Fruitful Disagreement: A Showcase of BYU’s Flirtations With Leftist Ideals

When you think of the type of speaker that comes to BYU to give their thoughts on campus, you’d think that these are people who are true Christlike examples that we should embody. Not quite on par with the apostles, of course, but people who have demonstrated a sharing of values with BYU and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, truly being in the world and not of the world. I’ve discovered that this is not the case. BYU has continuously invited speakers onto campus who don’t actually fulfill the mission of BYU, the Church, or the gospel, and don’t follow the values that we hold sacred. These are speakers who are hypocrites, don’t follow what they preach from their professional pulpits, or have done such horrific things that they should be brought before a tribunal. 

On January 22nd, 2026, BYU’s Wheatley Institute and the Peacemaker Project hosted a dialogue with professors Robert George, who describes himself as a conservative Christian thinker, and Cornel West, who describes himself as a Marxist-informed radical Democrat and “redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.” The title was “Fruitful Disagreement In an Age of Division,” which comes directly from the title of their most recent book, “Truth Matters.” Some high-profile names within BYU and the Church were in attendance, such as BYU President Shane Reese, Elder Matthew Holland (who was a student of George for a time), and Elder Quentin L. Cook. I discovered that BYU had also invited multiple leftist and LGBT activists to the event, such as Troy Williams of Equality Utah, who has led successful efforts to promote LGBT ideologies within school classrooms and to rename a street in Salt Lake City after the pedophile Harvey Milk. The room was filled to the brim, with me being one of the last people to make it in. During the introductions, West repeatedly praised the Church and its members and coined the term “Mormon soulcraft,” referring to the elevated character traits possessed by Latter-day Saints, noting examples such as President Nelson. This term was repeated ad nauseam throughout the dialogue.

The dialogue between George and West was tamer than I expected, as West didn’t go into his more radical beliefs on Marxism or race. It was, however, a true midwit intellectual’s paradise, featuring an hour full of non-answers and large servings of word salad. When asked how BYU faculty could better push the university’s four aims, George said that professors at BYU, and professors in general, have a vocation from God to serve Him through teaching their students, through both word and example, to be determined truth seekers and courageous truth speakers. He emphasized that professors should guide students to love the truth more than their own opinions, even if that truth is unpopular. Yet, in our post-modern world where most lack a consensus understanding of what “truth” is, George failed to educate and inform us of the meaning of “truth” (which became a trend for both of them throughout the night). West answered the same question by mentioning concepts found within LDS tradition: remembrance, reverence, and resistance. We remember the persecution we faced and how we persevered against it; we’re more reverent as we remember those things, and our resistance allows us to “cut against the grain” of the world. West compared MLK, Jr. to Joseph Smith in those terms, describing them both as being against racism and slavery, then made a sly remark about Brigham Young and his controversial views on both of those topics.

When asked what the obligations are for students during their education, West simply said that “you are here to learn how to die.” What this means is that we learn to think critically, learn to speak our minds, love God and our neighbors, and call any previous assumptions we had about the world into question. When you let some of these beliefs go, West says, “that’s a form of death, and there is no rebirth without death.” In the context of the Gospel, we call that conversion and our testimony. West also said that students need to do what God has commanded us to with an “international mindset,” remembering that everyone on Earth has the same value. George said that students must engage with everyone in the pursuit of truth, replacing any falsehoods we can find within our heads with truth, even if the truth is unpopular (which once again begs the question as to what they mean by “truth”). This is something that students can look to professors for good examples, but ultimately must do on their own. George says that the world will push against us, telling us to strive for things like wealth, power, status, or prestige. While it’s not wrong to want these, he says that they’re only good as the means to an end, rather than the end. What really matters is faith, family, friends, honesty, and integrity.

One question asked was regarding a quote Stephen Miller said a few weeks ago on CNN: “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties, but we live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” West said to “pray for brother Miller,” which was met by a resounding applause from the attendees. West attempted to explain how this Hobbesian view of the world isn’t correct, comparing it to siding with Pontius Pilate over Jesus Christ or siding with the Union army in 1857 over the Latter-day Saints, and implored the audience to “remain true” to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount over the Hobbesian mindset, drawing up even more applause. George concurred, adding that realists like Miller, Hobbes, and Nietzsche are what’s “normal,” having a mindset similar to what we’d call the natural man. Those who embrace Christ’s teachings (in practice) aren’t normal and are more “spiritual” in nature, helping to bring about the “transcendent rising” of man. 

The most perplexing part of this entire event was the introduction. President Reese introduced George and West, recounting a story from when he first became president of BYU during the President’s Dinner. He sat next to President Oaks, and they began chatting. Reese asked Oaks if he had any advice for him as he began his job, and Oaks responded by saying, “If there is something that this generation, the students of your university, need, it is a model of how to disagree better.” I emphasize this because “disagree better” is the mantra and ideology that has had a crippling stranglehold over Utah and the Church. It’s the reason why you may have noticed a nauseating sense of passiveness from men in the Church and our local governments. On paper, “disagree better” appears to be a logical thing to preach in all aspects of society. After all, who actually likes to “start” conflicts? Who would dare to be against “peace,” “love,” or “inclusion?” In practice, though, it has only served as a weapon utilized by the ideologues largely on the left and those who seek power and gain against the innocent and righteous. Those who use it, like Governor Spencer Cox, do so in order to silence any strong moral opposition to what he and others are working tirelessly to turn Utah and the Church into. Opposite of those who use it out of maliciousness, there are many who genuinely believe that “disagreeing better,” or showing “kindness” and compromising with immoral and unethical ideologies is harmless and will lead these people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, what they don’t know is that this has the complete opposite effect, as nobody respects, admires, or follows weak men or cowards. 

I came away from this dialogue disappointed and bewildered. I wasn’t aware, before this event, that the “disagree better” mentality was entrenched this badly within our noble institutions to the point of extreme permissiveness and moral retreat from them. We’re living in an age where the ideological left feels unafraid to raid churches, openly flout our laws, use any authority they gain to oppress people who have differing ideals, and use violence or threats of violence on those who dare question their actions and openly defy or expose them. They will claim the moral high ground on anything they can grasp while at the same time viciously attacking you or their other opponents, openly cheering and advocating for your death. There is no “disagreeing better” with these people. The events in Minneapolis and the rhetoric of the left (especially over the last six months) should be making this clear and obvious. We are way past the point of following the counsel of weak men. Did Jesus disagree better with the money changers in the temple, or did He kick them out using word and force? Did Captain Moroni disagree better with the Lamanites or the Kingmen wishing to subjugate the Nephites, or did he rout them to secure the liberty of himself and his people? Was Moses successful in his attempts to disagree better with Pharaoh, or did he have to unleash the plagues upon Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery? What these men had in common was that they exhibited the strength of right, of morality, and of truth. They were proactive in their beliefs, and did not compromise, negotiate, bend to the pressures that demanded they give in and stop fighting, or sit at dialogues and dinners talking about being polite with those who were actively or deceptively planning their destruction.

I’ve come to question BYU’s decision-making when it comes to inviting speakers onto campus. These speakers may have an impressive track record in academia, but they have an abysmal spiritual record. Their actions don’t match what they preach on our campus. Cornel West, as bad as he is, hasn’t even been the worst one over the last few weeks. On January 27, BYU invited Francis Collins, former director of the NIH, to give a forum in the Marriott. As reported by The Cougar Chronicle, he promoted the ineffective and dangerous COVID vaccine, mask mandates, and social distancing policies during the pandemic (which the Church also unfortunately backed) despite being privy to what we know now– that these approaches were unproven, baseless, ineffective, dangerous, and trampled on people’s civil and religious liberties. Collins also promoted and funded the use of aborted babies in obscene “medical research,” and oversaw millions in funding to transgender “research” on children. During this forum, Collins talked about finding “truth” (and, similar to George and West, never defined this), despite having ended the careers of anyone who said his COVID policies were wrong. He is the exact type of “Christian” that draws near unto Christ with his words while his heart is far from Him. Who exactly is inviting these people to come to campus and speak? Is this the image and example we want to present to members and to the world, that we are willing to invite Marxists, groomers, and abortionists onto campus to discuss their flawed “gospel” with us? The students are required to follow the Honor Code, which is supposedly aligned with our highest expectations and morals of the Gospel, yet BYU and the Church openly select and welcome those whose actions are contrary to it. Have we lowered our standards to be of the world rather than in the world?  Do we wish to be popular that badly when the people of Christ have always been a peculiar one? 

Leaders in the Church have counseled in the past, including Elder Holland just recently, that we must cling to the Book of Mormon. We must use it to find the way of Jesus Christ, which will lead us to our Promised Land. The “disagree better” ideology, as it is currently understood, pushed, and practiced, is antithetical to Christ’s Gospel, and it is not the way to our Promised Land, as the only ones required to bend and retreat within it are the believers of Christ and His Gospel. It inherently corrupts and misconstrues His teachings. “Love your neighbor” doesn’t mean letting him do whatever he wants to you or letting him enforce antichrist morals in your society. Those three words seem to be the only ones in the Bible that leftists (mostly non-Christian) like to point to when arguing with true believers. Unfortunately, there are some within the Church who are fooled by these persuasive ideologies and niceties that are easy to the ear, including some of our leaders. Through the promotion of “disagree better,” they are telling us the things that Nephi repeatedly warned us of: all is well in Zion! Don’t do anything to enforce your laws or hold to your morals because it isn’t nice to certain people! Zion prospereth, all is well!

The “Fruitful Disagreement” dialogue was merely a microcosm of “Disagree Better,” where a neocon and a Marxist discussed how we can find “truth” in an open and peaceful manner while completely disregarding conservatives as unworthy of attention and realists as being in a lower plane of existence. They talked about “truth” as if it were a certain thing, yet never defined what it actually is. The biggest takeaway was not from anything they said, as it lacked substance and true meaning. It came from the realization that BYU and the Church have been heavily influenced by the “disagree better” mantra, just as our state government has been. Our institutions need to realize that the clock is ticking on being able to discourage extreme leftist ideology in our society. The leftists don’t want to compromise; they want total control, and once they obtain it, our way of life is finished. We won’t be able to worship our God, openly proclaim our religion, or have our freedom. We will have no peace in our lands, and neither will our wives nor our children. To those who abide by the values of  “disagree better,” I ask you: Do you really want this to be our future?

Cover Photo Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/opinion/dying-art-of-disagreement.html