A few weeks ago Millennial Star contributor Tom S. wrote an essay titled, “The Meaning of the Gay Dating Fiasco at BYU”. This prompted some good discussion among our readers, some of which didn’t believe that there are people who work for and teach at BYU that don’t fully support the church. Tom’s essay was published right about the time a new group called Keeping Faith at BYU was organized. You might have read more about the group over on My Life by GoGoGoff. So far their work has prompted a lot of discussion in the affirmative and in the negative online. But it’s a discussion we need to have about BYU.
As our own J Max Wilson shared on twitter a few days ago, “I had chosen to major in English with my eyes wide open about what I was going to encounter. But I felt bad about the students who were not expecting or prepared for their faith to be attacked at BYU. I came to BYU knowing that there would be apostate professors and students. My father had been at BYU more than a decade beforehand working on his PhD and had often told us about his apostate professors. When my own daughter was accepted to BYU last year we had a good talk about the fact that she could not assume that either her professors or her fellow students would be faithful members of the church. She started BYU knowing that some of her professors and the other students might push apostate ideas and reject the teachings and directions of the prophets and apostles.”
Here are some submissions Keeping Faith at BYU has shared over the last few weeks on their Instagram page:
In the comments on the above post, someone asked why they didn’t “out” this professor’s name and that it must be fake otherwise. KFBYU responded that there was other identifying information that was submitted that verified who this was, and that they withheld the name so this person would have the chance to exercise their due process rights if necessary. But, no matter, BYU professors shouldn’t be swearing in class (or ever, none of us should be) and absolutely should not be encouraging students to break the commandments.
There are more examples on their Instagram page and in their twitter page. Some of these examples are very damning of what is happening in some of the departments at BYU. I get that we are all different and that people hold different views on various subjects, but it is not too much to ask that the faculty and staff that work at BYU, whose salaries are paid for by the tithing monies of the Church (the widow’s mite in many cases), be faithful and loyal to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will not subvert the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or turn the young minds and hearts of BYU students from these things.
We wish Tristan well in his efforts to bring some much needed light to some dusty corners at BYU. Please consider following their social media accounts and giving them your support.