Like Islam, the LDS Church has at times been one of the most popularly reviled religions in America—with early criticisms of founder Joseph Smith, in fact, comparing him to Muhammad, and not as a compliment. Today, that legacy has informed a quiet but firm defense of religious freedom, particularly for Muslims in the United States.

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The Lord’s University taught me a new tongue, one that enables me to do three things: (1) delineate between spiritual discourse and worldly discourse; (2) recognize when I have slipped from the spiritual into the worldly and rectify the slippage; and (3) check my tendency to hijack the language of the spiritual to suit my convenience in the worldly.

And:

I returned to BYU for a graduate degree because of the abundance of the spirit on its campus. Partaking of this spirit creates the courage to dream, and consequently there are dreamers aplenty here. So I returned to the machine shop to mend the tires, knowing that I must leave again to go elsewhere for a Ph.D. But this time I will leave understanding that unless one is careful, there is a negative correlation between advanced intellectual inquiry and spiritual preservation. When I went away the first time, I found that the more I pursued only the nuances of political, economic, and social history, the more the spirit eluded me. When I go away the second time, I will do so understanding that it doesn’t work the same way if the two factors are turned around: Beginning with the spirit, no depth of intellectual inquiry is outside of one’s grasp. It is possible for disciples to do first-rate intellectual work, work that has meaning. Indeed, to use religion to excuse substandard academic performance and intellectual sloppiness is to strengthen the false dichotomy of faith and reason.

What is my dream? I want to be part of a counter-renaissance of men and women who call themselves servants of God who will reclaim from the world the arts and sciences. I dream that the abundance of spirit at the BYU campus will, even in the face of apathy and materialism, initiate a resurgence of learning where disciples will once again create the standards for meaningful intellectual inquiry. Of course this is a grandiose dream. But there are dreamers aplenty at BYU in body and in spirit as embodied in the history and unique heritage that is BYU’s. If one is not careful, one can be infected with their vision. I stopped being careful a long time ago.

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Latin 111H (Eric Huntsman, 250 SWKT). I took this freshman year after spending a year on my own waking up at 5 every day to study Latin, and it was so fun and geeky to meet others who were into Latin as well. Like me, Bro. Huntsman served in Thailand, and I later ended up being a TA for one of his freshmen Book of Mormon classes.

Latin 201 (Cecilia Peek, somewhere in the JKB). Second semester freshman year. We read Caesar’s Gallic Wars. Mmm.

Latin 301 (Norbert Duckwitz, 250 SWKT). I took this three years after Latin 201, mostly because I was busy studying other dead languages (more on that shortly). We read Book I and maybe Book II (I can’t remember) of the oh-so-delicious Aeneid.

Ne Lg 511R (John Gee, W003 BNSN and somewhere in the Clyde Building). This class was on ancient Near Eastern languages and rotated through the languages each year. Freshman year, we studied Coptic for two semesters. Loved it. I’d never heard of Coptic before signing up for the class, but it was a blast. After my mission, I did one semester of Middle Egyptian. Quite a bit harder than Coptic.

CmLit 202H (Larry Peer, somewhere in the JKB). Comp Lit was one of the majors that I kept thinking about doing. Reading books in different languages? Sign me up! This class, though, was a history of civ class, so we read everything in English. And “everything” was a ton of books — we had to read Don Quixote in a single week, for example. (Don Quixote is around 1300 pages.) We read Goethe for this class and Ibsen and Mann and more. Really fun. Also, one of the girls in my class had a brother who later ended up marrying one of my best friends. It’s a small world at BYU. (And in almost all of these classes I met friends who I still talk to today.)

Greek 101 (Bill Tortorelli, 250 SWKT). Yes, I had a lot of classical language classes in 250 SWKT. Love that room. Anyway, Tortorelli was a visiting professor and a hoot. While I didn’t like Greek quite as much as Latin, I still liked it a lot.

FamLf 100 (David Dollahite, somewhere in the Benson Building, I think). Our textbook was Strengthening Our Families and it was a really good class.

Music 117 (Larry Green, somewhere in the HFAC). Basic guitar. I took the class with my sister and my roommate during spring/summer. Kind of wish I had kept practicing after the class ended.

VaStu 103 (Melanie McGee, somewhere on the fifth floor of the HFAC). Another spring/summer class that I took with my other sister.

Honrs 300R (Colleen Whitley and Deirdre Paulsen, main floor of the Maeser Building). The class was Writing for Publication, and I loved it. Colleen and Deirdre are great, too.

Honrs 303R (Bruce Young, somewhere in the Smith Fieldhouse). C.S. Lewis class. Loved it. I was president of the BYU C.S. Lewis Society at the time as well. Those were good days.

Rel C 341 (Susan Easton Black, somewhere in the MARB). This was LDS History to 1844. Tons and tons of information every day in class — I had to write furiously to keep up with Sister Black — but oh so good. I wish I’d taken the second half of the class.

ELang 324 (Don Chapman, somewhere in the JKB). History of the English Language. The historical stuff is what got me into the English Language major. Mmm.

ELang 325 (Delys Snyder, somewhere in the JKB). Grammar of English. Yes, we diagrammed sentences, and yes, I loved it. As you can tell from the first part of this list, I kind of like studying language.

ELang 468 (Wendy Baker, somewhere in the JKB). Varieties of English. Dialects and accents and all that. Mmm. It wasn’t till this class that I realized just how different American English is in different parts of the country.

ELang 524 (Royal Skousen, somewhere in the Talmage Building). History of the Book. This was my #1 favorite class at BYU. We talked about the history of printing, typography and typefaces, Aldus Manutius, and lots more, every single day. I was in heaven. And every other day we went on field trips to printers, presses, and other local book-related places. This is the class I want to sit in on again as soon as I get some time. (As a BYU employee, I get to take classes for free. That’s another reason I work here.)

ELang 525 (Don Chapman, 4068 JFSB). Old English. Oh yes. Loved it. This was the specific class that got me into the major, too (I was talking with one of my friends outside the JFSB one day and she mentioned that she was taking the class, and it sounded like fun, and as we talked more about Anglo-Saxon stuff, I realized that I needed to be an English Language major). Old English is one of my favorite languages.

ELang 526 (Dallin Oaks, somewhere in the JKB, I think). Middle English. Also very fun. We were reading Sir Orfeo one day and came across a line that said “Þer were trompours and tabourers, Harpours fele and crouders;”, and “crouders” is totally where my name comes from.

TMA 251, 351, 443R (Eric Samuelsen, HFAC). Playwriting 1, 2, and WDA, respectively. About six months after I graduated, I started writing plays with New Play Project, realizing that this was something I really liked. So I signed up for the playwriting class and loved it. Later on, I got into WDA (“Writers, Dramaturges, and Actors”) with my one-act play, which I then fleshed out into a full-length, Childlight, and the class performed it at the end of the semester.

There you have it. (And of course now I’m thinking about all the classes I left out, like Physical Science, Music Composition, and Welsh…) You know, with all the non-ELang classes, it’s a wonder I was able to graduate on time.

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