Justin Collings, professor of law and associate dean at BYU Law School, delivered this devotional address on February 1, 2022.

“Weigh success not in gain, but in improvements to the world.”

It has been a singular honor and privilege to serve for the past nearly twelve years as director of the Wheatley Institute. Not everyone has the opportunity to expend his or her professional efforts in a cause to which they can freely and eagerly give their heart and soul. But this has been my extreme good fortune.

Wheatley Religion Fellow Samuel Wilkinson co-authored an article for the Deseret News on the history of the relationship between psychiatry and religion. Despite longstanding negative assumptions from early psychiatry, many modern studies have found strong links between religious attendance and lowered risks of depression and anxiety.

Wheatley Family Fellow Jenet Erickson was quoted in a New York Times article covering recent discussion on federal family legislation. Erickson, who previously co-authored an essay in 2021 with Vice President JD Vance emphasizing the importance of stay-at-home parents, reiterated the natural capacities of mothers to bond with their children.

Wheatley Institute Constitutional Government Director, James Phillips, wrote a blog post for The Federalist Society analyzing Mahmoud v. Taylor oral arguments heard last week in the Supreme Court. The case involves claims of religious liberty and parental rights brought by parents in Montgomery County, Maryland schools over elementary and pre-K school curriculum regarding sexuality and gender issues.