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This American moment attracts cynicism, especially on social media where people regularly act differently than they do in person, at church or at work, a national speaker said this week at BYU.
“This a moment when it’s easy and attractive to always be the cynic, to be the outsider who thinks that he or she is more sophisticated, knows the real deal and can see through the claims and ambitions and ideals of the group,” said Yuval Levin, the editor of the magazine National Affairs.
Levin’s overall message at a BYU campus forum assembly was that Americans who want to heal the nation’s political and social division should be intentional about the way they behave and speak, both in person and online. I covered his speech in depth but held out this passage on cynicism and idealism because it warranted additional attention.
Here’s what Levin went on to say:
“I want to share with you an insight that I’ve learned in 25 years in Washington,” he said. “Working for a president of the United States (as a policy adviser to George W. Bush), working for a Speaker of the House and lots of other powerful people, I’ve learned that cynicism is naive. It’s never really quite right. It doesn’t actually explain why people do what they do.
“The fact is that people want to be idealistic, want to be part of something bigger than themselves, to contribute to something that they can respect and be proud of. Our culture sometimes encourages us to look down on that kind of thing, to run away from it. But in fact, that sort of commitment is what we want in life, that kind of belonging is what we need.”
It’s also worth noting that this was a message BYU wanted shared.
“We are grateful,” BYU academic vice president Justin Collings said while conducting Tuesday’s forum, “to gather each week as a campus community to reinforce our common commitment to BYU’s prophetic mission, a mission of seeking learning by study and faith as we pursue goodness and beauty, virtue and knowledge, light and truth.”
The university leader endorsed Levin’s recent book on the Constitution, then endorsed Levin’s own civic and civil voice.
“Dr. Levin provides a voice of reason, wisdom, temperance, learning, judgment, civility and persuasion that serves as a tonic to the often feverish public discourse of our time,” Collings said. “We are immensely grateful to host him this morning as our forum speaker.”
Levin finished this section of his talk with a direct appeal to action.
“So in the end, the answer comes down to each of us, even to you as students here in this university,” he said. “We can point to all kinds of complicated theories about how to build the trust that’s required for our society to work better, but the simplest way is for the people who inhabit our institutions — that is, for all of us — to work at being more trustworthy, and we each can work at that.
“We can give our institutional responsibilities more of our time and effort. We can give them more of our identity and our self-consciousness. We can understand ourselves as defined more by the institutions that matter most to us, judge ourselves by their standards more, hold ourselves up to their ideals, take seriously their forms of integrity and align our pride and our ambition with theirs. That kind of advice can seem a little earnest and moralizing in a moment like this.”
In fact, he noted, his own advice is out of tune “with the times we’re living in.”
But, he finished, “The demolition crews have been allowed for too long to define the spirit of this moment in America, but where we’re going is going to be up to the builders and the rebuilders, and that’s what each of us should seek to be.”
While in Utah, Levin also huddled with top Utah government officials, met with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and spoke to the Gardner Policy Institute and the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and at the nonpartisan think tank Sutherland Institute.
My Recent Stories
The question a BYU visitor said each person must answer to resolve America’s social crisis (Feb. 25)
Interest, support surge for BYU medical school: ‘It’s as if we have 40 first-round draft picks’ (Feb. 24)
About the church
Latter-day Saints who lost their homes in the Southern California wildfires shared their stories with the Deseret News, which published images of the ashes and rubble. President Jeffrey R. Holland traveled to the region on behalf of church leaders and said he came to cry with them and love them.
Church leaders have been busy ministering around the world:
- Elder D. Todd Christofferson met with the king of the Ga people in Ghana.
- Elder Gary E. Stevenson went to Brazil and taught five ways to become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ in preparation for a mission.
- Elder Gerrit W. Gong was in Mexico, where he said, “The holy house of the Lord invites and proclaims holiness to the Lord.”
- Elder Ulisses Soares met with the president of Peru and religious leaders during Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s tour stop in Lima, Peru.
- Elder Patrick Kearon recently returned from an eight-day trip through the Caribbean, where he said, “Do you sometimes feel like everyone is looking at you? Does it make you feel vulnerable? I wish everyone would not worry so much. You are sons and daughters of God.”
The public open house for the Auckland New Zealand Temple is underway, and the church released the first images from inside the temple.
The church announced the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra will tour Brazil next year as part of the ongoing, multiyear “Songs of Hope Tour”:
- 2026 — Brazil (details to be announced)
- 2025 — Lima, Peru (February 2025), and Buenos Aires, Argentina (August 2025)
- 2024 Hope tour — Manila, Philippines; Florida and Georgia
- 2023 Hope tour — Mexico City, Mexico, and Toluca, Mexico
The choir’s performance last weekend in Peru is available on YouTube.
What I’m reading
After BYU’s men’s basketball team won a heart-stopping victory in Arizona, some disappointed fans directed a profane chant at Latter-day Saints.
The University of Arizona’s athletic director apologized and BYU’s Jewish quarterback and Utah’s Jewish community expressed disappointment.
Then an Arizona Republic columnist wrote that polls show Latter-day Saints are more tolerant of differences than other Americans and that a new book praises Latter-day Saints for being a model for how all Christian faiths should engage with civic life. To learn more, see my story on the author’s visits to BYU and with church leaders last month.
A major new poll is out on American religion. Latter-day Saints remain 2% of the American population. Here is a quick sketch of other findings. And here is the biggest surprise.
Interesting story: Why a Christian college is suing Netflix.
A faith-affirming Book of Mormon musical, “Messiah in America,” is headed to the stage.
This was funny and revealing: “How to not pay your medical bills” (paywall).
McKay Coppins at The Atlantic (paywall) took a deep dive into the Murdoch family empire. It’s highly readable and topical.
Behind the Scenes
The church released a rendering of the planned Lehi Utah Temple.
