“All of us can play a part in healing our society’s wounds and divisions these days by thinking consciously, explicitly, about how to make the institutions that we are part of a little stronger."

Wheatley Fellow Jenet Erickson gave a devotional address at BYU-Idaho about the human need for connection, and how humans are designed, both in a theological and a biological sense, to thrive in a family.

Despite the surge in AI relationship technologies in recent years, little attention has been paid to how such technologies may impact dating and family formation, as well as established marriages and family relationships.

Wheatley Distinguished Fellow Shima Baughman contributed an op-ed to Newsweek examining the decline of American trust in marriage, a trend now increasingly reflected in popular media. Baughman cites studies showing marriage rates at historic lows and an increasing public sentiment viewing marriage as old-fashioned or restrictive. But despite shifting public attitudes, marriage continues to be research-proven way to provide happiness for parents and stability for children.

Wheatley Institute Constitutional Government Director, James Phillips, wrote a blog post today for The Federalist Society regarding the Supreme Court yesterday denying a petition for certiorari in Apache Stronghold v United States. Justice Gorsuch argued in his dissent from the denial, joined by Justice Thomas, that allowing the lower court’s ruling to stand poses a threat to religious liberty.

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.