Religiously speaking I have a weird CV. I may be one of the few people who has taught a class at all three of the major religious plus universities: BYU, Catholic University of America, and Baylor University (although you could include Yeshiva University in this list, and while I’ve done research with a Yeshiva U professor I haven’t taught a class there). I’ve been at conferences when people have badmouthed Baptists only to see my Baylor affiliation, putting me in the strange position of feeling defensive and offended for a religion I don’t subscribe to, and I have done so much Catholic-related research that you would be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that I am in fact Catholic.
So I’ve had the opportunity to see the different ways that devoutly religious universities do the religion thing. (Of course there are other major religiously affiliated universities, but there’s a gradation for how intentionally they try to incorporate their religious mission into the curriculum and behavior of the faculty/students, and the four I mentioned seem to take that the most seriously of all the major research universities.)
So when I occasionally teach at Catholic U I try to be a good citizen and carve out some time for discussing a Catholic perspective on whatever we’re talking about, and I’ll occasionally assign materials from Catholic teachings (I still remember, at the end of a sexuality class my prepared final lecture on Humanae Vitae strangely veered into “soaking,” as evidently a lot of my students had been watching a little too much anti-Mormon Tick Tock and got really interested in my take on the subject).
One of the traditions that BYU sometimes has that others don’t is beginning class with a prayer, so again in the spirit of being a good citizen vis-a-vis their religious mission I have sometimes have classes that I routinely start with a prayer. I’ve done it now for three courses. A few points:
- Twice I’ve fielded an anonymous survey among the students asking whether starting class with a prayer would be something they’d be interested in, and in both cases I had significant majorities saying that they would be. Also, the response from other teachers has been positive. Of course I don’t know if they’ll start doing it, but I haven’t gotten any kind of pushback about it being weird. So in principle the “prayer at the beginning of class” thing could be an innovation that happens at religious, non-BYU universities.
- Theoretical enthusiasm notwithstanding, when I also did a survey about who would be willing to offer such a prayer the response was more tepid. In my experiences, generally there have been a handful courageous students, typically the more religious ones from what I could tell, who volunteer, and they cycle through prayer responsibilities, although I would occasionally volunteer myself and would give a traditional LDS-formula prayer (“Dear Heavenly Father…Name of Jesus Christ Amen) after getting confirmation that that worked for Catholics.
- Of course, one issue is when the students’ prayers don’t follow a formula I could say myself. I’m not going to follow along with a “Hail Mary,” although I’m comfortable repeating an “Our Father,” (and being slightly embarrassed when I can’t quite remember the words in the right sequence). In cases where I didn’t feel theologically comfortable participating I’d just sort of sit back a little bit and reverently fold my arms and omit the “amen” at the end. I don’t think most of the students noticed, and if they did it wasn’t obnoxious or awkward.
- So it is a little awkward the first few moments when you ask for volunteers and at the beginning of class and there’s sometimes silence, but overall I think it has enriched my class and has been a good experience for my students.
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