MormonTimes.com: A Mormon university at the tip of the Bible Belt

Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008 12:05 a.m. MDT
E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Greg Larsen seems like your typical young Mormon: he was born and raised in Utah, served a two-year mission in San Antonio and is married — at 23 — to the woman he met as an undergrad at a Mormon university.

But the campus where he and his wife, Alyssa, met wasn't Brigham Young University in Utah. His newly minted degree comes from Southern Virginia University, a fledgling outpost of Mormonism in the heart of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

The 12-year-old university is 97 percent Mormon in an area better known for Baptists and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, about 40 miles to the south.

Students like Larsen say the school's Mormon culture — even as it officially remains separate from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — was a big draw.

Follow a link at MormonTimes.com to read the full story online.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Latest comments

Justin, did you just seriously ask if Utah would be undefeated in the Pac-10?...

"While Mendenhall acknowledged there must be improvement, he said there are...

AP Top 25 Poll

ACCOMPLISHED!!! How FL is #1 when losing to an non ranked team at home is...

Utes finish No. 2 in AP poll

If Utah was the bridesmaide this year then BYU was the ugly stepsister that...

AP Top 25 Poll

What a great season!! All though I am disappointed we didn't make #1 my hats...

Your comments make me sick. I served two tours in Iraq with the 5th Marines....

There was only one perfect team and that was Utah. Ole Miss beat FL and was a...

I think I have gone through the whole grief cycle this week trying to...

If Collie is not on on the 2009 team Max Hall's leading receiver just might...

Advertisements