I am just gonna say it. BYU's honor code is stupid. There I said it. It's been said. Out here on the Internet. Now what? I guess I have to sizzle lightly in heck now for eternity. Might as well grow my beard out if I am gonna burn anyway. Too late, already did that (the beard not the burn). Forget that, where's the O'Doul's?
K so here's why it's stupid. First the phrase "on your honor" has nothing to do with the honor code. Because you are not on your honor. You are watched closely by the Ystopo. I just invented that term BTW (the Y + Gestapo + stop = Ystopo). Anyway the Ystopo has an army of moles who are on their honor to rat you out or be considered an accomplice to unauthorized facial hair or using the wrong gender restroom without preapproved medical emergency.
So it's hypocritical. Also no beards? That's pretty hypocritical considering the school's founder was famous for his beard. I won't bring in someone else really famous and has a long beard too.
They make a weekday curfew for opposite genders. That's cool. Midnight. I get it so no sex right? Sure. Except then why is the curfew on Friday 1:30am? If there were any time to have sex with your girlfriend/boyfriend/random stranger it would be a Friday night, you know so you could sleep in the next day. No homework due the next day. Yeah, makes no sense. Unless their strategy is to get you to do your homework. Thanks mom!
That's pretty much all the honor code has to offer. Except for the regular stuff like the other rules Mormons need to follow. Oh and no cheating on tests. Good thing we have the honor code to tell us that. If the Ystopo tortures a confession out of me, I'll just tell them the beard made me do it.
Don't worry about burning. You're already brown. :) Is there a better alternative to the Honor Code? If so, what is it?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how about the treating adults like they're adults code? Or the teach the people correct principals and let them govern themselves code? I guess I have to accept it because I signed it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Is dissention against the honor code? I hope so. I like rebelling in a way that I don't consider a sin.
ReplyDeleteAt least we're not at BYU-Idaho where wearing faded jeans is a sin and women are allowed to wear knee-length skirts but not capris and nobody can wear shorts on campus.
ReplyDeleteAnd where R-rated movies are expressly forbidden and approved housing complexes have to make sure residents can't watch MTV. And violent computer and video games are forbidden.
At least here we have some semblance of trust that we can choose appropriate entertainment and attire.
They are yet more holy for it.
ReplyDeleteI like the honor code. I don't always keep it, but I respect it for its merits. I think of it as just more commandments: hard to follow all of them all the time, but I get blessed for trying.
ReplyDeleteGood I made you a list of new arbitrary rules to follow so you can get even more blessings.
ReplyDeleteNo blue sandals
No leaving the house without plucking your eyebrows
No singing of pop songs
No PG movies
No sleeping in past 9:30
Oh and No chocolate!
Chocolate: A moment on your lips, forever on your hips... in hell.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not like other universities don't have some of the same rules - if you cheat or plagiarize anywhere, the penalty is pretty much always an automatic F in the class with the possibility of being expelled from the university. BYU just has extra rules, which I also think are ridiculous. Still, I agree that if you agree to live by them, you should. I just don't think they should make it a requirement to go to school there to not have facial hair. And BYU-I is crazy - why do you think no one ever transfers from BYU to BYU-I?
ReplyDeleteJonathan, but the Code DOES treat adults like adults and it also teaches correct principles and allows people to govern themselves. That's at the beginning of the Honor Code itself at http://saas.byu.edu/catalog/2009-2010ucat/GeneralInfo/HonorCode.php#HCOfficeInvovement. If you just focused on living the principles included within the Honor Code Statement, you wouldn't even have to worry about the reading anything that followed. What follows the Honor Code Statement are simply examples of practical application of those principles.
ReplyDeleteExcept for no beards and no turning in the same assignment (which you completed honestly) in more than one class and the curfew. None of those would ever have occurred to me just from reading the principles of the Honor Code.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. You are assuming that beard shaving is a correct principle. Everything else it teaches is already taught and presummably followed. I don't know why you would go to BYU if you were a Jack Mormon.
ReplyDeleteThere are two parts to the honor code. The unnecessary part which I guess doesn’t bother me to state officially. Basically this could be summed as "be worthy of a temple recommend" which seems like a good but redundant rule for BYU students. At least it covers the nonLDS that go here and therefore don’t go to church or pay tithes.
Then there is the part about being clean shaven. "Beards are unacceptable." I am sorry but that is just plain completely stupid. BYU Idaho is much, much stupider with their rules but then again they get more blessing for inventing their own commandments.
Jonathan, beard shaving is a correct principle. Remember when the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” ? Check out 2 Nephi 17:20 and tell me that beard shaving is not in the most correct of any book on earth, baby!
ReplyDeleteRachel, you CAN turn in the same assignment (which you completed honestly) in more than one class. All you have to do is disclose you will be submitting one assignment for multiple classes and have your professor approve it. That kind of transparency in communication between students and professors is covered in the "Be honest" section of the Honor Code Statement.
ReplyDeleteThe Honor Code also includes no curfew. It only includes visiting hours--especially for members of the opposite sex. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm assuming your roommates don't want members of the opposite sex in the apartment at all times. So having an established time that visitors leave only preserves good roommate relations. Preserving good roommate relations is under "Respect others" in the Honor Code Statement.
Peace.
I apologize if I have offended anyone--that was not my intention. My intention was simply to encourage others to investigate and learn more about the principles supporting the Honor Code rather than investigate ways in which the Honor Code sucks. I guess I could have just said that at the beginning, huh? Sorry about that. Anyway, whether or not you love the Honor Code or not, I guess everyone has to decide whether they will find ways to disparage it according to their current understanding or learn more about it so they can support it. I hope we choose the latter.
ReplyDeleteI should clarify why this was wrotten. I don't like shaving or being told that I have to shave.
ReplyDeleteJonathan, way to go on this blog entry. I think the Honor Code is a croc. It goes beyond dictating behavior by commanding beliefs. I had an atheist friend leave BYU 1 semester shy of a double-major degree because he felt the honor code was trying to dictate not only his actions, but his beliefs as well. There was a clause against "Advocating homosexual behavior." Well to him, he obviously has no problem with homosexuality. He saw it as a document forcing him to contradict his personal beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI find that unjust considering it's anti-pornography clause precludes an ecclesiastical endorsement while my bishop claims 50%+ of the guys in the ward have a porn problem.
You want my opinion? I think it's an attempt to de-individuate students into a state of conformity so the university and church can maintain obedience and church activity through group pressure.
Do I have a problem breaking the Honor Code? I break the letter of it all the time. But according to the document, I'm worse off for having a group conversation in the kitchen with the lights on at 12:01 than my friends making out in an empty, dark apartment at 11:59.