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Stewardship to God Is a Necessary Component of Religious Freedom, Elder Gilbert Says

The Church’s education commissioner tells J. Reuben Clark Law Society that religious freedom, institutional governance and stewardship to God all work together to create the correct condition for religious expression

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Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a General Authority Seventy and commissioner of the Church Educational System for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks during the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside held at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, January 17, 2025. Photo by Isaac Hale, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Ryan Jensen, Church News

The Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fulfills a unique stewardship to God in its efforts to bless lives around the globe.

Elder Clark G. Gilbert, General Authority Seventy and commissioner of Church education, spoke to the J. Reuben Clark Law Society on Friday, January 17, at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City. He described the ways the Church demonstrates civic stewardship, intellectual stewardship and ministerial stewardship as part of its ultimate stewardship to Heavenly Father in properly using heaven-given agency and the Constitutionally protected right of religious freedom to bless the lives of individuals around the world.

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President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, greet an attendee as they arrive at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside held at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, January 17, 2025. Photo by Isaac Hale, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, attended with his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks. Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles both attended with their wives, Sister Mary Cook and Sister Kathy Christofferson, respectively.

Elder Cook spoke in 2019 at the University of Oxford Pembroke College. Elder Gilbert quoted Elder Cook as he spoke about the stewardship to God that religious individuals should feel.

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Elder Quentin L. Cook, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his wife, Mary, take their seats before the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside held at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, January 17, 2025. Photo by Isaac Hale, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

“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,” Elder Cook said at that time.

Ministerial Stewardship

Elder Gilbert explained that ministerial stewardship is one way for the Church and its members to show service and love.

“Our growing religious freedom and our aligned governance structure from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our Church schools provide critical protections for the modern religious university. … The faculty and the leadership of the Church Educational System carry a stewardship to God for the opportunities we have been given,” he said.

Elder Gilbert discussed the creation of BYU Pathway as an example of how the Church has demonstrated responsible use of religious freedom. He said the Church opened that institution because of the “heaven-directed responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters.”

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Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, greets Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a General Authority Seventy and commissioner of the Church Educational System, as he takes his seat during the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside held at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, January 17, 2025. Photo by Isaac Hale, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

While some may point to BYU in Provo as the Church’s flagship university, Elder Gilbert pointed to BYU–Pathway Worldwide as a growing example of the Church’s attempt to bless the lives of individuals whose lives can be blessed by a Christ-centered education untethered to a physical campus.

Pathway Worldwide now serves more than 75,000 students in close to 200 countries, Elder Gilbert said.

At the individual level, he also pointed to statistics showing that BYU alumni are more than three times as likely to volunteer in their communities as the average American. That, too, is an example of ministerial stewardship, he said.

Intellectual Stewardship

Elder Gilbert shared quotes from current or past university administrators at the University of Notre Dame, Yeshiva University and Baylor University. Each of those universities, along with the Church, has participated in the American Council on Education.

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Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a General Authority Seventy and commissioner of the Church Educational System for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks during the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside held at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, January 17, 2025. Photo by Isaac Hale, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

He quoted Baylor President Linda Livingstone, who said, “We want [our faculty] to speak to us about how their faith does or might animate their research and their teaching.”

He also quoted professor Shima Baradaran Baughman, who recently wrote in Deseret News about her departure and return to BYU Law School, where she is now the Woodruff J. Deem Professor of Law and a Distinguished Fellow at the school’s Wheatley Institute.

“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,” she wrote.

Civic Stewardship

Elder Gilbert explained that the Church’s participation in the American Council on Education has allowed it to work with representatives from Catholic, Jewish, Baptist and other religious schools. Given the differences among these churches and their religious beliefs, he said the group is not without challenges when seeking unity. But the resulting outcomes have been worthwhile in the face of opposition.

“We must be prepared to counter skeptical audiences with persistence, confidence and rigor, as well as grace and humility, for our voices to eventually be heard,” he said.

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Elder Alexander Dushku, a General Authority Seventy and general counsel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks during the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Fireside held at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, January 17, 2025. Photo by Isaac Hale, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

When inaugurated as BYU’s newest president, C. Shane Reese described the school as “a Christ-centered, prophetically directed university.”

Elder Gilbert said the mission that President Reese described will be accomplished only when “our people must feel both a personal and institutional stewardship to God.”

Some individuals retreat into bubbles or “protective enclaves,” Elder Gilbert said. However, he said that it is not right for individuals with strong religious beliefs to withdraw from society.

“The stewardship of our religious freedom must go beyond our declarations of faith and ultimately be a source of blessing to others,” he said. “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’ (1 Corinthians 13:1).”

Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

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