Here is the paper that I wrote and turned into members of the administration. I toned it down a great deal because, yes they are LDS. Now I say some things about the dean of students that are a bit hard to believe, but after an investigation into his dealings he was found to be unfit to serve as dean of students anymore, and after a lengthy ordeal over the last month, he has been demoted back to the general faculty.
“God, may I have a choice”
The founding fathers of this country took great steps to protect the rights of the citizens, to worship whichever god they choose; however they choose. But it would seem to me, in my own personal experiences that many Christian lawmakers, administrators, facilitators, and college professors view the separation of church and state as a burden, and not something to be grateful for.
Snow College, for example, is vastly dominated by people of the LDS faith, (Latter day Saints). The administration, the deans, many to most of the professors, and ninety percent of students at Snow are LDS.
Although the vast majority of people at the college are LDS, it is still common to hear the question, “Are you LDS?” I have heard it asked almost everyday. I have been asked this question near the beginning of almost every conversation I have ever had with a person upon first meeting them. Administrators, deans, and professors have asked me the question (sometimes very slyly) at the beginning of many meetings. I have thought about the question, and wondered at length, why do people ask it?
My foregone conclusion: it sets people at ease to know that there is someone of similar belief sitting or standing before them. The knowledge establishes common ground.
Meeting a stranger from your religion is like meeting a stranger that went to the same High school. He or she may have had the same teachers, taken the same classes, can laugh about some of the same things, and share a common knowledge of the area. Think about the glee and bliss generated by a chance meeting with a stranger who knows your old friends and can share fun memories.
The question “Are you LDS?” is one of the most common (and unintentional) forms of persecution to any student that answers “No”. I will be the first to defend the good intentions of many of my fellow students. I don’t believe that students have any desire to persecute or exclude others that don’t share their religious beliefs.
But they do, just by following their faith. The LDS institute of Religion has classes and activities that are designed to help strengthen the bonds of those that participate. This is a good thing. The LDS institute and the church have activities Monday night, Wednesday night, and mostly all day Sunday, with the occasional Institute Stomp or banquet. Students are also strongly urged to take at least one class from the institute; many students take as many as three.
Students that are not LDS are always invited to come and join in the activities and classes. But almost all non-LDS students say that they feel “extremely uncomfortable” at the activities. For a non-LDS student to go to an LDS function is like an LDS student going to a catholic or Hindu function, it might be fun to try once, but it doesn’t feel right, and is not something that they want to have pushed on them week after week.
The LDS students that are actively involved in the activates form bonds with others that are actively involved with the activates. It is human nature to form close bonds with people you spend large amounts of time with, especially when you are doing things that are of great importance, like learning about your god and worshiping him. But that leaves many of the non-LDS students out of the close nit groups. This is also a natural thing, less time together and large differences of belief result in a smaller bond.
Often the LDS students and the non-LDS students form polarized groups that rarely meet, for anything, ever. Many of the non-LDS students leave after one year at Snow College saying that they just don’t feel at home here.
For most, the LDS faith and the culture of Snow College are the same thing. But for me, that is unacceptable. Jon Ostler, former bishop of a college congregation of the LDS church, and dean of the library, says, “The lines between church and state are often blurred at this school.”
Jon says that while he was a bishop, students would regularly call him bishop on campus, and he would need to remind them that between the hours of nine to five his name was Jon or Dean Ostler. Students would go as far as to have emergencies and need to talk to him, as their bishop during working hours. He would at times leave work to meet with them a crossed the street from campus in the institute building, but their were a few times when the emergency required him to close the door to his office at the library and deal with business there. Jon said that these time made him feel very uncomfortable, and he told the student that there could not be a next time.
Jon Ostler, in my opinion is an example for how the issue of separation of church and state should be handled on this campus. I was witness to him reminding people that his name was Jon, and not Bishop, while on campus. But even though there are a great number of LDS leaders that deal with the separation tactfully, there are a good number that don’t.
A freshman from Seattle, Sean Burrows, had his first experience with the issue of the separation between church and state the day that he moved into his new dorm, Nuttall Hall, a state owned building. Sean was moving his boxes from his car to his dorm room. And as he entered the dorm, a local bishop put his arm around him and said, “Hi! Welcome to Snow College, are you LDS?” Sean said that he was not. And the bishop said, “Well, why not?” I believe that the bishop was trying to make light of the situation, but Sean did not find it amusing. And he came to get me, I am the Resident Assistant. It is my job to help the residents of the hall in any way that I can. So I asked the bishop if he would refrain from inquiring the religious status of each of the residents of the hall as they came to check into the dorm. The bishop however then turned and asked me what my religious status was. I told him that what I believed was not important at the moment. The bishop said that he was upset that I was trying to “impede the work of god”. He made me feel small, and he had three other older men from the church who all said there piece to me, they had set up their information all over my “check-in” table in the front lobby. I was intimidated, so I retreated into my room. I asked the men (who stayed another two hours) to refer anyone who wanted to check into their room, to me.
Sean was not the only non-LDS student that felt violated by the curious bishop. Most students in the dorm were eager to meet the bishop and his helpers, and were gathered around my check in table (that was now the headquarters for recruitment and paperwork central for the bishop). There was high energy and excitement in the room. All new students, a new bishop, and new college ward and everyone was getting to know everyone else. The LDS students got a glimpse, on the first day, of who the “non-members” were. The rest of the students, any student in Nuttall Hall who answered “no” to the question of “Are you LDS?” was instantly and unintentionally persecuted against.
Sean comments, “My first week at Snow was a mind trip. I felt like I had stepped out of the country, or gone back in time, or left reality of something!” Sean told me that where he is from people would never ask another person what religion you are.
That was on Friday, the bishop came back again on Saturday, and again on Sunday, this time setting up a station for an hour just several yards down the hall from my room. I was glad when the weekend was over. Monday morning I went to work early, 6:30 a.m., it was the first day of school and I wanted to get a head start on the week, little did I know that the issue of the bishop in my dorm was far from over... I work in the Student Life office as a Drug Prevention Specialist (peer mentor and drug counselor). My desk is in a clump of other desks that belong to the student government, lead by Dean of Students Lynn Schiffman, who has an office at the opposite end of the large room of cubicles.
Dean Shciffman comes into work and upon seeing me says, “Ben, I was wondering, did you leave the church?”
And I said, “What?”
He again asks, “Are you LDS anymore or what?”
And I said again, “What?”
Then he says, “Well, I heard about you kicking out the bishop from your dorm.”
And at this point, a number of heads (student government) look up from their desks.
I then said, “I am not comfortable talking about this.”
He said, “It is a simple question, why did you kick the bishop out of your dorm?”
I responded, “It’s a simple matter of us both being state employees in a state building, and on the clock, and I don’t feel comfortable talking about religion.”
Dean Schiffman then turned to look at the other students in the area and then back to me, “I am just asking you to claim your religion, are you LDS or not?”
Again, I said, “This is highly inappropriate.”
He then said, “You either are LDS or not, this is your spirituality here, what could be more important than that?”
Finally I said, “I can see that you are not listening to me, can I talk to you in your office?”
I started walking toward his office, he waits a moment before following, and then says, very loudly and still in the common area, “I just want to say for the record that I am disgusted by your behavior this weekend, I thought that I knew you, but I was wrong, I can not believe that you were impeding the work of god.”
I went in his office first, he came in after and did not shut the door, and was still talking about how out of line I was. He looked at me, I looked at the door, he looked at the door then back at me and smiled. I got up and shut the door.
I said, “for the record I am not comfortable having this conversation, and I am only in this office because you are my boss.”
He said, in brief, “Bishop Rackhem is a dear friend of mine, and you really offended him this weekend. It was not so much that you asked him to ‘tone it down’ as if that was not bad enough, but the fact that you would not claim your faith. Do you understand the gravity of this?”
At this point I was sucked into the religious aspect of what he was saying, he was speaking to me as my stake president and not my dean. I asked him, “Are you interested in hearing my side of things?”
Dean Schiffman replied, “No, it wouldn’t change my view of things, I have known Bishop Rackhem for years, and I trust him completely. You need to apologize to him; you need to apologize to me, and to President Barton. And you need to repent for what you have done. And I hope you give your actions some serious thought.”
I asked him, “Are you angry at me?”
He responded, “Yes Ben, I am angry with you. I just cannot believe that you would set such a bad example for others. And I get a bit angry when people try to get in the way of the work of the lord.”
I realized at this point for my own good, I needed to say I was sorry, and do as he says; the man is my boss after all. So I did, I said, “Lynn, I am sorry. I did not mean to cause such a problem. I will do what you ask.”
And I left his office and later that day called the ACLU. And he left his office and went directly a crossed the hall to my supervisor, over campus housing, to ask to have me disciplined for my actions. My supervisor, Bob Oliver (also a leader in the LDS church) told Dean Schiffman, “I will have to talk to Ben about this issue, he should have had the bishop and his men leave immediately. Snow College is now liable for a lawsuit.” In the state policy it says that residents will be protected from religious solicitations of all kinds. And the fact that I had let the bishop stay, especially after resident complaints, left the college vulnerable.
A meeting was called for all of the on campus resident assistants, and the policy was discussed. No bishops, teachers, or missionaries from any church were to be allowed to stand in our around common areas of state owned buildings, and they were not permitted to knock on random doors, and may only visit residents on appointment.
The dean was not pleased. And I have been targeted and bullied ever since, and I have heard reports from members of his student government group that he whispers about me being a bad influence on students, and to “stay away from Ben Fox”.
I ask that you look at the following from the eyes of a student that is not LDS, and is in fact very happy with the faith they have and don’t want to be converted in any way.
The LDS church advertises its activities in partnership with the school-organized activities. The two groups often share space on the same signboard. The LDS Church has a listing of all of their activities and functions on the school activity calendar given out to all students. The LDS church has its activities announced on the school’s live voice bulletin. The LDS church puts a flier on every door in every state owned dormitory inviting students to take classes from the LDS institute. I received a flier that said, “Don’t be a DUM DUM, join institute.” The flier had a DUM DUM sucker taped to it. The LDS church assigns students to knock on every door in each dorm reminding students when it is time to leave to arrive at a church activity on time. I have had a number of residents ask me to have this stop, but it is students doing it, and not officially.
The school gives the LDS church a list of all students enrolled, which the Church then compares to a list of students enrolled in institute. The Church puts together lists of “students to fellowship” and assigns a small list of un-enrolled students to an active member, and asks that student to go out and befriend, fellowship, and convert the un-enrolled students. Like Jon Ostler said, “The lines get blurry here.” We have students doing the work, not church officials. But if it were church officials working for the school would it then not be illegal?
The main sidewalk (twice the size of any others) runs east and west, with smaller tributary sidewalks running a yard off of the main drag to all the buildings on campus. On the east side of campus the sidewalk ends at the stadium, where the campus ends. But on the West side of the campus the sidewalk ends at a crosswalk which leads to a walk the same exact size on the opposite side of the road which takes you uninterrupted into the double wide doors of the LDS Institute of Religion.
School policy is affected by religious beliefs. More than 1000 condoms were sent to Snow College in college survival kits compiled by national advertisers. Dean Schiffman ordered student government to remove the condoms from the packs before they were handed out. When asked he stated that he felt that it is morally wrong to promote sex to a college of largely unmarried students.
Also in order for any housing operation to get listed on the Snow College housing list they must have all students sign an honor code contract. The contract states that they will abide by a 12 a.m. curfew for weeknights and 1 a.m. curfew for weekends (no guests over after that point) will not drink, posses drugs or alcohol, or be intoxicated or inebriated on premises, even within the residents own room. And there can be no use of tobacco within 25 feet of the grounds owned by the organization, and residents that do smoke may not keep their cigarettes in their apartments, or their car if they park it within twenty five feet of the property. 95 percent of students say they find housing from this list, and more than 90 percent of housing available in the city of Ephraim is on the list.
If a student is caught drinking, or even with any blood alcohol level at all, in his or her apartment they are kicked out of the housing, without a refund, and put on academic probation from the school, both of these penalties are inflicted even if the student is 21. He or she is then sent to an in school rehabilitation program of about 30 hours.
I don’t remember ever seeing any law anywhere saying college students over the age of 21 cannot drink. I personally work with the students sent to the rehabilitation. And most of the kids that get in trouble for drinking are from out of state, and not one of them so far this year has been LDS. I am not the judge or the jury with any of these students, but I my heart goes out for these people that get stuck paying close to $1000 in fines and lost housing money, and have to spend hours and hours in a rehabilitation program that they have to “admit that they have a problem” when all they did was drink a beer, and to them it is not wrong. That is the point that needs to be clear; to them (those of them that are 21) it is not wrong.
Many professors will find a way to ask the returned LDS missionaries to raise their hands in class, this continues to happen, and every time it does the everyone looks around, and the question can always be heard, “Oh, so and so, you didn’t serve a mission?! Oh man, I thought that you would have served a mission for sure!”
I was the student government reporter for the school newspaper last year, and as such was present at many government-planning meetings. Dean of Students Lynn Schiffman would often ask members of student government “how will the institute react to your decision?” about their choice of D.J. for an activity, or their choice to show a PG-13 movie on movie night.
The LDS Church has a semi-annual conference, with a number of meetings spread throughout the weekend. And I was present to hear a student ask Student Body President John Vincent, “What activities are planned for this weekend?” and John replied, “Conference.” And he was right, that was the only weekend that the student body officers didn’t plan an activity.
I pose this question: should I, or others, be persecuted (intentionally or otherwise) because we chose to come to a state school that is predominantly of one faith? And if it were pointed out to the members of that faith what they were doing, and how it made the few non-LDS students and faculty feel, would it make a difference? |
