"He died to take away your sins," the ad proclaims over a picture of Jesus. "Not your mind."
Appearing last week in Weber State University's student newspaper, "The Signpost," the ad invites students to Bible study classes and noonday prayers sponsored by the Ecumenical Campus Christian Fellowship."You don't have to stop thinking when you visit us," it says. "Come and join us in an atmosphere where faith and critical inquiry exist together in a spirit of fellowship."
Campus ministries have been working to get that message across to college students for decades, sometimes in conflict with a higher education dogma that preaches "take nothing on faith."
But according to some Utah campus ministries and member students, faith and reason can and do co-exist in academe. In fact, they say religion and education need each other.
"God doesn't expect us to come in blind, but rather to have an educated faith," said Pamela Sigsby, minister for the Baptist Campus Ministries in Salt Lake City. "If you have religion without learning, that is the incompatibility."
Jonathan Browning agrees, saying his enrollment in the LDS Institute of Religion complements his studies across the street at the University of Utah. The president of the Latter-day Saint Student Association, Browning said everything goes better with religion.
"My faith is the number one priority in my life," he said. "I am happiest when I'm living the way I was taught, and at the same time, my schooling goes well, my family life goes well, my work goes well. And it all ties in to living the gospel of Jesus Christ."
At the U., as many as 4,500 students enroll in LDS Institute of Religion classes each quarter, accounting for more than a third of all LDS students on campus.
With 221,849 students enrolled at 1,136 institutes at colleges throughout the United States and Canada, the LDS Church has achieved a major presence in higher education.
"It says a lot that so many students are willing to take time out from college to learn and maintain their faith," Browning said. "I think it's because religion brings a balance to campus life."
The college years can be trying times in a young person's life, according to campus ministers. Not only are many students confronted with challenges to their faith for the first time in the lives, many of them are also facing critical career and family issues.
"Sometimes students come out of a sheltered background," Pamela Sigsby said. "Suddenly, they are hearing ideas they've never heard before, and some of them may begin questioning the ideas they grew up with."
She said campus ministries respond by meeting those questions head-on. At the Baptist Campus Ministries house a block off the U. campus, students set aside their textbooks for a while to study the "Good Book."
They can also participate in freewheeling discussions, prayer, a devotional lunch each Wednesday, social activities and community service projects. Through the ministry, students have volunteered their labors in recent weeks to the Ronald McDonald House and Primary Children's Medical Center.
Contrary to what many people may think, college students today are not more apathetic or selfish than their predecessors, simply busier, according to Sigsby.
"During their college years, our students are pulled in so many directions while trying very hard to do well in school," she said.
Over the past three years, Sigsby has seen the number of students taking advantage of the ministry's programs grow from about three to more than 30 a month.
"We don't try to take the place of a church but rather encourage all of them to be involved in their churches," she said.
The Rev. Cassian Lewinski, one of two priests at the venerable Newman Catholic Center at the bottom of the U.'s Presidents Circle, said most students today maintain one or more jobs while attending school.
"That was a rarity in my day," he said. "Today, they don't have time to get involved, but they do want more. They want to nourish all aspects of their person, including the spiritual, emotional and psychological."
Despite busy schedules, as many as 25 students make time each day to celebrate mass at the Newman Center. On Monday nights, the center hosts a discussion session devoted to student questions. At the university level, the Rev. Lewinski said, there is little fear of religious questioning.
"I enjoy the questioning we get here," Rev. Lewinski said. "Commitment takes questioning; faith takes challenging."
Like the other ministries, the Newman Center also sponsors a wide variety of social activities, volunteer projects, religious retreats and information services. The center, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary at the U. campus, has seen "steady growth" in recent years, the Rev. Lewinski said.
Mark LeTourneau, faculty volunteer for the Ecumenical Campus Christian Fellowship at WSU, said that ministry has chosen to focus its more limited resources on the "integration of faith and learning."
An associate professor of English, LeTourneau said the fellowship is supported by the Episcopal Diocese of Utah and a number of other mainline Protestant churches that previously worked together through Shared Ministries.
"The goal of our ministry is to bring together traditional orthodox Christian faith with the spirit of critical inquiry," LeTourneau said.
While conceding that some of the more conservative segments of some religions might see "faith and secular learning as opposed much of the time," LeTourneau finds them on common ground: Campus ministries.
"I would hope that students would seek from the religious organizations on campus an environment where they can ask questions about conflicts between their faiths and what they are learning," LeTourneau said.
Campus ministries offer students guidance rather than answers, he said. "They provide a way of approaching questions to affirm the validity of faith understanding and the claims of the disciplines they encounter in college."
Most of the campus ministries are located either adjacent to or within a short walk of the colleges they serve. With few exceptions, their presence nearby is welcomed by the school administrations and faculty.
"We have a great number of faculty who are part of our community, and they are extremely active," said the Rev. Lewinski. He also noted that he and other religious representatives are often invited to participate in class discussions on campus.
As the president of the largest student organization at the U., Browning said religious beliefs are accepted and respected by the university administration and faculty.
"A lot of people view the U. as being an extremely liberal setting where religion is bashed and beliefs are challenged, but I haven't found that to be the case," Browning said. "I can't recall ever hearing a professor ridicule or criticize the LDS faith."