ClobberBlog | Mormonism, Evangelical Christianity

All entering freshmen at BYU are required to complete 14 hours of religion classes, consisting of:

2 Book of Mormon classes (4 credit hours, covering the entire BoM)
1 Doctrine & Covenants class (2 credit hours, either first half or second half)
1 New Testament class (2 credit hours, either first half or second half)
6 credit hours worth of electives, usually meaning 3 elective classes

Transfer students are required to do less depending on how many credit hours they transfer in with; the electives are dropped from the requirement first, then the New Testament, then the D&C. Both sections of Book of Mormon are required for graduation no matter how many credit hours you transfer in with, though completing the BoM requirements at another LDS college or Institute is possible. I’ve always felt that the University’s policy of dropping the New Testament requirement for transfer students before the D&C or BoM requirements shows how the Bible is the least emphasized of the church’s scriptures, but then again, the Pearl of Great Price is not required at all.

Certain options are available to help non-LDS students complete these requirements, and recent converts to the church can usually enroll in these classes too. RelC 100 “Introduction to the LDS Church” is meant to be taken on a student’s first semester at BYU and can fulfill either the D&C or the New Testament requirement, but you can probably weasel your way into it at a later semester if needed. By the time I arrived at BYU, I felt that the LDS church and I had already been thoroughly introduced, so I declined.

Non-LDS sections of RelA 121 (BoM first half) and RelA 122 (BoM 2nd half) are also offered. All in all, a non-member can knock off both of the Book of Mormon requirements as well as the D&C or NT requirement with the much-easier non-LDS sections of those.

These were the classes I took and the semester I took them:

RelA 327H – Pearl of Great Price – Winter 2001
RelA 121H – Book of Mormon – Fall 2001
RelA 211 – New Testament – Fall 2001
RelA 122 (Non-LDS section) – Book of Mormon – Winter 2002
RelC 393R – LDS Temples – Winter 2002
RelC 352 – Gospel & Christian History – Fall 2002
RelC 353 – American Christianity & the Rise of the LDS Church – Winter 2003
RelC 324 – Doctrine & Covenants – Summer 2004

My favorite religion class by far was American Christianity (RelC 353) which was taught byRoger Keller. Keller grew up LDS, left the LDS church to become a Presbyterian minister and spent years doing that, then found his way back into the LDS church. He has a wonderful attitude towards interfaith dialogue and a lot of the rules he taught have influenced me to this day. His class required that students attend the services of 3 different faiths and conduct interviews with their leaders or a member of their congregation, so many of the students in the class chose to come to my church and did an interview with me. This was also how I met the Daily Universe reporter who ran the front-page stories about me in the school newspaper.¹

The hardest religion class for me was RelA 121H, Honors Book of Mormon. I came to BYU really proud of the fact that I had already read the Book of Mormon twice, thinking that was pretty good for a non-member and I could handle any religion class just the same as a lifetime member, thus proving what a moron I am. The thought just didn’t occur to me that maybe Mormons actually spend significant portions of their devotional time studying the Book of Mormon with just as much zeal as evangelicals study the Bible. My BoM teacher expected me to know the passages and symbolism and doctrines in and out just as well as the lifetime members would, and he graded me just as hard. I managed to up some test scores a little bit by arguing that I had answered questions just as well as a recent convert would, and his method of treating the entire class like seasoned members was not entirely fair. In other words, I whine really effectively. RelA 121H was one of the hardest A’s I ever earned.

My least favorite religion class was non-LDS Book of Mormon, RelA 122. This class was a little too dumbed down for my level of knowledge, and my mostly-athlete peers were a little too dumb for my liking. It was just like high school all over again; they were constantly crowding around me and copying my answers because I was “the smart girl” for the class. Prior to taking that class, I used to think how sad it was that people are always stereotyping jocks for being dumb. Now I know it was the jocks in that class who inspired that stereotype.

I took RelC 324 (Doctrine & Covenants 1st half) at the Orem Institute of Religion at the UVSC/UVU campus because taking it through Institute made it an easy A, and by that point I was ready to be done with my religion classes.

All in all, I completed 15 semester hours of BYU religion coursework, which is kind of like doing a second minor in Mormonism. Go me!

¹ The stories are here and here. A few notes on the stories: (1) That is so not a good picture of me; (2) My name was Jeffries not Jefferies, damn it; (3) If something I said sounds really stupid or was missing an object in the sentence, it could be that I was misquoted, or it could be that I’m much more eloquent in writing than I am in person; (4) My husband and I were dating when we did the interviews; (5) I can’t believe I used to think WWJD bracelets were cool, and I really did wear the Veggie Tales hat just to get attention; (6) The stories were front-page because they were published early in Spring Term 2003 and apparently spring terms are so boring that “Hey, there’s a non-member here!” was the most interesting thing going on.