CHURCH OF BUSINESS

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times: someone at church making an underhanded comment about higher education. Usually this lovely anti-intellectual sentiment is expressed in Gospel Doctrine, or Priesthood, where someone points out the arrogance of professors, or one of the numerous scriptures condemning the pride of the “learned.” Now, having had the opportunity to study from numerous professors, I will freely admit, that dealing with an arrogant and hubristic professor is like a sojourn through hell, you literally count the days to the end of the quarter, and you might seriously consider dropping the class just to get away. Furthermore, I will also admit that when one’s learning leads one to pride and conceit, when it brings one to the erroneous position that one somehow knows better than the Lord and his anointed, it has ultimately led one into destruction. That said, I find these comments somewhat disturbing coming from members of a faith with a doctrine that “The Glory of God is intelligence.”

Now in fairness, as a Graduate Student, I must admit I take these things a little personally. I certainly am not working on my Ph.D. for the glory of men. After all, with a few notable exceptions, Historians tend to be relatively obscure in the public eye, particularly here in the United States. Furthermore, I cannot be said to be doing this for money, a law student can expect to make considerably more than I am likely to make at the top of my profession within a few years of work at the right firm. And as for power? Well, how many historians do you know who have become men of great power and influence in the past century. I suppose if one of my associates got a law degree, went into politics, and hired me on as an advisor, I could become a Svengali-like manipulator of the levers of power, but in fairness, I think a Political Science degree would make such a scenario all the more likely. No, a Doctorate in History is unlikely to gain me much glory among my fellow man.

Indeed, I have fond memories of the looks I got from various individuals when I told them I was a History major. Their faces would fall ever so slightly and they would inevitably respond with something along the lines of, “So you’re going to teach?” (as if that was a bad thing or something). I have been tempted a number of times to respond such a question. “No, I just intend to be spectacularly well-read when I starve to death under a freeway overpass, why do you ask?”

But seriously, if a higher education is such a bad thing, why exactly does the Church own and operate 4 Universities? (Yes I included the LDS Business School, I do consider a Business Degree higher education, despite my prejudices) And no, BYU, BYU Hawaii and BYU Idaho do not offer only a 4-year degree, nor are all the degrees in either the field of Business, Home and Family Development, or Mormon Apologetics, we actually offer degrees in the dreaded “hard sciences” as well as the despised Humanities. Furthermore, if advanced degrees are such an evil, might I inquire as to why BYU offers at graduate-level courses in at least 64 different disciplines? Clearly, neither Brigham Young, nor the other early leaders of the Church had a problem with higher education.

Nor, indeed may we say that the current Church Leadership has a problem with it. Consider the following few examples from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve:

President Thomas S. Monson : MBA, BYU

President Henry B. Eyring : Doctorate of Business Admin, Harvard Business School

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: BA, Business Development, Institute for International Development, Lausanne

Elder Boyd K. Packer: Doctorate of Education from BYU

Elder L. Tom Perry: BS, Business, Utah State

Elder Russell M. Nelson: MD, Univ. of Utah

Elder Dallin H. Oaks: JD (Juris Doctorate) Univ. of Chicago Law School

Elder Richard G. Scott: Doctorate in Nuclear Engineering, Oak Ridge Natl. Laboratory* (Never formally awarded due to classified nature of work on the reactor for the first Nuclear Sub, USS Nautilus)

Elder Jeffery R. Holland: Ph.D. American Studies, Yale University

Elder David A. Bednar: Ph.D. Organizational Behavior, Purdue University

Elder Quentin L. Cook: JD, Stanford Law School

Elder D. Todd Christopherson: JD, Duke University

Elder Neil L. Anderson: MBA, Harvard

Clearly this small snapshot of the Brethren’s own educational background demonstrates that a higher education is neither seen as an evil, nor a disqualification for worthy church service, in the eyes of the Brethren, or the Lord. For the sake of clarity, I should note that it is also not considered a prerequisite, any of these men could hold those positions without the academic titles, and there have been men with little or no formal education (Joseph Smith not the least among them) who have also served in the leadership of the Church.

Furthermore, in the most recent General Conference, President Uchtdorf urged the brethren during the Priesthood session that: “for members of the church, education is not merely a good idea, it’s a commandment.” going on to urge that those who could not gain a formal education should take the time to improve themselves through a study of the “best books” in order to gain knowledge and understanding.

Now, as I mentioned above, I am well aware of the dangers inherent in, upon gaining a considerable education, thinking that such knowledge as one possesses somehow qualifies one for special consideration, or the right to correct the Lord’s anointed. Indeed well did Jacob state: “O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.” (2 Nephi 9:28) Yet all too often we forget the key point in the verse that follows: “But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.” (v.29)

I do not wish to be fawned upon for my learning, indeed I would find such behavior both disturbing and obnoxious. However, I do not appreciate being condemned (even if it is backhandedly) for it either. When someone can show me where in The General Handbook of Instructions it states I have to hand in my Temple Recommend when I get my Ph.D., I’ll be glad to jump on the anti-intellectual bandwagon. But until then, I think I speak for many who are laboring to gain that education the brethren have asked us to gain, if some would merely think before they speak.