Ye Shall Know the Truth

As an assistant professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, I begin my classes each semester by talking about my three passions:  theology, my family, and physiology. I relate theology to the motto engraved on the main building at UT, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I ask students where that statement comes from, and usually, someone knows that it came from Jesus/the Bible.

I tell students that I was raised in a Christian minister’s family and that thinking objectively about spiritual things has been difficult for me. I briefly tell them that my current understanding is that I am imperfect, I need someone to stand between me and a perfect God, and that Jesus Christ is the one who does that for me. However, I make it clear that I am still on a journey to reconcile faith and science.

In a “normal” semester, these statements always elicit a reaction from at least one student. I wondered if my introduction on Zoom would have the same effect. At first, it appeared that my online revelations about myself did not generate any interest. However, it seems that the effect was just delayed.

In summer 2020, a Christian student asked to meet with me late in the semester. We prayed together, sitting on a bench under the inscription on the main building. A couple of days later, I heard the tower bells playing “Amazing Grace” – unprecedented, in my experience. Somehow it seemed related to our prayers for the campus.

Several months later, another student from my summer class expressed an interest in discussing creation/evolution. We met for coffee, and I gave him one of my go-to books on the subject.

In spring 2020, I had an experience that was ostensibly negative:  a student reported me for religious discrimination, based on my first day of class statements. Although the allegation was disconcerting, I realized that it was preferable to receive an adverse reaction rather than none at all. I also realized that the student was reacting to Christian students’ positive comments via chat—comments that would not have surfaced publicly in a normal semester.

But my most profound distance connection was with a struggling student, and later with his friends and parents. The student returned early from a breakout room to confide his problems to me. 

Tragically, he died two months later. 

One of his friends in the class connected me to the student’s parents, and I was able to tell them that I had spoken with their son and had some idea of his struggles. The student’s family is of a different faith that is sometimes hostile to Christianity. However, his mother asked me to pray for them. I doubt that any of these connections would have happened had it not been for my Zoom introductory statements.

In I Corinthians 9:19-23, the apostle Paul discusses becoming “all things to all men” so that he might help them come to know the one who said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” To me, adapting to and making the most of virtual teaching has been worth the effort in helping my students know the truth both academically and spiritually.