Everyone has their own opinions and feelings about the honor code ranging from “It’s scripture in my book,” to “Who cares?” to “Remind me why it’s bad to use the bathroom there.” Being in my second year at BYU I have heard endless excuses and too much talk but never any real reasons for the inappropriate and overreaching applications of the honor code. I am tired of being assumed to be a sex-crazed lunatic and treated as if I am incapable of keeping the commandments without specific university direction. The honor code should exist to promote, “A learning atmosphere consistent with the principles of the Church,” as it claims and not regulate my bedtime or tell me when I can go to the bathroom.
My freshman year I lived in Deseret Towers. The honor code stated that women were only allowed in our rooms Wednesday and Sunday from 7-9pm. We were told that this was to keep us from breaking the law of chastity; because we all know that a guy and a girl care incapable of keeping the law of chastity if they are left alone. In his talk, To Act for Ourselves, Elder Robert D. Hales of the quorum of the 12 apostles explained that, “If, through our unrighteous choices, we have lost our footing on that path, we must remember the agency we were given, agency we may choose to exercise again … I testify the only way is through the very agency you exercised so valiantly in your pre-mortal life, the agency that the adversary cannot take away without your yielding it to him.” Agency is the key. We chose to follow God since before we were born, we have been called a chosen generation, the greatest generation this church has ever seen. I keep the law of chastity and all other commandments because I choose to, not because my daddy told me to. I trust God and give my agency to Him and He trusts me to use it righteously.
4 comments:
I think that you are right in saying that some aspects of the Honor Code are a little intense, and I agree that sometimes people can be seemingly too intense with their interpretations and application of the Honor Code. However, many people come to BYU because of the structured environment. They don’t want to have to deal with their roommates having their girlfriends/boyfriends over and doing “scandalous” activities. The Honor Code helps protect The Honor Code, like any other law exists because as the rights of the people around you. Human beings we are not angles. While some of us are able to maintain a reasonable amount of self-control, you have to remember that many more can’t. We all agreed to the terms of the Honor Code, so we just have to live with it regardless of how much we may disagree with it.
I completely agree with you. I understand what the rules are there for, but I believe that we need to make our own choices. As college students I definitely think that we are capable of that. In reality we are all going to back to our lives back home where there are no rules about whose room or bathroom we can go into.
You right no one can force you to live the commandments you have to make that decision yourself but the honor code can help you in your decision.
I agree with all of the points you made in your post but I still think that the honor code is the only way to maintain BYU's high standards. I have been in the same position that you described where my intentions were only to use the bathroom, but I didn't have a problem with being inconvenienced by an honor code that maintains the atmosphere at BYU that made me want to come here to school.
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