The question for the institute is the question eventually for all humankind. How do we best and most warmly open that door, personally and professionally, and on what do we sup when the Master is admitted? Will our time and conversation in the Maxwell Institute be consistent in every way with His gospel, His grace, His life, and His loving, persistent plea to “Come, follow me”?8
You must be thinking this opening a bit melodramatic for the purposes of this particular gathering— referencing the First Vision, continuing revelation, the advent of the true King, the significance of end times generally. I prefer to see it as apostolic. These are the topics that absorb fifteen of us who toss and turn when we would like to sleep and slumber.
In that spirit, my friends, I can think of few other entities on this campus that have received the attention from the General Officers of the Church that the Maxwell Institute has—at least lately. I offer my non-campus- wide, non–Marriott Center appearance in this modest venue as evidence of that tonight. The Lord’s prophet, who chairs your board, and his fellow apostles, who sit with him, sent me to you. We hope it is affirming to you to have their strong, active interest in you at a time when the direction and priorities of the Church are being discussed as almost never before. We hope you welcome such focused attention, as you are measured for your role in these developments.
https://mi.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2 ... -small.pdf
In other words the Maxwell Institute’s job is to preach the gospel rather than pursue academic/scholarly endeavour, unless those endeavours show the Church to be true. Its job is faith promoting missionary work.
That puts the true scholar in a bit of a quandary. What if their academic faith promoting studies lead to a conclusion that runs contrary to the “party line”? Do they publish? Do they adjust/omit the problematic evidences and then publish?
Is Holland asking, no...demanding, that they lie?
Of course, the missions of the Church and BYU are not identical, but their missions certainly can never be at odds with each other. And in the case of the Church and the Maxwell Institute, their missions must come as close together as an ecclesiastical sponsor and an academic recipient of that sponsorship can be. So if the university is to reflect the best the Church has to offer by way of a world-class academic endeavor, no apologies to anyone, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute must see
itself as among the best the university has to offer, as a faithful, rich, rewarding center of faith-promoting gospel scholarship enlivened by remarkable disciple-scholars.
Of our commitment to seek learning generally, Elder Maxwell said: “There is as much vastness in the theology of the Restoration as in the stretching universe. ‘There is space there’ for the full intellectual stretching of any serious disciple. There is room ‘enough and to spare’ for all the behavioral development one is willing to undertake.”9
But not all truths are of equal importance, and in using the disciple-scholar metaphor—that hyphenated noun Elder Maxwell left us as part of his marvelous linguistic legacy—the spiritual half of that union was always the more important. “Though I have spoken of the disciple-scholar,” he said, “in the end all the hyphen- ated words come off. We are finally disciples—men and women of Christ.”10
That’s an interesting, mealy-mouthed exhortation that sounds very similar to:
There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not.
Some things that are true are not very useful.
https://www.lds.org/manual/teaching-sem ... t?lang=eng
Let’s review Holland’s exhortation to only produce academic study at BYU/Maxwell Institute that is faith promoting against the Church’s definition of honesty.
Lying is intentionally deceiving others. Bearing false witness is one form of lying. The Lord gave this commandment to the children of Israel: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16). Jesus also taught this when He was on earth (see Matthew 19:18). There are many other forms of lying. When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth. Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest.
The Lord is not pleased with such dishonesty, and we will have to account for our lies. Satan would have us believe it is all right to lie. He says, “Yea, lie a little; … there is no harm in this” (2 Nephi 28:8). Satan encourages us to justify our lies to ourselves. Honest people will recognize Satan’s temptations and will speak the whole truth, even if it seems to be to their disadvantage.
https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-princ ... y?lang=eng
Is Holland delivering another victory for Satan?
