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| JESSICA MERRIFIELD / Scroll |
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| After studying The Bible, Baron began to study about the LDS faith and now teaches religion classes to LDS students. |
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Holding an old, scratched wooden picture frame on a Thursday afternoon, BYU-Idaho religion professor Ross Baron looks at the black and white photograph of his Jewish grandmother contained inside.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” he asks. “My grandparents were from Russia and England. They spoke Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew and English.”
Baron comes from a long lineage of Jews and was raised in the religion until the age of 18 when he decided to forsake the ways of his forbearers and join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I was 8 or 9 when I started asking questions,” he said. “You know, Plan of Salvation questions. I thought about the Holocaust. Why would God allow all of that pain and suffering? Why were we here? I became a searcher. I started studying Buddhism and Daoism and found it all very fascinating, but never joined or united to anything,” Baron said.
During Baron’s senior year of high school, he decided to do something different and start reading the New Testament early in the morning before school started because he couldn’t bring it into his home.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “But as I started reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I knew it was true. I had never had that sort of an experience where I had such a deep spiritual impression. I decided to be a Christ follower.”
Baron decided to join a born-again Christian club on campus because he was “just so darn curious.” However, by the end of his first meeting, he was left with an uneasy feeling.
“As I was leaving, this guy told me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t read the Book of Mormon. It’s the devil’s book.’ The second he said it I knew it wasn’t true because I knew a Mormon girl named Brooke and she had ‘the glow,’” Baron said.
After speaking to another Mormon friend about his questions, he was given several books to read including Jesus the Christ and A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, which he read in two weeks. Over the next four months, Baron was able to hear the missionary discussions and be baptized. A year later he served a mission to the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission.
Despite his excitement over his newfound testimony, Baron’s family struggled with his decision.
“There are three types of Jews,” Baron said. “Orthodox, conservative and reformed. If you’re an Orthodox Jew and you convert [to another faith], it’s like you’ve died and they will have a funeral for you. Like most Jews, my parents were reformed Jews, which are not necessarily as religious or Bible-literate. Conversion is not such a big deal, but it still made for a difficult family situation.”
Baron’s parents have been invited and will be attending the inauguration of President Clark on Tuesday as distinguished guests representing the University of Southern California.
Baron later went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts from BYU, Provo and both a master’s degree and a doctorate in Religion and Social Ethics from USC. He also became an institute director for 12 years in Southern California before coming to BYU-I this summer to teach Book of Mormon and New Testament classes.
“He is as enthusiastic as they get,” said Larry Thurgood, department chair of Religious Education, of Baron. “He is very knowledgeable and very converted to the gospel. CES even asked to videotape his class a few months ago and were going to use portions of it to train teachers how to teach. He is one of the wonderful teachers that were hired this year, among others like Teri Call and Lori Woodland. They are great contributors.”
Baron has become increasingly grateful for his LDS faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ during the 28 years as a Church member.
“People have asked me, ‘What did you think about Jesus while growing up?’ Well, I didn’t,” Baron said. “In the 18 years growing up in my home, there was not one single discussion about it.”
Baron feels that being a convert has helped him to relate to others and help them understand that becoming LDS was the result of much study and searching on his part.
“I love it when people think I’ve been Mormon all my life,” Baron said. “It gives me a certain credibility. There was no blind decision; there was a price to pay. I didn’t just dig my head in the sand.”
