RFM and Bill sit down with a former BYU Professor to discuss the experience of losing your faith while working for the Lord’s University.
RESOURCES:
https://www.louisakillian.com/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpUN29orJmM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg36L1989Ss&t
mylifebygogogoff.com/2020/08/how-a-new-instagram-page-is-exposing-apostate-byu-professors.html
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The LDS church punishes its members for honesty and transparency.
The only way for BYU professors to lose their faith but keep their job is to avoid transparency.
That is, they must not confess any disbelief to anyone, and they must find a nuanced way to answer the temple recommend questions with the proper answers **without** sharing their nuance with their local leaders.
This BYU professor sought help from her well-meaning bishop. But in the end, her bishop was “a company man” who couldn’t make a decision on his own and sought validation from an unforgiving institution.
By sharing this story, this BYU professor is a hero and is helping future BYU professors who experience a faith crisis. The lesson is to **never** place one’s job in the hands of a local leader, even a well-meaning one. That means answering the temple recommend questions properly without elaboration and without sharing nuanced views of the questions.
Interesting that in order to stay employed, you have to lie. And, if you have a faith crisis as an LDS person while attending BYU — and you DARE to make a change — you lose your credits?
Ridiculous!
This “obedience” thing is just weird,…until you consider that the LDS church is a cult. Then it ALL makes sense.
If you are hired by BYU with the understanding that you are to teach the “way” and “things” the Church wants you to teach, then that is what you do. To agree to abide by this, and then violate it and became a “secret agent of change” is to violate your agreement that you would teach and uphold what the Church teaches, not what Academia teaches, on various issues such as same-sex attraction. If a School District hires you to teach history using a curriculum and you spend your time trashing the curriculum and teaching differently, then that school district has a right to fire you. A more honorable solution for Liberal BYU professors is to resign and get a job at 99.99% of other universities and colleges which agree with their own personal philosophies and political agendas.
Of course you are fired even if you teach it the way they want you to. You must also think like they want you to think. Actions and words are not enough.
She admits that she “was not single” when she had her Crisis of Faith, meaning she was probably not obeying the Law of Chastity. Faithful Members will see this as evidence or proof that her private behavior made her doubt. Don’t think for a minute I am pro-Church. I’m as anti-Church as they come. I’ve made plenty of Anti-Mormon videos. I am sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of BYU staff who are not true Faithful believers, but “go through the motions” in order to please their families and their employer (i.e. The Church). I now men who were Institute of Religion Instructors, in the 1980s and 1990s, who did NOT believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, but they remained outward Believers because if they “came out” they would lose their wives, their children (their Mormon wives would get custody), their houses (can’t pay mortgage if you’re paying for your wife and yourself in two different households), lose a career that was EASY, losing a great retirement. Too much to lose, so they continued to play the part of faithful Believers. They’d bear their testimony every day, as Institute Instructors, but they DID NOT BELIEVE IT. I know that for a fact. I’m sure there are HUNDREDS of BYU professors, even professors of religion, who don’t believe it, but are Pretenders and PIMOs (physically in/mentally out), because they have TOO MUCH TO LOSE (wife, family, easy career, house, half of wealth, friends, retirement) if they “come out of the PIMO closet”. Absolutely sure of that.
Crazy how it sounds so much like a few hundred years ago, so heartless and illogical. And amazing how unforgiving the church is while their schools are even more unforgiving
During my first Faith Crisis (1979-80) I was told many times “just pretend”. I was told “think of your family”. I replied: “My family are not Mormon”. I was then told “think of your wife”. I was told: “I am not married”. Once Institute Instructor shrugged and said: “Well, then you’re free to do what you want”. I replied: “I don’t want to leave the Church, I want it to be true. I want to get answers that work”. He had no reply, but to ignore me. YES Bill Reel, the Brethren DO NOT CARE if you’re “faking” it! Not at all. They expect you to “fake” it. This leads me to believe that “they” may be “faking it” as well.