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Show 2E The Salt Lakf Tribum, Sunday, December 8, 1985 House of Faith scorches Wilkinson years at BYU ISrigbuu Young i I onersity: botany, microbiology, chemistry and chemical engineering, all were ratin ed only minimally effective training research scholars and scientists. If you, Mormon or Gentile, view the worlds universities as honored repositories of, and transmitters of, knowledge gathered by mankind down through the ages, you must be disturbed by the low ranking consistently given to BYU among the world's free universities. woefully restricted by a theology fearful to risk open analysis of many issues, of many scientific findings and .1 House of Fuitb, bv Gary J. Bergera and Ilonald L. f'riddis; Signature HI pp. source notes Books, 377 pp., and index, 47 photos, $19.95. historical facts. It will be pointed out, I am sure, by supporters of the status quo at BYU as revealed in this book, that the Mormon institution has graduated thousands of students who have achieved high places in their communities, in education, the arts, business and even the sciences. Such students have emerged from the sheltering cocoon of the Provo campus not as zombies, but as worthy citizens strengthened in mind and body by their BYU experiences. Sadly, the same could be said for graduates of the Universities of Moscow and Leningrad, where, we are told, thought in several critical areas is likewise restricted and restructured to fit an This is a disquieting book, Unyham Young University A House of Faith, one that could prove as upsetting to graduates and students of the nation's largest church-owne- d university as it will to readers who attended institutions of higher learning unaffiliated with Utahs major religious establishment. It poses a major question for every Utah parent, viz: When sending a son or daughter to college or a university, will you seek to shelter that offspring from new ideas and challenges, or to broaden youthful viewpoints? Do you wish to put your youngsters mind in cotton batting, or provide only a paan rochial, vocational education education sans new ideas, lacking in exposure to challenges faced by students elsewhere in the nation and world? Restricted Inquiry If this volume is correct, and I can only presume its authors, Gary J. Bergera and Ronald L. Priddis, to be as honest as they have been diligent, youngsters sent to Brigham Young University will enjoy the physical trappings of a university, of a campus fully endowed with classrooms and but a unstudy halls and the like iversity whose faculty members, past and present, fear to teach many subjects fully and honestly, who all too often avoid realistic research in meaningful fields, a faculty whose freedom, its ucademic freedom, is Holland. Witch Huots But the damage done the institution and scholastic fabric by the communist-chasing- Ernest L. Wilkinson Policies Criticized Dubious Reputation As every sports-addihereabouts lived battles anent organic evolution, restrictive dress codes (including hair and hem lengths), research projects, the arts, and, of course, athletics. Academic Immaturity Certainly, administrators, church leaders, alumni and students can take no pride in the fact that the national Phi Beta Kappa denied (in 1985) the BYU application for an chapter on grounds the institution is not academically mature enough. There can be no pride in the fact that, while the American Council on Education has cited BYU for six programs: family sciences, psychology, , Other matters cited by authors e Bergera and Priddis at are more than a little disturbing. When they spotlight "the Wilkinson years many events at the House of Faith may strike the reader as chilling, since the presidency of Ernest L. Wilkinson made his campus resemble an academic Siberia. During his tenure, BYU became an institution where students were culled into spying upon their fellows, a campus at which some students felt impelled to take careful note of how rebellious faculty members reacted to Wilkinson addresses and viewpoints and to report their raw findings to the president in hopes of gaining academic preferment or blessings in the hereafter. liberal decrying, Puritanical, union-hatinWilkinson has not been undone even unto the present generation. Indeed, readers who studied at universities where academic freedom has long endured may be pardoned if they agree with the authors perceptions that BYU can never rank high among institutions church leaders see as its peers unless Mormon doctrinal viewpoints with respect to academics, the arts, sciences, literature and the like held by its trustees and LDS authorities (who are the Ys eventual controllers) somehow take a broader bent. Bastion Against Ideologies Academic Gumshoe was J. Edgar Hoover's gumshoeing equivalent in academic garb although Hoover was perhaps a shade more circumspect. During his "reign, Wilkinson brought cohort W. Cleon Skousen to his campus in 1951, giving him academic status despite the fact his major previous experience had been as a police chief. "Why did we work for degrees? de BYU must be a bastion against the invading ideologies that seek control of the curriculum as well as classroom, and BYU President Holland's promise In 1982 that we will do things superbly well, but we will do them our way. Our models are not of the world not in science, not in art, not in journalism, not in dress or grooming or behavior. At BYU we will do things a better way. Wilkinson g Bergera and Priddis tellingly quote the late church President cer W. Kimballs 1980 For better or worse, as the book makes clear, the world moves on, and permitted student hair styles have even at been known to change BYU. As the authors note, waltzes were once seen as sinful, as was camhard and is pus jazz, as was rock. Hirsute males on campus annually sought best beard" honors in campus gambols (until the Wilkinson days) and may do so again. But as the world knows by outside, now, progress in medicine, in physics, biology and in many fields of knowl-edge stems from honest research and should not be inhibited by folde-ro- l concerning the dates on which Adam delved and Eve span. Research into the universes beginnings or the history of primitive peoples should not be confused by searches for the spot where Noah's ark grounded or the supposed site of supposed or other efforts to mesh anthropology and geology with Book of - (1971-198- witch-huntin- philosophy. knows, BYUs students, faculty, take alumni, and administration pride in the schools football teams rank as Number One among the nations gridiron powers last year. However, they can take no pride in their institutions reputation and ranking among its peers as regards scholarship, research, academic freedom or academic achievement. The facts concerning these matters as set forth for us in grim detail in chapters on BYU's history and its present status, as well as in chapters relentlessly detailing the woes of faculty battling church officialdom, the plight of student organizations and publications through the years, long- - spairing faculty men asked Fortunately, Skousens Freeman Institute and the miasma of fear and contumely it introduced could find no during the subseplace quent presidencies of Dallin H. Oaks and incumbent Jeffrey R. Spen- statement that Zara-hemla- Mormon thinking. Difficulties Began Early Unfortunately, the authors make it painfully plain that the difficulties scholars and scientists view as blockades hindering BYU efforts toward, gaining status in academically meaningful matters began with the views of the very founders of the institution. Brigham Young, quoted as reporting he never went to school but eleven days in his life was a pragmatist, colonizer and empire builder. But he was also "especially antagonistic to the theories of Thomas Huxley, Charles Darwin and John Stewart Mill. He cited works of Charles See E-- Column 1 One critics list of best books of 1985 smartly along the way. The Magic Kingdom, by Stanley StanElkin; Dutton, 317 pp., $16.95 a takes situation Elkin shopworn ley the pilgrimage to a shrine that will stave off death or at least ease its pain and moves it into a contemporary setting. Seven children ravaged by fatal diseases and five chaperones are sent from England on a dream See Column 1 By William Robertson r Newspapers Trying to decide what books to recommend as the best of the year always looks like an impossible task. But it usually turns out tq be easier than it appears because, like people with strong personalities, strong books assert themselves while the wallflowers fade from memory. Here then are some works of fiction and general nonfiction from the past year that made a vivid impression: Knight-Ridde- Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler FICTION Continental Drift, by Russell Banks; Harper and Row, 366 pp., 917.95 Moral, human and large in its ambition, this novel charts in parallel chapters the lives of a New England man headed south to Florida, and a Haitian woman struggling north toward the same place with her baby and nephew. The characters converge in tragedy on a boat between Nassau and South Florida. Its not memory you need for telling this story, says the mesmeric, unseen narrator. Its clear-eye- d pity e and hot, anger and a Northern mans u. ve of the sun, its a white Christian mans entwined obsession with race and sex and a proper middle-class Americans shame for his nation's history." Arising from the tide of Northerners drifting down to the Sun Belt and . the swell of refugees coming up from the Third World, the novel is the most and book powerful American book I have read in years. of America The Accidental Tourist, by Anne In The Tyler; Knopf, 355 pp., $16.95 . "... . con- tinues her search for the underlying truths of family life at the center of which are relationships between men who are sometimes, but not necessarily, husbands, and women, who are often, but not always, their wives. Tyler's protagonist, Macon Leary, writes guidebooks to make travel for American businessmen so painless that they might as well not have left home. Macon leaves his wife and takes up with a younger woman of a lower economic and social order, and in the end must choose between his old and new lives. On the evidence of Tylers perception and beauty of language in this and her previous novel, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the author belongs in the company of the very best novelists we have today. Gilts, by Elmore Leonard; Arbor Seldom does House, 251 pp., $14.95 the mystery story make it into the mainstream of fiction, but Elmore Leonard has broken the bonds of his form and found himself widely admired among readers of of all kinds. This brand of success is what they call transcending the genre. In the case of Leonard, its. literary significance is overstated. But there is no doubt about the entertainment value in Leonard's story of a Miami Beach cop who works hard at stopping the bad guys from Puerto Rico to Atlantic City and finds enough of them, as well as love, to keep things moving E-1- Tipplers tour of the western frontier Saloons of the Old West, by Richard Erdoes; Howe Brothers, 277 pp., Ulus., photos, endnotes, bibliography, Index, $12.50. (paper). This collection of anecdotes, fact and legend about the whole rowdy, rambunctious, violent, colorful history of the western saloon, has been reprinted in paperback by Howe Brothers from the 1979 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., edition. Author Richard Erdoes is an artist and photographer whose affection for the American West began in his native Vienna (where German literature on cowboys and Indians fostered a cult-lik- e devotion for the frontier West). Erdoes emigrated to the United States in 1941, and in the 1950s was sent on assignment by Life and American Heritage magazines to paint and photograph the landscape of the Southwest and its culture. Casual Research Curiously, Erdoes research is rath er casual for someone who has published with newsmagazines of the calibre of those mentioned. He credits The first western saloon truly deserving the name with flourishing in the mountain mans West a generation before the existence of roads and the coming of the Conestoga wagons. It was set up in 1822 by a trapper , named Brown in a place appropriately called Browns Hole, at a spot where the present states of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah meet, in a lush, canyon-rimme- d valley. It was the focus of one of the Great Rendezvous, where once a year the beaver men, the wild and woolly free trappers, congregated, coming from near and far to barter their beaver plews for foofaraw baubles, beads and red trade cloth for their Indian squaws and for a years supply of tobacco, hardtack, powder, lead, and likker sic for themselves. They came also to go on the wild est, most complete drunk ever . . . drink Brown's Old Towse, and eat his boudins lightly roasted buffalo intestines with all their fermenting contents, the trappers favorite dish. Taos Lightning The hard stuff dispensed straight from the keg was Taos Lightning, guaranteed to maim and kill, writes Erdoes. Though Browns Hole likely would not refuse the notoriety of this first, Saloons anecdotal embellishment brings into question the authors scholarship. Lest readers be led tipsi-l- y down the wrong trail, a couple of nits do need to be picked here. Brown, whose first name was Bapof tiste, and who was an the Hudsons Bay Company, actually did not wander into the watering hole which was to carry his name in 1822, but in 1828. Never A Site And while the Brown's Hole cli GledMUs 32 rated craft store. tan ifl03 8' trees. 38 different T.J.s Tops Wnaa'n.Traimirffig'ilEB 'Hi (3233 Bring the Family Good Seats Available Utahs largest Thornton Wilder's selection of Christmas Tree Lights all at OUR TOWN lolid.iy Special Pin ys through December 21 IM I s I 50 off I1) I'MImi-nVyi I'nlnof Outdin I While shopping, leave your children Open Mon. Sat. -- Box offic e open duil 10 urn 1 uni il Special lutes available lor groups or nu ic. loi groups only-c- all P pm ol jlll-ti'2'2- 21) 9:30 to 9:30 yPlONEER 7 MEMORIAL LItheatre nr. Jfd SuuHi dnd Univi'fvty Sal LjhP C'tv (Jtjhfc)4U The VrWs Show-Me-Ho- w Store Utah State Wine Store p 4700 So. 900 East Just off Van Winkle 4842700 J r nnii at THE CHILDRENS FRIEND, hourly care center ( i ft ft ft 2707 Parleys Way (Next to r.HI-li!)i- 581-G9G- I AND I For reservations CALL ft ft Sunflower Pizza FAR. GIVE THEM THE WORLD OF THEATER il lii., lies ,n c ,n ,n l,i Mr lui ij PM I sliuus. s (H or give I hem TT IK PMT I ASS (P admissions ul.u reduced rule). Cull i ft ft Stuft Noodle Restaurant Beths Cookies Its unique i. oinlnn.il ion ol humor, joy and w.irinlli .iinl its simple expie.ssion ol the v,.!ue ol lamily ,nul hull) m like UUK TOWN an exciting project lo bring lo the PMT sl.iyc dm ing the holid.iy se.ison. THIS Tii k & Toes GIVE A GIFT CERTIFICATE 1 Nail Salon Glorias Beauty Salon Ivy Street Hair Care DECOR FOR THE HOME The Frameplace Affairs Inc. Christmas wreaths and party trimmings. DOLLS, STUFFED ANIMALS Amanda Callahan DINING & CHRISTMAS FEASTING off hotnton W$d I I F avorite Tilings Macrame Etc. CLOTHING , JEWELRY , SHOES Scruples Inc. Santas All (ss Shops for your Christmas Shopping Pleasure Spoons & Spice iyles of trees to choose from. '..T ... GIFTS FOR ALL THE FAMILY Grandma Veras The Elephant Walk Artificial Christmas Trees DiQQ2 Despite his genial wink at hard facts, Erdoes Saloons of the Old West, wears comfortably, like an old shoe . . . and recounts some glorious yarns of the great days back when Harold Schindler. Shop Salt Lakes Christmas Village Gledhills offers great savings on art, craft, and floral supplies. Were Utah Holiday's best 2 to mate and terrain made it a comfortable place for mountaineers to spend the winter, it was never selected as a site for any of the 15 acknowledged fur trade rendezvous of the Rocky Mountains attended by so many thousands of Indians, trappers and traders between 1826 and 1840, after Gen. William H. Ashley recognized the business potential in supplying those magnificent gatherings with whiskey. Saloons carries its slory to the turn of the century during the peri lious times of Carry Nation, who vented her temperance temper (with a little hatchetation) at the very the tavsource of the complaint erns themselves. r- - -ft r-- JJSJS A Jk Aft Mi ift. NA.AA.M A . M. M M.Jyja, tftft ftftaft.ftft 4 I X |
