I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the Titanic because so many young people say to me, "This is a lousy time to be a youth." Why?

"Because of COVID." And then I have adults say to me, "This is a lousy time

to be leading the youth." Why?

"Because of COVID." And missionaries say to me, "It's a lousy time to serve a mission." Why? "Because of COVID." And I say, "No, this is a great time." And they say why? And I say, "Because of COVID!" (Laughter)

And then I say, "The world is the Titanic.

The Church is the lifeboat.

It's a great time to be in the lifeboat." When the world is sinking, it's a great time to be in the lifeboat, not just because we find safety and protection for ourselves, but it allows us to reach out and help others.

It allows us to be in a position where we can be part of the solution and not just

part of the problem.

The Titanic is an interesting story because the ship was built like no other ship before it.

All ships had always been built as one container, so if it got a hole, then

the ship would fill with water and it would go down.

But the Titanic was built in multiple containers, with the idea being if one container got a hole, then it would fill with water, but it wouldn’t sink the ship. So the newspapers in London caught on to that very quickly and started declaring that this was "an unsinkable ship." Well, the public bought that

lie, and on its maiden voyage it got proven wrong because as you know, the ship hit an iceberg. The iceberg punched holes all around the side of the ship, all along it.

And so multiple containers were filling with water at the same time.

And so the ship was going down.

The problem is that the passengers didn't believe it.

They believed what they had read on social media. (Chuckles) No social media in those days, but you get the idea.

They believed what they had read in the press.

They believed that this was an unsinkable ship.

So when the captain said, "Go to your lifeboats," they actually were like a bunch of teenage kids in a middle school saying, "I don't want to leave during the fire drill.

They’re just going to make us come back in anyway.” And they wouldn’t get on the lifeboats.

If you just watch the movies that have been made, it makes it look like the crew was inexperienced.

But if you read the accounts, the way I have, the actual accounts of survivors, it wasn't the crew's problem, it was the passenger's problem.

The crew members were begging passengers to get on a lifeboat that they themselves knew they wouldn't be able to board, and yet the passengers were saying, "No, we don't want to.

We don't want to." One account actually talks about how the passengers were making fun of the people getting in the lifeboat.

They were mocking them.

They were ridiculing them. They were calling them "foolish." Whoa.

But then something happened.

The Titanic tilted dangerously to one side.

And suddenly, just like that, where did everybody want to be?

The lifeboat.

Suddenly that quick they weren't saying, "Oh, you're so foolish to get in a lifeboat," instead, everybody wanted to be in the lifeboat.

And sadly, for so many, that was too late.

Have you ever wondered why there were 126 men who lived through that experience, when the rule of the day was women and children first?

Why did 126 men live?

Because they pushed the women out of the way to get to the lifeboat? No, it's because the women wouldn't get on.

"I'm not getting in that lifeboat, it's too scary. It's dark out there, it's cold.

I don't want my children to be out there where it's dangerous.

I'll just stay here on an unsinkable ship where the lights are on, and where the orchestra is playing, and where the first class passengers are sipping champagne." Do you see that false sense of security?

And these women wouldn't get on the lifeboat.

But later, it was too late.

Now,

we have seen a similar thing happen.

In the fall of 2019, I remember reading in the newspaper - a newspaper, children, is what we used to use (chuckles) in the olden days -

and I was reading in the newspaper, and it said, "Nothing can stop this economy.

The unemployment rate has never been lower, the stock market has never been stronger. Nothing can stop this economy." Does that sound a little like "this is an unsinkable ship"?

And then along came not an iceberg, but a virus, so small we can't even see it with our eyes.

And not only did people get sick and die, but we started to see it affect

the national economy and the world economy.

The unemployment rate soared to higher than it was during the Great Depression.

And people were scared, they were nervous.

Well, what did they do on the Titanic when suddenly it tilted?

They learned to the lifeboat, they wanted to be on the lifeboat.

Did we see a similar thing with religion?

Did we see a similar thing with the Church?

Yes, we did.

The world closed down in March of 2020.

April, beginning of April, 2020, General Conference. It was broadcast and it was watched by the same number of people who typically watch Conference, plus an additional five million viewers.

Why?

Well, because suddenly they wanted to know what was going on in the lifeboat.

Suddenly they wanted to see what was happening in the lifeboat. Suddenly they wanted the hope that is available in a lifeboat.

And it wasn't just that.

In 2020 of January 2020, before the world closed down, we had in Come, Follow Me, the curriculum, the digital

curriculum, was hit 33 million times.

Now, I would say that's very impressive. Remember it's not 33 million people, it's 33 million views.

So that's lots of people who are viewing it multiple times during the month.

What happened a year later?

January of 2021.

All right, January of 2021, 170 million views.

One hundred seventy million views in one month.

That tells me that people were looking for the lifeboat, that people were

turning to the Church, and turning more toward religion than they were before.

Justin was involved with a study that was done at BYU. Were you involved with the family?

Justin was involved with what they call the Family Foundation Study.

They wanted to know what was happening in the summer of 2020 with COVID shutting the world down.

What was happening to people's religious practices? Did you cover this? Because if I'm just saying the same thing you'd better stop me.

All right.

They found that

12% of non-Latter-day Saint families increased their family religious practices, 12%.

So the Titanic starts to tilt, and the religious practices started to go up.

In the Church, 62% of Latter-day Saint families increased their family religious practices.

That reinforces some of the things that Justin was talking about.

Now what happened to our youth?

Nine percent of non-Latter-day Saint youth increased their personal religious practices.

So some of those Gen Z kids were actually recognizing that there might be value in religion.

What happened in the Church?

Thirty-one percent of Latter-day Saint youth increased their personal religious practices.

So people started turning to the lifeboat.

And what is it that we offer in this lifeboat that they found so needed?

We believe in God.

In a world that's canceling that out, we stand firm in our belief in God.

We believe in organized religion, we value it, in a world that's dismissing it, or even calling it dangerous.

And for those of us who are Christian, we recognize that Jesus Christ

is in this lifeboat.

The world is in need of saving, and we have a Savior in the lifeboat.

So, we believe in God.

Some of you might be aware of the Global God Divide.

This is a study that was done in 34 countries in 2019.

The Global God Divide.

If you Google it, you'll find this study.

It's fascinating because it shows that the number of people that are saying they are atheist is going up, especially among the youth.

That more youth and young single adults are claiming to be atheist than ever before.

That worries me.

But it also worries me that they say it doesn't make a difference.

That's what worries me more.

People have the right to choose whatever they want.

People are free and they can choose to believe or not believe, but they can't

choose to say it doesn't make a difference, not when they're slapped in the face with some of the research that Justin has covered for us.

It does make a difference.

They say, "Oh, I can be a moral and ethical person without believing in God," which is very easy to say in a social studies classroom in a high school.

But when push comes to shove, our belief in God does indeed change the way we view ourselves, and it changes the way we view and treat other people.

It makes a difference.

But what if there isn't a God?

What if He's not even there? What if He doesn't exist?

I always appreciate Brett Scharffs, who is a law professor at BYU

who spoke in a devotional and was brave enough to ask that question.

He says, "What if we're wrong?

What if God does not exist?" And then he said this, "I'm willing to be wrong if it means believing in treating others as if they are children of God, with the potential of becoming beings like unto a perfect and perfectly loving God.

I would rather make the mistake of attributing meaning and love to a universe that is meaningless and indifferent than vice versa.

And besides, we are not wrong.

I believe love is the most powerful force in the universe, and I am not sure that

any of us has reason to believe love is real if we reject the existence of

God, who is the source of love."

In our lifeboat, we believe in God.

And we see that that does indeed make a difference.

I don't worry that we have a few less people in the Church as people start

drifting from religion, I worry that we have the Church in a few less people.

That's what I worry about.

They're going to face the same struggles that we all face, they're going to face the same challenges, they're going to face the same hurts.

And yet they're choosing to do it in the hardest possible way; without

God, and without religion.

Now in our lifeboat we believe in organized religion, we value organized religion.

I know we live in a world where a lot of people say, "I'm spiritual, I'm not

religious." How many of you have heard that?

Oh, yeah, if you haven't, your head's been under a rock because everybody says that.

"Oh, I'm spiritual, I'm not religious." What it means is I believe in God, but I sure don't want Him to have any commandments.

I believe in God, but I don't want Him to have any expectations of me.

I believe in God, but I don't want Him to ask me to change.

That's what they're talking about.

Well, Elder Holland spoke at BYU at Education Week in a talk called

"Religion: Bound by Loving Ties." It's worth looking up on BYU Speeches, is it dot-org? No, it's Speeches at BYU.edu.

And he said in the talk, "Spirituality is a very individual thing.

And if we all lived as individuals, it might be enough." I mean if you're sitting alone on a mountaintop, it might be just fine to sit around and be spiritual.

That might be all we would need.

But we don't live on a mountaintop, we live in communities, we live in societies, we live in families.

And as long as we live with other people, then we need religion: The group

practice of spirituality.

As long as we live in a group, we need to learn how to be spiritual in a group.

See, it's easy to sit on a mountaintop and say, "I love everyone, I love everyone." Yeah, try saying that on I-15.

(Laughter)

It's easy to say "I love everyone," until you're in a family where your little brother keeps getting in your stuff...

again, even after you told him to knock it off.

See, in a moment like that, in a moment of frustration and road rage, you don't

need spirituality, you need religion.

You need the norms of religion, the standards of religion, the expectations of religion.

You need something that says "if I say I love everyone, then that means I better put it into practice even when people are not being lovable." And that's what religion helps us do.

It helps us be able to interact better with those who are in the lifeboat, and it helps us to be able to reach out to those who aren't in the lifeboat, and offer them some help.

Wasn't it wonderful in conference when Sister Eubank and Bishop Budge talked about the humanitarian efforts of the Church?

I have talked to so many Saints in the last day who have said, "I had no

idea what the Church has been involved with." Remember, they said that

during COVID, the Church has been involved with 1,500 COVID-related service projects in 152 countries.

Sister Eubank said we have helped with 933 natural disasters.

Elder Gong in a Face to Face with the young single adults in January said

we've provided 30 million meals for schoolchildren, and food and hygiene kits and water for refugees.

We've given refugee welcoming stations.

When you look at that, plus 200 blood drives during 2020.

On March 20th of 2021, just this last March, Utah pulled off the largest food drive in the history of the country.

What? Little Utah?

You mean Podunk little old Utah where everybody's depressed?

(Laughter) They're the ones that pulled off the largest food drive in the country? Yup.

California didn't do it.

New York didn't do it.

Texas didn't do it.

It was Utah.

Why? Because we're organized.

And because we have Primary children that can be marshaled in, and we have leaders

like my wife who is the Activity Days leader for the boys, and she could drag those boys around our ward and put little flyers on every door, member, non-member, inactive member, every door.

And then we have youth that we can drag out of bed on Saturday, drag them around to collect the food, and we take it to a parking lot, and we put it in a truck.

They gathered 2.7 million pounds of food.

That drive not only stocked food banks in Utah for months, but it was shipped clear across this country.

I did not realize what Bishop Budge told us.

2020 saw the largest donations in fast offerings and humanitarian aid in the history of the Church.

Record donations from people who are struggling with their own situations.

And yet willing to reach out of the lifeboat and help.

Does organized religion make a difference? Yes.

This study, it's called the Harvard Study, and it was in the American Journal

of Epidemiology...

did I say that right?

Good grief, can't even tell you the title of the journal.

But it said, "Children and teens who attend religious services at least weekly

will be young adults and as young adults, 18% of them will be more apt to report higher happiness between the ages of 23 and 30 than those who didn't attend religious services.

Twenty-nine percent of them are more likely to be volunteers, 33% are less likely to use illegal drugs." Now we're not talking specifically about "the

Church" here, we're talking about religion in general.

"Children and teens who pray at least once a day will be young adults, and as young adults they will be 16% more likely to report higher happiness, 30% less likely to have sex at a young age, and 40% less likely to have a sexually transmitted disease." This is fascinating.

Lauren Marks, a professor in Family Life at BYU said this about this study: “Even if church attendance is somewhat coerced”

(laughter) Does that sound like you growing up?

"Dad, I don't want to go to church." "Get in the car!" "But I have agency!" "Yeah, you have agency to get in the car!" My dad used to say,

"Well, if you're not going to go to church, then there's a workroom downstairs that needs cleaning." "I don't want to clean the workroom." "Then go to church." "I don't want to go to church." "Clean the workroom." If it was workroom

or church, church won.

"Even if it is somewhat coerced, there are positive things happening at church socially, morally, and ethically that benefit our youth that they cannot garner at school or through extracurricular activities

like athletics." Now as positive as the lessons of school are, as positive as the lessons of athletics are, church is giving young people something that they can't just pick up elsewhere, and that's showing up in the research.

I think one of the things that happens in church is a social network that is very valuable.

I spoke to a group of young single adults in Salt Lake, and I said, "How many of you have jobs?" Almost every hand went up.

And then I said, "How many of you have jobs because of some church connection?"

And I thought maybe half the hands would go up. No, it was still almost the entire room.

They had jobs because somebody's bishop's mission companion's former home teacher

needed somebody.

How many of you know what I'm talking about? Yeah.

When my son applied for medical school, he was a little nervous that

being a white, Latter-day Saint male would work against him.

And in some liberal states where he applied, it did.

But in Texas, where he was accepted, it worked for him.

He's finding the same thing now as he applies for residencies.

He's finding that what draws them to his applications is not just good test scores

and grades and good reports from his rotations, but they're fascinated by his mission.

They're fascinated that he knows Spanish and Japanese.

He served with us when we went as a family, that's where the Spanish came from.

And then he served in Kobe, Japan, that's where the Japanese came from.

And they're just fascinated by the fact that he has served in this way.

So yes, this network can work for us.

When I was a mission president in Chile, a young man joined the Church, about three weeks later he got a visa.

He was about 23, and he got a visa to go to New Zealand to study English.

And I said to him, "This is a great opportunity for you.

Do you have somebody to pick you up at the airport?" "No." "Where are you going to stay?" "I have no idea." "Do you have any money?" "No." "Do you speak any English?" "Not yet." (Laughter) I made one phone call, who did I call?

A bishop in New Zealand, Anthony Wilson.

And I said, "Bishop, this young man needs somebody to pick him up at the airport, he doesn't have a place to stay, he joined the Church three weeks ago." Do you know what he says to me?

"No worries." (Laughter)

"No worries." I said, "Bishop, this is kind of desperate. He has no money, he speaks no English." "No worries."

Now where does that happen?

That kind of social network doesn't always happen without a community.

And where do people find a community in a world where people write books called

"Bowling Alone: The Loss of Community in American Society." Where people are not

drawn to clubs like Elks Club, Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, even Boy Scouts of America.

Where do they find this community?

Well, in many cases, this community is found in religious congregations.

That's where they find these relationships.

And you've been part of that.

As military, you know what it is to move.

You know what it is to move your children and yank them up and pull them and get them somewhere. You know how that game is played.

And yes, the military has a wonderful support system that you've found that within the military, you have an additional circle of support.

In the Church, my gosh, you move somewhere, you only have to be there for five minutes and they're telling you who your doctor should be, who your dentist should be, and which teachers to avoid at the high school.

I mean you're there, and you're just sucked in.

Many people when they move, even those who are religious struggle.

They have to find a new spiritual home.

And it's hard. They go from pastor to pastor, and minister to minister, and congregation to congregation, trying to find where they can fit in.

We don't have to do that.

You just have to show up at the church and you’re just part of this circle immediately.

I remember when we moved to Laramie, Wyoming when I got my PhD.

And we showed up and you know, five minutes later, some brethren from the Church came over and started helping us unload the van.

And this neighbor comes over and he says, "Have you lived here before?"

I said, "No." And he says, "Who are all these people?" And I said, "Oh, they're from our church." And he said, "Well, I just came over to tell you that some lady just drove off with your kids." (Laughter) And I said, "Oh, I know, she's in the Primary presidency." And he said, "Do you know her name?" And I said,

"[long pause] [laughter] No, but if I don't get them tonight, I'll just pick them up on Sunday." (Laughter) He says, "Somebody just brought you food."

I said, "I know." He says, "Are you going to eat it?" What like it's laced with drugs or something?

I said, "Of course we're going to eat it." He says, "But you don't know who made it." Do you see the trust we have immediately that somebody hasn't hidden razorblades in our casseroles?

I mean I said, "Of course we're going to eat it." He couldn't believe that we had more friends than he did, and we'd only been there for 45 minutes.

Now what did I do over the next few weeks? I tried to get him into the circle. Why? Because I wanted him to have the blessings of the gospel, of course.

But I also wanted him to know how good it feels to just have that circle of friendship around you, and what a difference that makes in our lives.

I wanted him to know how that feels.

So, yes, what do we have in the Church?

We have an organization that blesses us spiritually, but it also blesses us temporarily.

And most important, it allows us to organize in a way that we can help others.

There are so many young people who are searching for a cause, searching for a way to make a difference.

And they will cling onto anything that drifts across their social media, and they will be 100% devoted to that cause for an entire three hours.

They float from cause to cause to cause, trying to find something that is

bigger than themselves.

Something that can allow them to stand up and make a difference and stand up and be counted.

And my testimony is that in the circles of religion, we can find something bigger

than ourselves.

Didn't you love President Oaks' talk?

He said, "Go to church.

I don't care if it's a mosque, if don't care if it's a synagogue, I don't care if it's Protestant, I don't care if it's Catholic, go to church!" Because it will

bless our society as people are worshiping and having those circles of fellowship.

Then he talked about the benefits of our church where we acknowledge a Savior, a Savior who directs us, who has given us authority to do the things we're doing, to do things that matter and count.

And we stand up and do it because we're organized.

Sister Eubank talked about natural disasters.

I said, "Why is it, Sister Eubank, that we are able to help so much

during natural disasters? There are many other people with good hearts who want to help." She says, "All they can do is sit in front of TV and say, the government needs to do something." Because their idea of "organization" begins and ends with

the government.

And she said, "Our organization functions in a very different way." One phone call

from Salt Lake to an Area Seventy who calls stake presidents and stake Relief Society presidents. And pretty soon every member of the Church knows where to show up, when to come, what to bring, they get their little vest, and they're out. Missionaries.

One call to a mission president.

He calls zone leaders and sister trainer leaders, and pretty soon the whole mission shows up and they know where to go, they know what to do.

It's that organization that allows us to reach out and bless lives.

Well, I conclude by saying that in our lifeboat we also have Jesus Christ.

We have the Savior.

Now many people talk about today being a "post-Christian world." And many people

have become not just tolerating Christians, but become very anti-Christian.

Some of my friends, who have been very anti-Latter-day Saint, have actually come and apologized to me because they say now we know how it feels.

Now we know how it feels to be ridicules and marginalized because of your faith in Jesus Christ.

But we will stand, and just like Elder Andersen said, we will speak more of Christ in a world that speaks of Him less and less.

And where people find it not to their political or social advantage to raise

the Christian flag on social media, we will continue to do that.

Because we know He's a Savior, and we know the world needs saving.

Now in military circles, it becomes a little awkward to talk of Jesus when there's so many different religions that you are representing and you are serving

as chaplains.

Let me just share my own father-in-law's experience when he was teaching at

the Airforce Academy during the Vietnam War.

His class came and they were talking among themselves, and when he entered the room, the cadet who was in charge said,

"We don't want to talk about English today." And my father-in-law said, "Well, I'm not surprised, you never want to talk about English." He said, "What do you want to talk about?" And the cadet said to my father-in-law, "We want to talk about religion." Now my dad thought, they're teasing me because they know I just got called to be a bishop in one of the local wards that covers the academy.

He said, "They're teasing me because they just heard that." But the more he listened to them, he realized that they weren't teasing him. They didn't even know about his call.

They sincerely wanted to talk about religion.

So he said, "Go for it.

Let's talk." And the young man who started the conversation said, "Well I'm a Catholic, but the only reason I'm Catholic is because I was born into a Catholic family.

If I weren't born into my family, I don't think I'd be a Catholic." And then the Jewish kid said, "Same with me." He says, "The only reason I'm Jewish is because I was born into a Jewish family, but I don't even know what Jews are supposed to believe or not believe." And they went around the room, and everybody finally came to the conclusion that all religions are

good, and that all religions are the same.

Then my father-in-law said, "You're correct in saying that all religions are

good." Because he says, "at their core, most religions really are trying to

do good." Sometimes that can get off-base a little bit by extremists, but most religions are promoting good.

Then he said, "But you're dead wrong when you say all religions are the same." He says, "They're not the same." We live in a world that ranks everything.

We live in a world where you look online to find out what's the best hospital, what's the best school.

You look online to see what is the best medical residency program

for anesthesiologists. Yeah, my son's been doing that a lot.

See, we rank everybody. You don't buy a car without checking to see what's ranked the best.

So how come that, in that circle, is a sign of intelligence, it's a sign of being informed.

And yet in religious circles, it's a sign of intolerance to say one church is better than another church?

Oh, no, no, no, all churches are the same.

Well, when you're having a heart attack, just listen to the guy in the ambulance who says, "All hospitals are the same.

All doctors are the same." Yeah, just listen to him when he says that.

You won't listen to him.

You and your family are going to say, "I want something that is better.

Something that is more complete."

And that's what my father-in-law said. He said, "Before you lump all religions into one category," he says, "please look

into the claim of Christianity." He said, "What other world religious leader

has claimed to be divine?" Is that a claim Muhammad made?

Is that a claim Buddha made?

What about the founder of Hinduism, is that a claim he made?

Is that a claim Abraham made? No.

He said, "Only Jesus claimed to be divine and then lived in such a way that His life and His miracles were evidence of that divinity." He said,

"What other world religious leader has claimed to be able to suffer for someone

else's sins?" Is that what the founder of Shintoism said?

Did Muhammad or Buddha say they could suffer for someone else's sins?

Only Christ claimed that, and did so.

And he said, "What other religious leader has claimed power over death, has

resurrected, and then come and shown Himself to thousands of witnesses?" He said, "What other religious leader has done that?

Only Christ." He said, "Before you dismiss religion entirely as the same, then investigate the claims of Christianity." And before you get confused, because Christianity is the most fractured of all world

faiths, before you get confused by that, 33,000 different Christian denominations, according to the World Christian encyclopedia.

33,000 different denominations.

He says, "Before you get confused by that," he said, "recognize that for those with ears to hear, those with eyes to see, those who want to step up

and claim more," he says, "there is truth out there for you."

Now that may or may not be the right way to have handled that, but that's what my father-in-law did.

And that helped those young people who were facing Vietnam.

Some of them knew dang well they would go to Vietnam and not return.

My own father-in-law was transferred away from the Airforce Academy and flew

missions from Japan to Vietnam through the rest of the war.

And they needed something to cling to.

They needed a lifeboat.

In those moments, they just weren't as content to sit back and say,

"Oh, well,

I can just be spiritual and not religious." They needed something more.

And I just pray that as you work with these young people from all denominations, you can help them make the connection between God and religion, and help them realize that as they connect those dots, there are so many benefits that they will find in their lives, and they will be able to stand and serve and help and strengthen others in those moments of greatest need.

I bear testimony that we are in the lifeboat.

We have found the cause of causes and we can help others because of the choices we have made to stay in the lifeboat, to get on the lifeboat, and to stay in the lifeboat.

Thank you for what you do.

I have a wonderful friend named Rhonda Weaver, she is watching this because she

couldn't be here today in person.

But as I have watched her minister so selflessly for

years as a chaplain,

I have seen the behind the scenes work that you do.

I work with some of the young men who are at BYU in the chaplaincy

program, Justin does too.

And we see their good hearts, we see their desire to make a difference, we see the perspective, the vision, the hope that they are taking into this circle, and we are so proud of them.

So grateful for them.

And we are grateful for you.

I'm grateful for Frank.

It's been a hard time trying to keep track of where all the Latter-day Saint

military people are in a day when military relations missionaries were all called home.

But they have not given up, they are still in the saddle, just like you.

And we won't give up because we know that this is the hope, this is the lifeboat.

We're not going to give up on the only thing in the world that can offer hope, the only thing in the world that can offer organization to make a difference in real, meaningful life-changing and world-changing ways.

I salute you in your efforts, I am proud of you.

And just know that you serve with our prayers, and you serve with our

love, and you serve with our utmost respect.

So don't go back to the Titanic.

"Yeah, but they're playing music." They're playing, "Nearer My God

to Thee." (Laughter)

Because they're sinking!

(Chuckles) Thanks for letting me be with you, I say this in Christ's name, amen.