• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

FAIR

Faithful Study Resources for Come, Follow Me

  • Find Answers
  • Blog
  • Media & Apps
  • Conference
  • Bookstore
  • Archive
  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Search
You are here: Home / Testimonies / Latter-day Saint Scholars Testify / Susan Sessions Rugh

Susan Sessions Rugh

At the age of eight my father baptized me in the font at the chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I wore a fancy white dress, and for the occasion my mother had undone my long braids so my hair haloed about me as I was lowered into the water. The place of my baptism, not far from Harvard University where my father was studying, symbolizes the tension in my life between learning by faith and learning through intellectual inquiry.

My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ took root in my childhood in a large Mormon family. As descendants of pioneers who crossed oceans and plains to gather to Zion in Utah, my parents made sure that religious observance and the teachings of Jesus were part of the fabric of everyday life. I grew up knowing I was under the watchful care of a benevolent heavenly father. By obedience I learned to live the Word of Wisdom (our health code), formed habits of daily prayer, observed healing by those who held the priesthood, and memorized the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. Yet we were trained by our parents to ask questions, to discuss the issues of the day, and to think for ourselves. When we moved to Lima, Peru, in the mid-1960s, my sisters and I were adolescents testing the limits of authority. Sensing that yet another lesson on the First Vision in Spanish would not sustain our faith, my father created his own Sunday class for us where we engaged in gospel study more appropriate to our intellectual abilities.

While in college I came to the realization that I needed to obtain a testimony of the truthfulness of the church on my own. I studied the scriptures daily, took classes in religion, and prayed for a conviction of the truths that I had lived throughout my life. At home one summer, I attended a Sunday evening meeting at the Stanford chapel. As the speaker bore testimony, I received a spiritual witness and a feeling in my whole body that attested to the truth.

I have not questioned the memory of that moment since, but while earning my doctorate at the University of Chicago, I very nearly left the church. After a time of walking only by faith, I regained my belief. It has been made more precious to me for nearly having lost it. Now I am content with knowing that God loves me, that he sent His son to redeem the world from sorrow and sin, and that His sacrifice means that I can forgive and be forgiven. This I know in my heart, and it is all I need to know.

——————————————————

Susan Sessions Rugh is a professor of history at Brigham Young University.

Posted May 2010

Footer

FairMormon Logo

FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our Friends

  • BYU Religious Studies Center
  • BYU Studies
  • Book of Mormon Central
  • TheFamilyProclamation.org
  • Interpreter Foundation
  • Wilford Woodruff Papers Project

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • iTunes
  • YouTube

Donate to FAIR

We are a volunteer organization. We invite you to give back.

Donate Now

Donate to us by shopping at Amazon at no extra cost to you. Learn how →

Site Footer

Copyright © 1997-2023 by The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of FAIR, its officers, directors or supporters.

No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written consent of The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, Inc.

Any opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the goods and services offered by FAIR are solely those of FAIR and not those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) Logo

FAIR is controlled and operated by the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR)