Brandon Davies, a star player on the BYU basketball team has been suspended for the rest of the year due to an honor code violation. The interesting part of this story is the amount of attention this story is getting. Now BYU currently sits at number 3 in the college basketball polls have lost the possibility of winning the NCAA tournament. At least that’s what some commentators believe and it’s all over the honor code. When students decide to go to BYU they must sign the honor code. It’s something that is a known fact and it’s not kept secret. The honor code is important especially since BYU is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of which I am a member. If the student is a member of the church, the honor code should not be hard to follow. I am not saying that things do not happen because of the honor code. I am just saying that the honor code is something the majority of the students have already been living. But I guess what really gets me is the crazy reactions from columnists, sports writers, etc… on this issue. One columnist, Alexandra Petri, who writes for the Washington Post said BYU is just bizarre. Others can’t believe that pre-martial sex is frowned upon. Others, mostly sports writers, have written BYU’s basketball team off. Apparently the offending player was the team. Now they will have to limp through the rest of the season even though they are 27-3. What has happened to the morals of our country? We don’t have to look very far to find they have gone down hill. We certainly don’t have examples in Washington or Hollywood. But I believe BYU has set a great example that shows that no matter what honor is more important than basketball or any other sport for that matter. We need to get it thorough to our young men and women that we don’t go off to school to party hard and hope to graduate. We need to teach them that by being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtous and in doing good to all men that these things will get them farther than any drink, indiscretion or other immoral behavior will get them. This young man has a huge support group and he will not be thrown out on the sidewalk. That is one of the many wonderful parts of the LDS Church — redemption. I applaud BYU for upholding the standards that have been set forth. And by the way, I think the basketball team can pull it together. Go Cougars!
The 13th Article of Faith:
aWe believe in being bhonest, true, cchaste, dbenevolent, virtuous, and in doing egood to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we fhope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to gendure all things. If there is anything hvirtuous, ilovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.