CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — At a time when younger adults are feeling remoted and lonely, faith-based and faith-inclusive faculties and universities should deepen younger adults’ sense of function and supply belonging, Elder Clark G. Gilbert stated at Harvard University.
“This is a nation calling for something more, something deeper,” he stated.
Speaking on Thursday, March 26, to college students and school at the Harvard Faculty Club, Elder Gilbert, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, mentioned the position of faith in the public square.
“It is my prayer and my hope that people of faith will stand up, that they will be counted, that they will find ways — even if it takes multiple ‘at bats’ — to keep having their voices heard in the public square,” he stated.
Before changing into an Apostle in February, Elder Gilbert was the commissioner of Church training and beforehand served as the president of BYU–Idaho and BYU–Pathway Worldwide. This handle was a return to Harvard, the place he earned his doctorate and taught in the enterprise faculty. He spoke throughout a “Faith in the Public Square” sequence forward of the college’s 2026 Faith and Veritas event — a universitywide gathering of Harvard’s Christian neighborhood.
“Faith and Veritas is an absolute gift to Harvard University,” he stated, thanking Ruth Okediji, a Harvard regulation professor, for organizing the occasion.
Okediji, who spoke at BYU in January 2024, stated occasions like these handle a deep want in this era and in the nation, “which is how do we improve the quality and integrity of our public square by making faith once more a part of that?”
A disaster and an answer
Elder Gilbert stated America’s college-age college students are going through a disaster of tension, despair and loneliness.
“Your generation in particular is the loneliest in the history of America,” Elder Gilbert stated to the younger adults, linking this to not simply smartphones and social media but additionally an absence of non secular affiliation.
Elder Gilbert cited a current Harvard University study demonstrating that almost 3 in 5 younger adults lack a way of function. Pew Research Center knowledge exhibits an increase in adults with no non secular affiliation, but those that keep common worship report greater happiness and satisfaction.
Despite the rise in what are referred to as the non secular “nones,” and regardless of a standard media narrative, faith-based universities are rising nationally. In reality, from 2000 to 2025, the BYU system grew by over 100,000 students, Elder Gilbert stated. Other universities with non secular affiliations are additionally seeing development as college students, together with nonreligious ones, search an training that features faith and character improvement.
Elder Gilbert initially wrote an August 2025 article for Deseret Magazine outlining these themes. The Chronicle of Higher Education just lately revealed a follow-up article titled “Religious Colleges Are Booming. Why?”
“If you are a person of faith, you have to keep going back up to bat,” Elder Gilbert stated, encouraging the college students not to get discouraged or to disengage when talking up for faith is difficult.
Walking ‘to’ one thing
Also on Thursday, Elder Gilbert spent a while on the banks of the Charles River to be close to a spot that holds a lot significance to him. When he was in graduate faculty at Harvard, he and his spouse, Sister Christine Gilbert, had come to the spot for a picnic with their younger son.
At the begin of graduate faculty, he felt he was in approach over his head in the intensive math programs he was required to take. He informed his spouse he didn’t suppose he may do it. In so many phrases, she informed him: “You prayed for this, you know our family is supposed to be here. Now, ‘buck up’ and do the math.”
He acknowledged that he wanted to belief in the Savior to assist him; that he had made covenants with the Lord, and the Lord would direct his path.
Recounting the story to the Harvard school and college students, Elder Gilbert concluded, “If I did not have a framework of faith and purpose, I would have given up.”
One of the school members requested him about the braveness to “walk away from” his profession as a professor at the Harvard Business School to comply with his faith and go to BYU–Idaho. Elder Gilbert responded that it was “also walking to” one thing higher, which all the time occurs when following the Lord’s course.
Faith and purpose are usually not in battle, he concluded, explaining that if America actually values a pluralistic society, the place all are welcome, then American establishments and the public square should additionally embrace faith.
“America needs faith,” he stated. “The majority of ‘nones’ want God in their life. The majority of nones pray. The majority of nones may have disaffiliated with a particular religion, but they are feeling the gap in their life without faith.”
Elder Gilbert concluded by inviting the college students to arise for his or her faith and to have the braveness to assist others do the similar.
