Posted on 03/05/2009 6:39:10 PM PST by delacoert
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 very clear," says Carri Jenkins, Brigham Young University spokeswoman. "It really is a matter of integrity."
It's a contract of sorts between the school and the student. And Hardy didn't hold up his end, Jenkins says.
If we're speaking strictly in business terms, seems like BYU hasn't either.
The dispute centers on a matter of days.
A faithful Mormon boy, a returned missionary, Hardy attended the church's private university from 1999 to 2002. He left four credits -- a religion class, as it turns out -- short. Six years later, he took a Utah history course by correspondence, bought his cap and gown, walked with his class, snapped a picture with his parents. An adviser shook his hand.
But 31 days earlier, church elders had kicked him out for "conduct unbecoming of a member of the church" (really, it was about the calendar) -- a clear violation of BYU's honor code. So, four years of classes and $10,000 in loans down the drain.
It wouldn't matter if Hardy offended the code of conduct as a sophomore or the night before graduation, Jenkins says. Rules are rules . Students have to be code-worthy on graduation day.
Hardy figures he's being used to keep other students in line.
"They're dragging this out and making an example of me. And I'm letting them do it," he says. "They control by fear. I'm just allowing people to watch."
Last fall, he appealed the university's decision. A week ago, he got the letter from Dean of Students Vernon Heperi -- no diploma. Hardy refused to answer BYU's questions about his sex life, whether he drank coffee after 2002. As far as he's concerned, those details are none of their business now.
So, Heperi searched Hardy's Web site for some proof.
"I find that the material related to this calendar, as well as other material posted on your Web Site, is inappropriate in light of the teachings of the church and the applicable above-referenced Honor Code principles," Heperi wrote.
To be honest, Hardy, 32, doesn't need the diploma. He has a successful team-building business in Las Vegas. "Men on a Mission" has sold just under 20,000 copies; the proceeds are donated to charity. He's launching a pinup calendar of Mormon Vargas girls, "Hot, Mormon Muffins: Taste of Motherhood." He pays his legal bills with donations.
Still, he wants the diploma. He earned and paid for it. He's thinking of going to court.
"If I was a dishonest person, I would play their game," Hardy says. He's been told he can have the scrap of parchment if he'll return to the church.
I believe that's known as ransom.
>> Hardy published a cheeky little calendar of scantily clad return missionaries
Picture thread?
They’re dudes. If you like that sort of thing...
BURN!
>> They’re dudes. If you like that sort of thing...
BOY IS MY FACE RED! Naw, I prefer the opposite sex. That’ll teach me to read the article before i pop off! Well probably not.
He's launching a pinup calendar of Mormon Vargas girls, "Hot, Mormon Muffins: Taste of Motherhood."
Ping
Hum, no wonder Ole’ Joe brought in polygamy and ran off the husbands...
We are the Morg, resistance is futile
So was EMMA!
|
THE
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS SECTION 132
51–57, Emma Smith is counseled (commanded) to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.
51 Verily, I say unto you: A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to aprove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice.
52 And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, areceive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God.
53 For I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things; for he hath been afaithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will strengthen him.
55 But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an ahundredfold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of beternal lives in the eternal worlds.
|
Restornu has a fine eye for that sort of stuff.
I'll bet SHE could help you!
Oh MY! I guess they will have to excommunicate the author of the book that art work is found in!!!!
I guess with all their false prophecies and faults, at least Joe Smith and Brigham Young were REAL men, like the muscled guys in the paintings and the calendar.
Smitty inspecting the Nauvoo legion with ladies (looking for prospective plural wives)
HEY!!
They CLEARLY aren’t wearing “the garments”...
Doesn’t that mean that they could be vulnerable to some sort of “whammy”?
(take whatever meaning from that you want to...)
A.A.C.
Either that or bicycle peddles..
With the “handsome” looking male morg in white shirts with name tags saying “Brother 1354 of 12,956,098 and dropping”...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.