When I first arrived at Brigham Young University in June 2010, my goal to teach religion at the collegiate level was dashed early on. BYU’s MA in Religious Education is “open only to full-time teachers in the LDS Church Seminaries and Institutes System.” If I wanted a master’s or a PhD in theology or ancient scripture, I’d have to seek that education elsewhere.
A recent Twitter thread from BYU alumnus and New Testament PhD Alan Taylor Farnes pointed out a recently approved change in the university’s hiring guidelines. A document titled “Strengthening Religious Education” specifically says that preference “will often, but not always, be demonstrated by teaching experience in religious education in CES.”
Some of my favorite religion professors came from CES backgrounds, others PhD tracks. Yet, this line in the sand raises many questions. If experience with Seminary and Institute is preferred over a PhD in ancient scripture, Near East studies or theology, is there balance in the religion department? Well-rounded education in all things, except for scriptural interpretation? Is BYU devaluing religious scholarship in favor of circling the wagons?
BYU is a university where prayers open many classes. Being a professor on a BYU campus is inherently a theologically influential position. Without diving too deep into hermeneutics, I’d wager most CES-track professors are less likely to thrive in the gray area of historical and scriptural interpretations. There’s less fires to put out when everyone walks the prescribed path and the appropriately named “seminary answers.”
BYU has just made it blatantly clear: correlation supersedes scholarship. And if you want to teach religion at BYU, don’t pursue that graduate degree in ancient scripture or theology. Find a good city along the I-15 and work for the Church Education System instead.
Tristan Torgersen, Los Angeles, Calif.
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