When you think of Brigham Young University in Utah,
you probably know it as the school a lot of Mormons go to.
And that's entirely true.
What you may not know is that a lot of non-Mormons also attend for a variety of reasons.
Everyone though, has to abide by the school's Honor Code.
That means no alcohol, no coffee, no drugs, no premarital sex,
definitely not being gay,
and even if you're not Mormon, you agree to abide by these rules if you go there.
And BYU, as a private religious school, has a right to do that.
There are a couple of important differences, though,
between how Mormons and non-Mormons are treated at the University.
If you're not Mormon, you have to pay double the tuition of the other students.
It's kinda like going to an out-of-state school.
And again, BYU is a private school. They have a right to do this if they want to.
But here's the more interesting difference:
Suppose you're a non-Mormon who goes to BYU,
and you start having second thoughts about your beliefs.
Suppose you're an evangelical Christian and you become an atheist.
That's fine. BYU doesn't care.
If you're an atheist -- who
for some reason attends BYU -- and you become an evangelical Christian,
also fine.
But if you're a Mormon at BYU
and you decide you don't believe that stuff anymore,
the punishment is extremely harsh.
Forget getting kicked out of the Church. I mean, that's a given.
BYU will expel you.
They could also evict you from BYU housing.
If you work on campus, they could fire you from your job.
And even if you transfer to another school, they could put a hold on your transcript.
And even if they release it, they could put a notation on it that says you were not in compliance with their Honor Code.
And without any more details, just think about that. If someone else sees that you didn't follow the Honor Code,
it sounds to them like you were cheating or something, when the truth is you didn't do anything wrong.
Basically, BYU will ruin your life if you are a Mormon who
stops mormoning.
Now, maybe you're like me and you think there's an easy solution to all of this:
If you're a Mormon and you stop believing in your faith,
you just have to pay the higher tuition
and you get treated like all the other non-Mormon students.
And that's it. No other punishment.
That seems like the obvious thing to do.
That would make sense.
But that's not what BYU does.
They take Mormon students, they single them out,
and they punish them severely if they change their minds.
It is easier to be an atheist at BYU
than a Mormon who becomes an atheist at BYU.
Think about this for a second.
They're basically telling Mormon students:
"Don't become critical thinkers."
"Don't put your religion under scrutiny."
"Don't you dare change your mind, because if you do, we are coming after you."
If you're a student and you're going through that,
what choice do you have at that point, other than to lie?
If you're a Mormon student at BYU and, let's say your parents are paying your tuition or something,
you're basically forced into the faith, because the consequences for leaving are so severe.
I would add that if you talk to BYU students,
they'll tell you BYU isn't just a religious school,
it's a community.
So, being forced out of there, it doesn't just mean you're gonna lose your friends,
it means you basically have to break ties with all the networks you formed there.
It is hard enough, when you're a Mormon
to leave the faith that you were raised with. And we could say that about any religion.
So, why is BYU making it even harder for these students by kicking them out of school?
Shouldn't college be a place where that sort of thinking is encouraged?
I mean, why should students fear
questioning their beliefs?
Now, here's the good news:
There's a group of parents, alumni, anonymous students and faculty members
trying to change all this.
The group is called FreeBYU
and they're asking the school to update its Honor Code, so that if you are a Mormon
who decides to leave the faith,
you're not going to be expelled, you're not going to be evicted from your housing and you're not going to lose your job.
FreeBYU says that if you're a Mormon who leaves the faith,
you should just have to pay the higher tuition.
It's a pretty reasonable demand,
but so far,
the school hasn't budged.
FreeBYU has also taken another major step recently.
See? BYU is an accredited school.
They meet the sort of high standard.
That makes them a legit university. You know, if you graduate from BYU,
your degree means something.
But this honor code that they have, that unfairly punishes Mormon students who leave the faith,
may actually be violating accreditation rules.
The Northwest Commission on colleges and universities accredits BYU.
And they looked at that honor code and said: "Yeah, BYU may be violating their accreditation standards."
FreeBYU filed a complaint and they should be getting a response this summer.
Also BYU's law school, which has the same policy,
may be violating the accreditation standards with the American Bar Association.
So, the group has filed a formal complaint with the law school,
saying that if you don't change your policy,
you can't be giving out law degrees.
Hopefully, BYU leaders realize the chokehold they're putting on students and fix this.
I mean, you can't force someone to stay in the faith by threatening them.
That defeats the whole idea of faith.
So, we'll see if they come to their senses.
You know, for a church that use the religious freedom argument
when it was fighting marriage equality in California,
you would think they'd see the hypocrisy in all this.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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