The return to the Jerusalem Center

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The SL Trib looks at the return to BYU’s Jerusalem Center since it reopened.  The story emphasizes the need for its students to NOT talk about the Church:

“We do not proselytize. Even if someone asks, we tell them we are Christians and that’s all we can say,” explained Jill Heyes, of Salt Lake City, who in November was nine months into a year of volunteer service with her husband. “It goes right against everything we learned growing up.”

Missionary work is banned in Israel, where an aversion to conversion, forced or otherwise, reigns. Historical scars such as the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition likely weighed on the minds of those who founded the modern Jewish state. So written into the lease BYU signed for the 5 acres of land, upon which it built the sprawling 125,000-square-foot building, was a condition prohibiting all proselytizing, said Jim Kearl of BYU, who’s overseen the center since 1989, one year after it opened. Students and adults who come to BYU Jerusalem must sign an agreement to uphold their end of the deal.

“The integrity of the church is on the line,” Heyes said. “We have to keep our promise. . . . We will do that until the Israeli government says you can teach. And they haven’t said that.”