Latter-day Saint leader invites BYU students to pursue ‘foolishness' instead of fool's gold
PROVO — A Latter-day Saint leader admitted up front Tuesday that he would be the first person to deliver a BYU devotional speech asking students to be fools.
Religious leaders, government officials, friends and even family were skeptics of Jesus Christ's messages, mission and motivations, leading the apostle Paul to write of himself and other believers, 'in the eyes of the world we may indeed be fools, for Christ's sake,' said Elder Michael A. Dunn, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Paul was describing a dumbing down of the divine that has recurred throughout history, said Elder Dunn, a convert and the former managing director of BYUtv who spoke before an estimated 6,143 at the Marriott Center on the BYU campus.
He used Don Quixote, Steve Young, Martha Hughes Cannon and Joseph Smith as examples of characters and people who strived to maintain their ideals and pursue noble goals despite the scorn of a society that offers distractions and fool's gold.
'Paul's sardonic tone to the Corinthians suggests that being a fool for Christ is the clearest evidence that we are aligned with the wisdom of God, and for our purposes today I want you to think of foolishness as not just merely a dearth of knowledge, but the all-too-common delusion of having knowledge,' Elder Dunn said.
'Thus, if my deep love for Jesus, along with yours, makes us fools for Christ's sake, then this is one time that I urge you, from this day on, to join me in making complete fools of yourselves.'
Elder Dunn said his perspective changed as a teenager when he saw the play 'Man of La Mancha,' based on the classic Miguel de Cervantes novel 'Don Quixote.' Quixote was a nearsighted knight-errant on an absurd mission who remained relentlessly riveted to his task despite being mocked as a fool.
He said Quixote embodied perfectly President Russell M. Nelson's teaching that, 'The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives,' calling it a prophetic invitation to not be distracted or deterred by what the world claims is most important.
'It most often glitters and sparkles in irresistible fashion, which can easily distract even the most determined among us. That's the nefarious nature of what's called fool's gold,' Elder Dunn said.
He quoted from the song 'The Impossible Dream' from 'Man of La Mancha': 'To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, and to run where the brave dare not go. To right the unrightable wrong, to love pure and chaste from afar, to try when your arms are too weary, to reach that unreachable star.'
Elder Dunn encouraged students to strive to be like the examples he shared of people who were unflinching, undeterred and had a willingness to work. The ultimate example was Christ, he said.
'Jesus Christ battled and beat the unbeatable foes — sin and death. He alone shouldered the full weight of our unbearable sorrows. His Atonement righted the heretofore unrightable wrong,' Elder Dunn said, calling him an example of reaching for unthinkable stars.
'I hope this reminds all of us that the very highest, noblest Christ-like ideals within us, along with every worthy hope and dream that we hold most dear, is well worth clinging to and standing up for, even despite the ridicule and biting scorn of a very naysaying world, a world that even today would dismiss your personal quest for the noble and divine as nothing but a fool's errand,' Elder Dunn said.
'Believers and doers with the courage to do noble needs, champion big ideas and make the impossible possible are still sorely needed, but to really make a difference in the world, we have to live it, we have to be all in, fully vested in the cause, come what may,' he added.
Elder Dunn said Christ was the ultimate example as the one who turned the world's perspective upside down with a 'bold, daring and innovative message of the preeminence of love of God and neighbor ... to this day, a message that still ruffles the entrenched and rankles the status quo, leading skeptics to dismiss believers as mere fools.'
It's a charge Elder Dunn said he would embrace and asked students to accept.
'If my deep love for Jesus, along with yours, makes us fools for Christ's sake, then this is one time that I urge you, from this day on to join me in making complete fools of yourselves.'
Elder Dunn also used Cannon and Young as examples of 'epic, impossible and most would say, improbable quests.'
Cannon earned degrees in medicine and pharmacy in the late 1800s, when women were rare in those fields. Then she turned her attention to public policy and politics, defeating her own husband in an election to become the first female state senator ever elected in the United States. In December, her statue was installed at the U.S. Capitol in the Statuary Hall where 100 statues represent two prominent individuals from each state.
Young arrived at BYU as the eighth-string quarterback and was told by a coach that he would never play the position because he was a left-handed running quarterback in a program that emphasized right-handed passers. Young persevered, won the starter's job and later a Super Bowl and is a member of the BYU, college football and NFL halls of fame.
To watch the devotional, click here.
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