On March 13, Wheatley Institute, along with the BYU Religious Education Department and the Peacemaker Project, welcomed Dr. Lawrence E. Carter to BYU campus for an inspiring speech on the necessity of active pursuit of world peace, outlining steps students could take towards establishing peace in both their personal lives and in a global community.

“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.

We are designed for love. We’re designed to experience love eternally. This is joy. And that is grounded in family relationships, mothers, fathers, children bound together eternally. I think it’s so beautiful.

The Constitution is foundational to what we all love about America. Arizona State professor Paul Carrese noted in a lecture at the Wheatley Institute last year that “our very complex constitutional system of separation of powers and federalism inherently call for civil disagreement over both long-term and day-to-day political issues.” So, understanding the rights underlying our constitutional system and how they protect people who disagree with us is critical.

These findings hint at a generational transformation in how Americans relate to political legitimacy. Older Americans are unified in their faith in the Constitution. Middle-aged Americans are split by education, sorted into different legitimacy frameworks. And younger Americans are divided and diverse, with no dominant view and increasing weight placed on personal belief and public opinion.