By DONETTA ALLE
BYU students are stretched and strengthened spiritually as well as intellectually by taking religion classes along with secular classes to achieve a balanced education.
Religion courses are part of the general education requirement at BYU because it is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the BYU undergraduate catalog, 'the church has always maintained that education is not complete without proper integration of secular and religious knowledge and values.'
Students will leave BYU not only prepared to enter a world of ideas and work, but built up in faith as well. In the religion classroom, students will be challenged to discover new truths and internalize old ones, and they will be encouraged to grow in their commitment to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
'A BYU education should be spiritually strengthening. ... A spiritually-strengthening education does not ignore difficult questions; rather, it seeks to develop students who have thoughtfully considered their faith and who can persuasively articulate their support for the Savior and his kingdom,' stated in the BYU Mission Statement.
'I think taking religion classes is important because it helps us to keep a balance in our life between spiritual and secular learning,' said Heidi Harrison, a senior from Fulsom, Calif., majoring in broadcasting. 'It gives us the chance during the week to have a spiritual experience.'
Because the accreditation of many programs on campus depends upon a solid and rigorous curriculum, religion courses are expected to be as academically challenging as they are spiritually stimulating. Religion classes have rigorous assignments, tests and grading to ensure a university-level experience in learning.
Students will be expected to learn facts and details about religious subjects through memorization and through studying in the same manner as they do for other classes.
'Religion classes force you to learn the scriptures, and they provide a structure to study the scriptures on your own,' said Aubrey Baadsgaard, a sophomore from Spanish Fork majoring in archaeology. 'You have to do a lot of reading for religion classes because you have to read the scriptures.'
Students are graded on their dedication to learn new material and synthesize new ideas, not on their testimony or commitment to the faith of doctrines that are taught.
In his dedicatory prayer for the new Joseph Smith Building on Dec. 10, 1991, President Gordon B. Hinckley said, 'We pray for those who will walk its halls and sit in its classrooms, that their minds may be enlightened, that their understanding may be quickened, that they may learn those things which will bless their lives in the world of which they will become a part, and, in a more particular way, that they may become familiar with that truth which is eternal in its nature and everlasting in its consequences.
'Bless the faculty who will teach here that they may be qualified through scholarship to do so effectively, but, more important, that they may teach by the power of the Holy Spirit, that their faith may be strengthened, that truth shall be established, and that thy divine will may be done ...
'... Let thy Holy Spirit abide constantly within these walls and be felt by all who teach and learn. May there be an absence of intellectual arrogance: rather, may there be that humility which comes of recognition that man, with all his knowledge and understanding, shares only a feeble light when compared with the wisdom of the Almighty.'