One of the privileges of working in a university is the opportunity that comes with the seasons. The summer months provide space for thinking, for taking a step back from the moment and engaging with the ideas and philosophical grounding for what we do. On the administrative side, summer is a time for planning the year to come as we look ahead, with excitement, to welcoming our new students. Then our students arrive, bringing new ideas, new energy, and a spirit of hope that infuses the whole school community.
As we welcome students in 2025, I would like to take a moment to lean into hope in this Goldfish space, into believing in the mission of public health.
In doing so, I find myself thinking about an expression that has stuck with me over the years: “Keep the faith.”
It is a phrase many of us have heard — most recently, perhaps, from former President Biden, for whom it is a favorite expression. At its simplest, “keep the faith” is a reminder to not give up, to keep going in the face of adversity, to hold true to our values and aspirations. It can also have a religious resonance, reflecting a belief in the possibility of a transcendent spiritual reality to which the challenges of this world will ultimately give way.
Matthew 17:20 offers, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
History shows that this is often the case, that faith can make the seemingly impossible come to pass, creating a better world even in the face of adversity. The most powerful 20th century example of this, perhaps, is the American Civil Rights Movement. It was a movement shaped by people of deep faith — both religious faith and faith that their vision of a better world was not a fantasy, that, despite the injustices of history and the challenges of the present, a better day would come. Martin Luther King Jr. imagined what this day might look like in his “I Have a Dream” speech, which is both an example of brilliant oratory and an expression of faith, a minister preaching of a better world momentarily out of reach but nevertheless accessible to people of good will working to bring it about.
Another favorite example from history of keeping the faith comes from Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. Milk ran for office multiple times before he was finally elected, and faced significant resistance, including threats to his life, throughout his political career until his assassination in 1978. Milk spoke of the importance of hope in trying times, particularly in the lives of members of the LGBTQ community who were facing threats to their identities and existence:
“The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the us'es, the us'es will give up …
So if there is a message I have to give, it is that I've found one overriding thing about my personal election, it's the fact that if a gay person can be elected, it's a green light. And you and you and you, you have to give people hope.”
This could be read as Milk saying to keep the faith, that a better day will come, and it starts with imagining that progress is possible, despite the challenges of the moment. While we have indeed made much progress since Milk’s era, it is perhaps indicative of how far we still have to go that the defense secretary announced in June that the USNS Harvey Milk would be renamed. Such setbacks reflect the importance of the hope of which Milk spoke, of carrying forward the work of creating a better world in moments of difficulty.
The tension between the world as it is and the world that faith insists it could — should — be means that faith is not passive. It drives us to do — to take steps toward a better future. When faith is wedded to action, extraordinary changes can occur. Consider Ross Douthat’s take on a figure from history who has long been identified with the power of faith to help individuals and movements do the extraordinary — Joan of Arc. The essay takes the somewhat provocative position that God actually may have favored her efforts to liberate France from English rule — an interesting consideration of how and why the divine, if it exists, might influence certain historical moments. But most striking about Joan of Arc’s story is what it says about the power of faith. Women were not afforded the status of men, yet her faith led her to break barriers — from dressing in men’s clothing to leading troops on the battlefield — and set in motion a chain of events that would eventually set her country free. Her deep faith in the importance of her mission, inspired by what she believed were mystical visions, helped her to rise from obscurity to rally a nation, winning the confidence of nobles and commoners alike, changing the course of history.
But faith does not need an epic historical canvas on which to inspire, sustain, and transform, nor does it need to rest on a belief in the supernatural. Faith means believing in the possible. And that can be in any human endeavor — from a sports team keeping the faith to rally from behind to win a game; to a mentor working with prison inmates and keeping the faith that people can change for the better; to, closer to home, a scientist keeping the faith that her research will help advance progress and deepen human understanding. Faith is there for anyone to reach for, to help us endure in the face of challenge, or to simply be and do better than perhaps we thought we could be.
It is not always easy or fashionable to talk about faith, particularly in the context of science, where faith can seem out of place. We are not supposed to take things on faith. We are supposed to use reason to get to the truth — or, at least, to get as close to the truth as we can. Yet it is often a kind of faith that guides much of what we do in science. It is the faith that what we do will matter, that the truth is knowable, and that even if our pursuit of the truth does not seem to have an immediate application, it will eventually contribute to the creation of a better world — even if it does so long after the lifetimes of the scientists who uncovered the foundational knowledge that made this progress possible.
And keeping the faith has to be informed by an appreciation of a shared human limitation: our inability to know how events will turn out. It is this lack of knowing that makes faith necessary. Perhaps this is such a moment. COVID-era declines in the public’s trust in science and public health, combined with disinvestment in the policies and institutions that have long supported health in the U.S. and globally, have made this a difficult time for our field.
In such times, where can faith be found? J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “In the last resort, faith is an act of the will, inspired by love.”
This characterization rings true in a world where faith is tested daily. Keeping the faith is not easy. It takes courage to persist in doing what we think is right when the work gets difficult, its outcome uncertain. It takes courage to meet challenges with creativity and an open mind, keeping the faith that difficult moments contain the seeds of opportunity and renewal. Even when we are not in a moment of unique challenge for health, simply reading the news or living with open eyes presents us with constant tests to the faith that a better future is possible. This suggests that keeping the faith must often be a choice, an act of will. Making this choice in our work means showing up each day with the intention of building a stronger, more effective movement for health.
It has been a privilege to be part of this work at Washington University in St. Louis, where we are creating a new school of public health, one that engages with the challenges and opportunities of the moment to inform a new vision for public health education and practice. This work has engaged a global network of students, scholars, activists, and partners across many disciplines and sectors, all committed to building a new and better approach to health, each day showing what keeping the faith looks like. And this week, I am re-inspired to keep the faith by the students who join us at the start of the academic year, ready to commit to the mission of public health. To see the rising generation so engaged with building a healthier world is to never lack for hope for what the future might hold. It is a joy to be part of their journey.
To our students, and to all who are keeping the faith in this moment, thank you.
Thank you. I’ll be following along to see what this new vision for public health looks like for you and Washington University. I’m not sure that small tweaks here and there will be enough. My opinion: as public health professionals, we need to reimagine what it means to work in our profession. Less us versus them, more “we are part of the system, society, the culture”
I congratulate the newly admitted students and pray they lean on the strong philosophical foundation of the school to keep faith in creating a greener public health future which would protect the health of everyone.