The Lord's University: Freedom and Authority at Byu

by Bryan Waterman, Brian Kagel

If church-sponsored universities exist to instill faith in God and commitment to religion, then Brigham Young University deserves high marks. But in protecting the Lord s University from secularized morals, feminism, the emergence of an independent Mormon intellectual community, and the liberal side of American culture wars, the school has also defended its right to restrict free speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, and due process for faculty and students. With cultural conservatives nationally, the school believes that its institutional right to religious liberty supercedes the individual freedom of conscience and inquiry that traditionally characterizes university life. In charting the struggle between academics and religion, authors Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel have assembled a vast archive of official documents and private interviews covering all sides of the issues. They chronicle day-to-day events administrative meetings, disciplinary hearings, student rallies, behind-the scenes faculty debates, private conversations, and P.R. posturing in a provocative history of two decades of turmoil at the nation s largest religious university.

Genres: Mormonism, Religion

300 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

Reviews

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting overview of the academic freedom battles that occurred at BYU during the 90's. Although it was a bit one sided (which the author attributes to BYU administration's privacy policies), that arguments that the authors present were expressed clearly. This book made me a bit sad that a university that I attend and love would be so antagonistic to free inquiry. While many would say that BYU has more academic freedom when it comes to tolerance for religious views, I would have to say that its hard to call it freedom when the religious tolerance only extends to a narrow interpretation of a single religion. That being said, as an engineering student, I have had little to no confrontation with this issue in the classroom. I would recommend this book to anyone that attended BYU who would like to have a look at it from a new perspective.

[Becks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. It is an in-depth look at academic freedom and the surrounding issues at BYU. It gives information from both sides and it is very well documented.

[Darlene Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe I was there, on campus, during all of this, and had no idea what was going on. Although I have some reservations about Waterman's objectivity, this was very informative to me.