYU, its president, the work of its faculty and staff, and the spiritual development of these magnificent students. Indeed, it allows—in fact, it compels—you to do things at this university that could be done nowhere else in the world.” 10

As far as Burtchaell’s third challenge, the outsourcing faculty hiring and review, all BYU faculty candidates are interviewed by either the president of the university or the academic vice president, as well as by a general authority, and must be approved by the Board of Trustees. External pressures will continue to pull at BYU, but the institution will always return to is mooring because of the anchoring strength of the university’s prophetic governances.

 

A Stewardship

Religious freedom protections and aligned governance are necessary, but not sufficient conditions for effective religious expression. Ultimately this scaffolding must be filled in by a deeply embedded personal and institutional commitment to religious expression. Speaking at the University of Oxford’s Pembroke College, Elder Quentin L. Cook charged believers to view their hard-won religious freedoms as a stewardship. For religious identity to find its full expression, it must live in the hearts and minds of individuals who view their faith as a sacred stewardship for which they are accountable to God. Elder Cook stated, “There is no better demonstration of the great benefits associated with religious liberty than for devoted members of various faiths who feel accountable to God to model principles of integrity, morality, service, and love.” 11

As Elder Cook described, we will be held accountable to God for the religious freedoms we have received and, in the case of the Church Educational System, for the aligned governance we have been provided. Becket Law’s most recent Canterbury Medal recipient is the Honorable Michael McConnell, past Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals and Stanford Law School professor. Reminding us that the application of our freedom supersedes any legal protections, McConnel cited Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical narrative, Thus Spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche’s protagonist travels throughout the countryside proclaiming: “God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him!” But this religious adversary pauses when he finds a lonely hermit, isolated in the forest mumbling his praise to God. Zarathustra decides to leave him alone, having pity on his naive, but isolated prayers. McConnell observes, “And in like manner, the post-­modern world is willing to leave the believer in peace, at least while he remains in the forest.” 12

Building on McConnell’s caution, 13 I would like to suggest three characteristics that should define our religious stewardship. First, unlike Nietzsche’s hermit, our religious expression must not remain hidden in the forest. In this sense, we might thoughtfully adjust the call toward isolation in commentator Rod Dreher’s book “The Benedictine Option”. 14I believe the stewardship of religious freedom requires that we not retreat to protective enclaves St. Benedict of Nursia cloistered monasteries. Second, as we come out of the forest, our religious stewardship requires not only conviction, but clarity. Peter did not ask us to mumble, but rather to “be ready, always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” 15 Third, the stewardship of our religious freedom must go beyond our declarations of faith and ultimately bless others. As the apostle Paul taught: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” 16

 

Stewardship in the Church Educational System

In the Church Educational System our religious freedoms are well protected by the U.S. Constitution, by judicial precedent, and by capable legal teams at the Church and at BYU. We likewise benefit from the clear and aligned governance provided by the Church Board of Education. But for BYU (and the entire Church Educational System) to become the “Christ-centered, prophetically directed university of prophecy” 17 our people must feel both a personal and institutional stewardship to God. This stewardship includes civic, intellectual, and ministerial accountability.

 

Civic Stewardship

Coming out of the forest requires religious universities to engage with our broader society. This can be done without compromising our identity or core beliefs. President Dallin H. Oaks described this in his University of Virginia speech stating: “We have always had to work through serious political conflicts, but today too many approach that task as if their preferred outcome must entirely prevail over all others, even in our pluralistic society. We need to work for a better way — a way to resolve differences without compromising core values.” 18 Note that President Oak’s invitation does not ask us to back away from revealed truth. Far from it. His assumed “civic theology” does require that we engage and respect differences, while holding onto our own deeply held beliefs and rights of conscience. 19 Perhaps this is what Eboo Patel referred to when he states: “There is no diversity without particularity.” 20

One of the ways we have tried to engage civically is to demonstrate how diverse religious institutions can work together and serve others. This is happening through the American Council on Education (ACE). At a recent convening at the National Press Club, ACE president Ted Mitchell, the former undersecretary of education, stated that faith-based universities have lessons to teach the rest of higher education in the areas of belonging, mission and purpose, and student retention. 21 For the last two years, I have served alongside Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, as we have chaired this ACE commission. This effort has brought together faith-based university presidents from Catholic, Jewish, Latter-day Saint, Baptist, and other religious schools. Shirley and I have also been able to co-author several articles on the benefits that religious schools bring to the academy and to society more generally.

These efforts did not always come easily or without pushback from others. As Elder D. Todd Christofferson explained, “There are concerted efforts to shame and intimidate believers who have traditional moral values and to suppress religious viewpoints and practices . . .” 22 Several years ago, I spoke on a panel with an editor of a nationally prominent higher education publication. He seemed to repeatedly berate faith-based universities as outdated and naive. I suggested he needed a broader context and offered a follow-up discussion. Eventually we scheduled a meeting with his entire editorial board in Washington, D.C. I shared the three-track calendar at BYU-Idaho and the certificate-first curriculum of BYU-Pathway Worldwide. After an hour of discussion, this editor finally relented and acknowledged the impact of these innovations. But his final observation was that these developments did not grow out of our religious mission, but rather from aligned governance and talented people. I agreed that we had aligned governances and talented people, but then responded that the reasons our faculty would support church governance and why talented individuals would come to our schools was precisely because of our religious mission. No coverage came out of that initial meeting, but eventually his publication and others like it began to report on our work with the American Council on Education. Coming out of the forest is not always accompanied with warm receptions. For our voices to eventually be heard, we must respond with persistence, confidence, and rigor, as well as with grace and humility.

 

Intellectual Stewardship

In our public convening at the American Council on Education, Reverend John Jenkins, past president at Notre Dame, encouraged religious universities to consider their intellectual and scholarly stewardship, stating: “I think it’s very important for institutions that have a [religious] mission . . . to gather and to talk about what that dimension of faith-based vision adds to the educational enterprise.” He pointed to Notre Dame research on poverty alleviation and data from Catholic Charities that few other institutions could access, let alone adequately interpret. Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, articulated how understanding Jewish communities elevates social work in ways that has been hard to replicate in purely secular studies. President Linda Livingstone from Baylor University stated: “We want [our faculty] to speak to us about how their faith does or might animate their research and their teaching. 23

In a remarkable essay about how her faith connected to scholarly research, Shima Baradaran Baughman shared why she choose to come to the BYU Law School: “12 years into my career I realized I was missing some of the best techniques for fighting mass incarceration. My academic playbook, like many of my colleagues, included policy and empirical data, theoretical frameworks, constitutional interpretation, structural solutions and legislative change. But I realized I was missing something vital. . . values informed by my religious beliefs. I started to grasp that these values were applicable in my academic career . . . [and I] left an associate deanship at the University of Utah law school to teach at BYU because I could participate in faith-centered scholarship.” 24

 

Ministerial Stewardship

Beyond our civic and intellectual stewardship, religious freedom also comes with a responsibility to minister to others. Of course, the very motto of Brigham Young University reflects this ministerial charge: Enter to learn, go forth to serve.BYU’s greatest impact will always come through the lives of its graduates. At over 400,000 strong, the BYU alumni association is making a difference in the world. BYU alumni are nearly four times more likely to volunteer than the average American. They are nearly twice as likely to have donated to charity. BYU alumni serve at the highest levels in education, health care, the judiciary, and in public service. 25

Our ministerial stewardship in the Church Educational System also includes those who never thought that an education was possible. Today, BYU-Pathway Worldwide serves over 75,000 students in nearly 200 countries across the Church. Tomorrow, my wife and I leave for visits with BYU-Pathway students in Africa where there will soon be more enrolled students than on our Provo campus. When I described BYU-Pathway to the editorial board mentioned earlier, they viewed the program as novel and innovative. What was harder to understand was that our religious mission, specifically our pastoral call of duty, was the source of these innovations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints created BYU-Pathway because we believe we have a heaven-directed responsibility to care for others.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, our growing religious freedom and aligned governance provide critical protections for the modern religious university. And yet, although these are necessary, they are not sufficient conditions for authentic religious expression. The faculty and leadership of the Church Educational System carry a stewardship to God for the opportunities we have been given. To do this we must have the courage to come out of the forest of isolation, speak with clarity and conviction, while finding ways to bless those in need. As the apostle Paul declared, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 26

  1. Clark G. Gilbert, "The Stewardship of Our First Freedom," BYU Studies Quarterly Vol. 62: No. 3, [2023], 5-17. Note: I draw on this earlier message through this essay and try to note those references where appropriate.

  2. T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1963.

  3. The following cases are discussed in Gilbert 2023 and some of that language is used before for simplification

  4. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 565 U.S. 171 (2012).

  5. Ryan Colby, “9-0 Supreme Court Victory for Religious Liberty,” Becket, January 20, 2015, https://www.becketlaw.org/media/9-0-supreme-court-victory-religious-liberty/.

  6. Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, 582 U.S. (2017).

  7. Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, 591 U.S. (2020).

  8. Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S.(2022)

  9. James Tunstead Burtchaell, The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (1998). Note: I first explored this concept in Clark G. Gilbert, “Dare to Be Different: Preserving the Distinctive Light of Religious Universities,” Deseret News, September 14, 2022.

  10. Ronald A. Rasband, “For a Time Such as This,” BYU Inauguration, September 2023

  11. Quentin L. Cook, “The Impact of Religious Freedom on Public Morality,” University of Oxford Pembroke College Quill Project, October 23, 2019, 25–26, https://news-uk .churchofjesuschrist.org/multimedia/file/Elder-Quentin-L.-Cook---Transcript---The -Impact-of-Religious-Freedom-on-Public-Morality.pdf.

  12. Michael W. McConnell, “On Singing, Laughing, Weeping, and Mumbling,” (Canterbury Medal Address, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, New York, May 25, 2023).

  13. Note: Both the McConnel and the Dreher reference that follows were first employed in Clark G. Gilbert, "The Stewardship of Our First Freedom," BYU Studies Quarterly Vol. 62: No. 3, [2023], 5-17.

  14. Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (New York: Sentinel, 2018), inner jacket flap.

  15. 1 Peter 3:15.

  16. 1 Corinthians 13:1.

  17. C. Shane Reese, “Becoming BYU,” Inaugural Response, September 2023.

  18. Dallin H. Oaks, “Going Forward with Religious Freedom and Nondiscrimination,” Joseph Smith Lecture, University of Virginia, November 2021.

  19. See discussion of President Dallin H. Oaks “civic theology” in Jonathan Rauch, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Promise with Democracy, Yale University Press, 2025.

  20. Eboo Patel, as quoted in Tad Walch, “The Case for Faith-Based College Education and What Other Universities Can Learn,” Deseret News, January 12, 2023, https:// www.deseret.com/2023/1/12/23548705/the-case-for-faith-based-college-education-from -notre-dame-byu-yeshiva.

  21. Sara Weissman, “New Commission on Faith-Based Institutions Launched,” Inside Higher Education, June 5, 2024.

  22. D. Todd Christofferson, “Religious Freedom, A Cherished Heritage to Defend,” Freedom Festival Patriotic Service, BYU Speeches, June 26th, 2016.

  23. Tad Walch, “The case for faith-based college education and what other universities can learn,” Deseret News, January 12, 2023.

  24. Shima Baradaran Baughman, “Why I returned to BYU,” Deseret News, January 11, 2025.

  25. See Y Magazine 2017 Alumni Survey found here: https://magazine.byu.edu/article/this-is-us/


  26. 2 Timothy 1:7.