BYU will remain riveted on its spiritual mission, leaders say

BYU kicked off its 150th birthday celebration Monday with sweet treats and serious talk.

A week before the first classes of a new school year, faculty and staff packed the south side of the Marriott Center for the annual university conference and again heard leaders ask for their help in maintaining its religious mission.

Those leaders said BYU has been blessed by spiritual guidance to avoid the political entanglements roiling higher education this year while simultaneously blessing the spiritual lives of more of its students.

“BYU needs to be increasingly deliberate about its distinctive mission,” said Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a General Authority Seventy and the commissioner of education for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors BYU. ...

“What we have asked yo