Free Republic

Reporting from Las Vegas -- A male model wearing a kilt of black vinyl strips, a red belt with a gold buckle and little else is flexing his muscles amid fake oil derricks and Roman columns in a photo studio. All chiseled pectorals and tanned thighs, he is playing Captain Moroni, a battlefield hero in the Book of Mormon who rallied troops with the Title of Liberty banner. ... Hardy was emboldened. The 2009 calendar cover resembles a painting of the second coming of Christ. The shirtless model wears a rose-colored sash and white loincloth and is outlined in...

Run-of-the-mill excommunications get very little notice. Ward gossip about the guy who sold drugs, the woman who left her husband, quietly fades. We only hear about the celebrities kicked out of the Mormon church -- the outspoken feminists, the skeptical historians. If anything, excommunication makes them more well-known. Chad Hardy's mistake was becoming slightly famous. Two years ago, Hardy published a cheeky little calendar of scantily clad return missionaries and it cost him first his church membership and then his college diploma. BYU is holding it hostage. "The agreement is that you will uphold the honor code. This is made...

In a letter dated September 29, 2008, Chad Hardy, producer of the infamous Men on a Mission Calendars and website, received a letter from Brigham Young University informing him that his name had been removed from the August 15, 2008 graduation roll. The letter stated that he would not be awarded his BA degree in Communication Studies because he had been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on July 13, 2008, a month before graduation. All of his required coursework had already been completed prior to the church discipline. He was not required to abide by...

Brigham Young University has denied an appeal to award a diploma that the creator of a Mormon beefcake calendar says he earned. Chad Hardy's diploma was withheld by BYU last fall after he was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns and runs the school. Hardy was excommunicated during the month between completing his courses and graduation ceremonies. Hardy appealed and met with Dean of Students Vernon L. Heperi on Feb. 13. In the meeting, Heperi sought to determine whether Hardy's life is guided by the school's honor code, which reflects the values of the...