Direction from Pres. McKay to the BYU president which is much more detailed and specific than I had thought. I am aware that the "academic freedom" movement, whether it should have or not, had some impact in the opposite direction. I wonder therefore, what is the status of the Prophet's and the Church Board of Education direction to BYU now. Thanx for this. This is a keeper document for present and future reference
From David O. McKay
Dec. 22, 1966
Dear President Wilkinson:
In recent years I have felt a growing anxiety concerning the larger role which I feel the Brigham Young University should play in proclaiming those principles which are necessary to preserve the Constitution and the blessings of freedom among mankind. I have always been impressed by the Lord’s statement that the substantive ingredients of the Constitution were not only divinely inspired but were designed for the “protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles.” These inspired concepts were not
merely intended for the people of the United States, but for all humanity. Therefore, these principles need to be promoted, perpetuated, defended and taught as part of the message of the restored Kingdom of God.
Up to this time I do not feel that the Brigham Young University fulfilled its responsibility as the leading educational instrument of the Church in proclaiming these principles. The reports which I have received would indicate that far too much time is being spent in some of the classes deprecating the very principles which God has enjoined upon the Priesthood of this Church to defend, promulgate and propagate for the general welfare and liberty of mankind.
I feel that the University departments devoted to economics, political science and history have no reason to exist as part of a Church institution of higher learning unless they are supporting the Church in fulfilling its responsibility to preserve and implement our free and open society and resist those who would collectivize the material resources of the earth as a means of subjugating our Father’s children.
I fear some of our fine Latter-day Saint scholars have become seriously confused as to the position of the Church in these matters and they have therefore become apologetic or even hostile to the very precepts which the Lord has endorsed to the Church as the custodian and depository of His revealed will in these last days. I know from conversations with some of these teachers and scholars that they are extremely earnest and sincere, but that will not excuse the fact that when they transmit their confusion to the rising generation of Latter-day Saints they are defeating or debilitating an important phase of the work of the Church. In fact, they are vitiating an important and highly vital part of the very mission which the Church was restored to fulfill.
Now, I recognize that these teachers are free agents and they are entitled to their opinions. Nevertheless, they are not entitled to proclaim private opinions in a Church educational institution when those opinions militate against the purposes, objectives and obligations of the Church. This would be comparable to excusing a Church missionary who decided to promulgate the defective doctrines of certain secular churches in preference to our own. As an individual he is welcome to believe anything he wishes, but he could no longer legitimately pretend to be an emissary of the Lord’s restored Kingdom. Nor can those whose intellectual pursuits have led them to abandon the Lord’s position on economic freedom, the dispersion of political authority and the sanctity of private property, be allowed to receive his wages from the carefully garnered tithes of the Church when they profess to subscribe to doctrines which contain the seeds of ruthless
dictatorship and Satanic compulsion–the very doctrines which we rejected as a human family in the First Estate.
I therefore desire that a number of policies be made effective at the Brigham Young University just as rapidly as circumstances will permit and that thereafter they should be put into effect throughout the entire Church educational system.
First, all curriculum&# 39;s relating to economics, political science and history should be immediately reviewed and revised so that hereafter all classes will present in a positive, forthright manner the advantages of an open and free society over that of a culture which is characterized by strong and continuous intervention of government in the lives and affairs of the people.
Second, it should be emphasized as a fundamental tenet of the Church that we believe in honoring and sustaining Constitutional principles and that “sustaining” a government requires the honest citizen to be alert to the machinations of the enemies of freedom and actively participate in defending those principles which God has revealed to be divinely inspired.
Third, as a matter of policy as well as principle, University classes should stress the desirability of solving problems and settling issues through the peaceful, constitutional channels established by law and conscientiously resist the current trend to use the street as a public arena where anonymity and mobocracy inevitably combine to spread hysteria and terror.
Fourth, studies of Communism. Socialism and other forms of collectivism should be thoroughly explored in all their economic, political and social ramifications with the specific objective in mind of demonstrating why the Lord and His appointed leaders have rejected these techniques of political domination and economic control. I would like to see the students of the Brigham Young University become a cadre of ideological pioneers comparable to the American founding fathers who inspired a passion for liberty and a hope for freedom in the hearts of men throughout the earth. In our day and age this needs to be done again. The failures of Communism and Socialism have left a disillusioned and frustrated humanity hungering for a leadership which will show them a better way. The Brigham Young University must become the world center for the producing of such a leadership. And this can only be accomplished when teachers and classes are provided for the
specific purpose of preparing students for this leadership role. So far, this has not been done and precious time is being lost. Steps should therefore be taken to remedy this situation immediately.
Fifth, a whole battery of extensive research projects should be launched on the graduate level to discover the most efficient and economical devices for the solution of current problems. The object should be to discover solutions which will not do violence to the inalienable rights of man the way the collectivist programs have done. In fact, if liberty-loving men had remained alert and sought these solutions earlier, there would have been far less likelihood that the modern causers would have found an open door into which they could thrust their collectivist foot.
In connection with this suggested research, I have in mind such things as a study in depth of problems involving medical care for the aged; sound retirement security programs; the improvement in the quantity and quality of education; the systematizing and simplifying of the law; the best procedures for the keeping of the peace, both domestically and between nations; the best procedures for the wise expenditures of funds to aid the poor so that they can retain their dignity and expeditiously assert their self-sufficiency as independent members of society.
In other words, no area of human suffering, maladjustment or iniquity should be considered beyond the pale of the University’s problem-solving team. I feel that the Socialistic and other collectivist answers to these problems have not only proven inadequate but too often they have degraded and corrupted the very people they were supposed to be helping. There are better solutions to be found within the framework of freedom and the Lord will show his servants the way if they will but gird themselves to the exploratory task which each problem involves. The day must come when the Elders of Zion have found the answers to the social, economic and political problems of the world. When they do, the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled which said, “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths...” I am anxious that
the youth of Zion shall prepare themselves for this kind of leadership and eventually initiate the magnificent pattern of righteous living which prophets of God have warmly contemplated since the beginning of human history.
Of course, I appreciate that not everyone who is presently enrolled in the teaching profession of the Church educational system has either the background or convictions to enthusiastically support this enlarged assignment which the Brigham Young University must carry from this point onward. This, therefore, brings me to my final point.
Sixth, it should be the responsibility of the Church school administration to see that any member of the professional staff whose training or personal opinions are out of harmony with this basic program which I have briefly outlined, should be replaced as soon as possible by personnel who are competent to perform the educational functions required. This may result in some complaints, but I do not consider them justified in view of the task which lies before us. They are particularly unjustified when they come from those persons whose teaching inadequacies have created the necessity for a special remedial program of the extensive proportions I have described.
All phases of this new program should be initiated at the earliest possible date and frequent progress reports should keep me advised of its advancement.
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