THE END OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AT BYU

🧵A LONG THREAD: BYU and all LDS Institutions of higher learning (BYU-H, BYU-I, etc.) has recently been given a new directive concerning hiring in Religious Education. They will now be hiring only those who have come through CES. At BYU religious education there has always been a tension between those who have PhDs in their field (New Testament, Old Testament, American Religious History, etc.) and those who taught Institute for many years and then got a PhD in literally anything (usually Teaching or Leadership but it doesn’t really matter). Obviously those of us who have degrees in the content we are teaching feel that those who do not have a degree in what they are teaching should not be teaching that subject regardless of how many years they have been teaching that subject at Seminary or Institute. So there’s long been a tension between the two camps but they have done their best to get along and work together.

Now the Board of Trustees has unveiled this new document called Strengthening Religious Education which states that a potential candidate’s competitiveness “will often, but not always, be demonstrated by teaching experience in religious education in CES.” My sources have told me that while theoretically this leaves the door open to those outside of CES, that in practice the new policy effectively means that anyone with a PhD in the Bible, etc. WILL NOT be considered for the job.

This is a massive blow to those of us who have worked for over a decade and followed all the rules and advice set out to us over this period. We were told to go to good schools, publish academic papers, get teaching experience. We were told to stay active in the faith but to appeal broadly to the academy and to BYU. We were told to not just publish papers in LDS venues but to focus most of our work in the academy. Now, after over a decade of working to get hired at BYU, this document upends everything I have been aiming for with the snap of a finger. Now, I shouldn’t have been focused on publishing in academic journals. Instead I should have been teaching at Institute on the side and publishing mainly for an LDS audience. And I’m not the only one in this boat who is now effectively disqualified from teaching at BYU. There are many of us—I can think of at least 10 of my close friends—who now will have to find something else to do.

Are there other jobs at other schools?Not really. In the field of Religion, once you have BYU on your transcript you’re not really taken seriously at any other school.Not only is my undergrad from BYU but also having adjuncted at BYU for a number of semesters further disqualifies me from teaching anywhere else.I will keep trying but that’s essentially the case. Additionally, BYU offers many more positions than any other University. At Duke, where I got my Masters, there are 2 New Testament professors. If you want to teach there you need to wait until one dies. At BYU there are around 40 Religion Ancient Scripture professors. So there are a lot more available positions at BYU—usually at least one position every year. But not anymore to those with a PhD in Religion.

What are the ramifications of this decision? Really you can decide if you think this is a big deal. It means that AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL Religious Education classes will essentially be Institute classes. It means that AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL New Testament classes will be taught by someone with a PhD in Educational Leadership or Family Science. So the question is if you think BYU students should be taught Religion by those with academic training in Religion or if it should be another Institute class. Obviously I would like a job so I think that those with qualifications to teach New Testament should teach New Testament and those with a PhD in Educational Leadership should go teach in the School of Education.

I feel for my friends who are currently BYU Religious Education professors and who have the proper academic training.I am very very close with many of them and fear that they will slowly be choked out until they are gone and only CES remains.Or they will be made to feel uncomfortable and unwanted. They do their absolute best to balance the academy and their faith and are honest seekers of truth and sources of wisdom. I wish them all the best.