Posted by:
anon10
(
)
Date: March 27, 2014 05:46PM
My TBM wife did Pathway last year and is currently enrolled in BYU-Idaho’s online degree program. She didn’t need an ecclesiastical endorsement last year, but needed one to be accepted into BYU-Idaho’s online degree program. Last year during Pathway, she took two Book of Mormon classes and one Teachings of the Living Prophets class, as well as the three basic Pathway classes (Life Skills, Basic Writing, and Personal Finance). She has loved the program, and the ultra-cheap tuition is great.
In my opinion, the Pathway program is not suitable for ex-Mormons or even doubting Mormons. Starting the second year, you’ll need an ecclesiastical endorsement, which means that you need to attend church, pay tithing, and essentially everything else required of temple recommend holders. If you’re still at a point in your personal beliefs where you’re OK with attending church, paying tithing, sustaining church leaders, etc., great. But if at any time during your online degree program you decide to resign from the church, or stop attending church or stop paying tithing, you will not be able to renew your ecclesiastical endorsement and thus will not be able to finish your degree.
In my opinion, this is a clever tactic by the Church to lure people in with cheap tuition and then require them to take classes on the Book of Mormon and Mormon prophets and to obtain ecclesiastical endorsements in the hope that they will become active, tithe-paying members of the Church. Even the classes that my wife has taken this year are filled with Church references. The coursework for her statistics class is filled with faith-promoting quotes from General Authorities. Her history class on developing nations talked extensively about the humanitarian work the Church has done—not just as a side note, but as the main focus of the course.
If you are an active, believing member who wants to earn a cheap degree and will regard the Church propaganda as inspiring and uplifting (as is the case for my wife), the Pathway program is for you. If you are an inactive member who knows the truth about the origins of the Church and thus no longer fully believes, I would steer clear of Pathway. If you are an inactive member who knows nothing about the Church’s dark past, then you are just what the Church is looking for—enroll in Pathway and get on the path back to full activity in the Church.