I Am Bismark

ok, so i was reading through my old journal i kept my freshman year at BYU. man, i wish i would have kept that up. some classic stuff in there. i wish i could post more of it, but some of the people discussed in there are still acquaintances. anyway, for my writing class i had to answer a number of questions in my journal. here was an interesting one about the honor code. i think most of you who know me will be interested to see that my feelings on the honor code have not changed much in the past three years. enjoy:

Why (or why not) is it important to have an Honor Code?

Hmm. Hehe, this is thought provoking. Is it necessary? Well, the majority of the students here at BYU are members of the Church. Therefore, under their baptismal covenants (and in some cases, temple covenants), they are required to live a certain way. There is a set of commandments that they must keep as part of those covenants, including the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, the 10 Commandments, tithing, etc etc. And then here at BYU there is the Honor Code. Basically, it tells all of students at BYU that they have to keep these same commandments (with a few extra tacked on) in order to stay at BYU. In reality, I think this is pointless. A member of the Church attending any other university can be strictly following the commandments and living a good life, though still stay out at their female friend’s apartment after midnight, and can sport shaggy hair. These things are not against Gospel principles. It is interesting that a member outside of BYU would have less rules, where it would seem as if a person would be more likely to face temptation because of the fewer numbers of those with similar standards. So why do we, who are at BYU, need these extra rules? I mean, I have no problem with the Honor Code stating we need to keep the commandments, but why not just leave it at we must keep our baptismal covenants? Why the added padding? What good does it really do for us? I really feel that some parts of the Honor Code are silly and without reason. Another thing that is silly, is I have been told that in most cases, if someone confesses a sin to a bishop, the bishop will not report them to the Honor Code office, even if there has been a violation. I think this just exemplifies the superfluous nature of the Honor Code. If the violation is enough to put someone in danger of losing their baptismal covenants, shouldn’t that be enough? I guess there is some need to separate the University from the Church, but still, I think the Honor Code office tries to do too much sometimes. The Honor Code should not be what dictates our actions, it should be our covenants with the Lord. And because the covenants we make have no mention of long hair or facial hair, why should the Honor Code go against these things? Is there really any justification of having those rules? This isn’t like a commandment where we can just say that we don’t need to know the reason, we should just have faith, because it is from God. The Honor Code is not from God. Granted, men such as prophets and apostles have come up with [actually i was mistaken here…], yet it is still just a man-made policy. Therefore, we should not be expected to be subject to pointless rules. The Honor Code is not Church doctrine, nor is it canonized scripture. Why are we punished for attending BYU by having rules placed upon us, with seemingly no reason? Anyway, enough ranting for the evening. Thanks.