Source: The Buddhist Channel/The Daily Herald
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=65,3872,0,0,1,0
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (USA) -- He was a chemistry major, headed for a career in dentistry, when he took a seat that fall day in a class on "Buddha and Buddhism." From that very first day, says Charles Prebish, "I knew I was home."
Because his mother was still hoping he'd be a dentist, Prebish went on to dental school at Case Western Reserve University the next year. But his heart wasn't in it. Within a few months he had dropped out and enrolled, instead, in a graduate program in religion. Now, 40 years of Buddhist study and practice later, Prebish is helping to change the face of religious scholarship in Utah.
For a century and a half, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the state is steeped in religion, no university in Utah, including Brigham Young University, has offered a degree in religious studies. That changed last fall when Utah State University inaugurated its religious studies program.
"The conflict in Utah between Mormon and non-Mormon is so deep and ancient that I think most public institutions shied away from doing anything with religion, because it was easier to keep your mouth shut than run the risk," says Norman Jones, chairman of USU's department of history, which houses the religious studies program.