Robert Coker is instructing post-secondary level religion courses at Nicholls associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to educate students about the Mormon faith.
The free courses being offered to Nicholls students are Religion 121 this semester and Religion 122 next semester. These courses carry two credit hours at Nicholls, and the classes are open to students of all faiths.
Coker is a retired professor from Idaho State University, and his main responsibility is to teach these courses to young people in the area. These religion classes are also being taught at Tulane University and Southeastern Louisiana University.
According to Coker, the courses are taught every Tuesday for 15 weeks. The second class was taught on Sept. 10 at a private residence in Thibodaux due to scheduling problems, but classes will be taught in the Student Union Lafitte room starting Sept. 17 at 6:30 pm and will last 90 minutes.
So far, there are five students enrolled in the class, but Coker is hoping that once more information is released about the class, the number of students will increase. There are four more spots available for the class.
“The course is designed to help students better understand the Book of Mormon, which is another Testament of Jesus Christ,” Coker said. “The Book of Mormon details prophetic writings and events that took place in the Americas mainly between 600 B.C. to 400 A.D.”  
Coker said, “This class will be beneficial to curious students to better understand the Mormon faith and what it is based on.”
According to Coker, the courses are taught through small group discussion and class participation with young adult students in mind. There is a textbook available online to help students better understand the material being taught in these classes.
The classes will be held in the summer of 2014 as well as the following fall semester but with a different topic that is undetermined at this time.     
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 14,782,473 members worldwide since its start in 1830. The main book of the religion is the Book of Mormon, which was translated from metal plates given to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Mormons have been in the public eye in recent years beginning when Mitt Romney ran for president in 2012 and when the musical “The Book of Mormon” began on Broadway. The publicity that the faith has been given recently has sparked many misconceptions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of these myths include the practice of polygamy among modern Mormons and that people of the faith are not Christians.
Coker said, “This class will hopefully clear up the misconceptions and will open the door for discussion among students that may be in the dark about the Mormon religion.”