Morning Glory : Young Mormons Learn, Pray Before School Day Starts

Crawling out of bed at an ungodly hour every weekday, 25,000 California youths make their way to Mormon churches in darkness to attend classes on faith, Scripture and prayer--before they even start their regular high school days.

Two dozen students in Newhall, for example, begin their hourlong religious class at 6:30 a.m. “It’s hard, but worth it,” said Jake Young of Valencia one morning this week.

He’s lucky. In the Antelope Valley, 31 classes start at 5:45 a.m. There is one other option: a class that begins at 5 a.m.

The little-known devotional study system enrolls 342,000 Mormons nationwide and, as such, sheds light on why the Salt Lake City-based church is generally lukewarm on proposals for prayer in public schools.

Six of every 10 Mormon youths in Southern California participate in the system that the church calls “seminary.” The classes, which begin and end with prayer, are designed for students in grades nine through 12, the period when some surveys indicate children question or drift away from their religious upbringing.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with a U.S. membership of 4.6 million one of the 10 biggest denominations in the country, conceivably could add clout to the calls for school prayer, just as it has supported interfaith efforts to curtail pornography and abortion.

However, for reasons that include the religious classes for high schoolers and the church’s focus on inculcating religious values at home, voluntary school prayer “is not on the top of our agenda,” said Keith Atkinson of Los Angeles, the Mormon public affairs representative for California.

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In fact, the Mormon Church in 1990 urged compliance with U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have “clearly forbidden any audible prayers in public school classrooms.” Instead, the church to date has limited itself to backing legal moves to permit prayers at public school graduations and civic meetings.

Though many Mormons object when school policies limit classroom discussion of religion, they also see disadvantages to opening the legislative doors to voluntary, student-led prayers, such as envisioned by the Religious Equality Amendment proposed by conservative Christian groups this week in Washington.

“My husband and I are not for school prayer,” said Patti King, who teaches the early-morning class in Newhall. “We don’t want to abdicate our parental responsibilities and we wouldn’t want our ideas to be forced on others.”

Also speaking personally, Steve Gilliland, a Long Beach-based spokesman for the Mormon Church’s high school seminary classes, said that the problem with prayer in religiously diverse classrooms comes down to “whose prayer” it will be. “How can you avoid offending people?” he asked.

By contrast, the Mormon seminary system provides settings “where our youth are free to share their feelings about faith with others who would understand and not laugh,” Gilliland said.

Despite transportation difficulties between home, church and school in some parts of the region, Gilliland said, 61% of eligible Mormon girls and boys participate in the 766 seminary classes in Southern California.

Enrollment is heaviest where younger families dominate. For example, although the San Fernando Valley has a larger Mormon population than either the Santa Clarita or Antelope valleys, the latter two areas each have higher enrollments than the San Fernando Valley.

Not all Mormon seminary students have to drag themselves out of bed for classes. In heavily Mormon-populated states such as Utah, Idaho and Arizona, many youth attend seminary classes under a released-time program during the regular school day.

But such programs are nonexistent or rarely possible for Mormons scattered around California. Thus, nearly 95% of the state’s seminary students must drive or get rides for the dawn classes, Gilliland said.

“To our amazement and dismay, all seven of our children (who have attended seminary so far) have preferred the 5:30 a.m. class,” Gilliland said. “They like it because they have time to freshen up back home or begin sports practice early.”

For such church officials as Gilliland, the challenge is recruiting unpaid teacher volunteers to greet a classroom full of yawning students. They employ teaching aids, a lively patter and games such as Scripture Chase--leafing swiftly through the Bible or Book of Mormon to find the passages corresponding to clues given by the teacher.

“Some teachers spend more time with these kids than most parents do during the week, and certainly more time than any other church person does,” Gilliland said.

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As for student motivation, young men aspiring to a two-year missionary stint starting at age 19 find the classes good preparation, teachers say.

Some students want to improve their chances for admission to Brigham Young University. The premier Mormon-run school is giving greater weight each year to applicants who are seminary graduates, according to BYU spokesman Brent Harker.

But many students enjoy the classes for the seminary’s stated purpose of giving religious guidance.

In the words of Janine Hansen of Valencia, she has “a better day” at public school because of teaching that “strengthens my testimony for Christ and my knowledge of the church.”