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Dr. Robert L. Millet, "BYU as a Covenant Community: Implications for Excellence, Distinctiveness, and Academic Freedom," BYU, Oct, 29, 1992 --

I know there are some who feel there should be no distinction made between the secular and the spiritual . . . Though such an approach is neat and tidy, though it certainly does much to avoid placing one dimension of learning and experience above another, it is inconsistent with the teachings of latter-day apostles and prophets.

 

It is true that to God all things are spiritual (D&C 29:34), but God has all knowledge and all power. He sees things as they really are (D&C 93:24; Jacob 4:13). Our views are at best an approximation of what is. We come to perceive reality from God's perspective most nearly through the spirit of prophecy and revelation.

 

That is why it is so important to be true to the word of God, true to the revelations, founded on the rock of revealed verities. I have no desire to denigrate secular knowledge, nor to suggest that only spiritual truths should be promulgated . . .

 

Examples of Church leaders making a distinction between the spiritual and the secular:

• Spencer W. Kimball, "Seek Learning, Even by Study and Also by Faith," pp. 3-5; The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 65, 389-91
• John A. Widtsoe, Evidences & Reconcilations, pp. 13-17
• Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pp. 293-95.
• Marion G. Romney, Learning for the Eternities, pp. 49-57, 71-80.
• Gordon B. Hinckley, Faith, The Essence of True Religion, p. 73.
• Boyd K. Packer, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, pp. 22-30.
• Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 810-12.
• Neal A. Maxwell, Things As They Really Are, pp. 1-18.
• Dallin H. Oaks, The Lord's Way, pp. 16, 45-76.

 

Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1942, 19 ff --

I assure you, however, that the Spirit of the Lord will never direct a person to take a position in opposition to the counsel of the Presidency of His Church. Such could not be, and I'll tell you why.

The Spirit of the Lord is "truth." The Prophet Joseph Smith says that "the glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth."

. . . all who are out of harmony in any degree with the Presidency have need to repent and to seek the Lord for forgiveness and to put themselves in full harmony.