Mormon excommunicated over shirtless calendar now won't receive his Brigham Young degree

[Bluebear]

The Las Vegas man excommunicated by the Mormon church after publishing a calendar featuring shirtless returned missionaries on Friday appealed a decision by Brigham Young University to withhold his diploma.

Chad Hardy was told that his July excommunication from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made him ineligible for graduation. He had participated in the school's August commencement ceremonies.

In a letter sent Friday to the office of Norman Finlinson, executive director of BYU's Student, Academic and Advisement Services, Salt Lake City attorney Stephen C. Clark demanded the school award the diploma or hold a formal appeals process, which Hardy never had...

Hardy, 31, is the creator of the "Men on a Mission" calendar featuring returned missionaries posing shirtless in black suit slacks. He was excommunicated July 13 by a council of Las Vegas-based church leaders. Officially, the loss of membership was for conduct unbecoming a church member. In addition to the 2008 calendar, the charges were rooted in his failure to pay tithing and a lapse in other religious obligations, a senior church elder involved in the proceedings told The Associated Press in July.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11050699

[cwydro]

1. Gotta love those Mormons!

Sheesh.

[Bluebear]

2. I wonder if he'll get all of his tuition back

Yeah, right!

[hlthe2b]

4. Seems like a breach of contract to me...

[cwydro]

5. good point.

He certainly should.

[hlthe2b]

3. Where to start, where to start...?

Maybe I just won't begin at all...

God looking guy... Maybe he will find this little episode freeing in the long run...

[Cleita]

6. I hope he's crying all the way to the bank.

Apparently, if he wasn't tithing and meeting his religious obligations he already had parted from the church. The elders should take note.

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. Good lord

these people need to take a quaalude. Or get laid.

[EVDebs]

8. Pole-dancing Mormons make push for Olypics (seriously)

Pole-dancing Mormons make push for Olympics (seriously)
http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/pole-dancing-mormons-make-push-for.html

I don't know what the women's softballers have to say about this. But, when the going gets weird, the weird get going.

[elocs]

9. It's their church, their religion, their school, their rules.

What part of all of this did he not understand? I'm pretty sure he did understand and has learned that life is about choices and consequences. He made his choice, now he gets to deal with the consequences, which, in America, means a lawsuit.

[Bluebear]

10. 'life is about choices and consequences' LOL - - so should they keep his tuition money?

[elocs]

11. That's where the lawsuit comes in. n/t

[depakid]

12. The cultists can certainly excommunicate him- but witholding his degree is another matter

entirely.

A clever attorney can probably find a tort in this situation....

[lonestarnot]

16. Don't you have to be a cult member to go there?

[FreeState]

35. No - you just need a note from your church saying you will follow the rules and attend your church

while in school.

[enlightenment]

21. Private, religious school.

Rules out the kazoo - and students are made well aware of them when they enroll.

I don't agree with it (at all - I think religiously based schools are the antithesis of an enlightened education), but it's an LDS school for LDS students and if he went there voluntarily, he agreed to abide by their code of conduct.

http://honorcode.byu.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3585&Itemid=4643

[depakid]

30. If he's finished his coursework, he can't be denied his diploma on moral grounds

and as I mentioned, my bet is that in trying to do so, the university is setting itself up for more than just bad publicity, but also a breach of contract AND depending on the facts, potentially a tort action of some sort.

[FreeState]

36. Actually he can - see his website

http://www.chadhardy.com/meet_the_legal_team.html

"Brigham Young University is an accredited school. However, they are allowed to set its own standards for student expression, assembly, and "due process" rights. At publicly funded schools, student rights are governed by the standards of the U.S. Constitution. At private, religious institutions like BYU, a student "code of conduct" defines permissible speech and due process standards. This means BYU can revoke a degree based on a student having been excommunicated, whereas if a publicly-funded university, the same act would be considered discrimination based on religious affiliation. All BYU has to do is follow its own procedures, as stated in the Honor Code. "

[depakid]

37. Not on a vague and overbroad standard

such as "conduct unbecoming" that's been applied arbitrarily and capriciously, as it has in this case.

Won't happen- among other reasons- because the school's own due process requirements (e.g. reasonable notice of prohibited acts) have been violated.

[depakid]

38. Quick addendum

BYU seems to have learned public relations from the AIG and BIG 3 auto-manufacturer CEO's school of management....

[enlightenment]

41. I hope you're right -

but there are at least a dozen ways the university can come up with justifications for denying his diploma that have nothing to do with the moral portion of the honor code.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the guy (and continue to wonder why he thought BYU was a good idea to begin with . . .)

[Peregrine]

18. I wasn't aware that tuition bought a degree

If I knew that it would have saved me 4 years and I would just pay the $32K for my masters now.

tuition is for services that he received, it is no a guarantee of a degree. Now the fees he paid for the diploma and so forth should be paid back, but not the tuition.

[Bluebear]

20. He fulfilled the requirements for the degree. Your excusing them is disgraceful.

He fulfilled the hourly obligations to his curriculum and there is no reason for him not to matriculate.

[msanthrope]

24. BYU Gets Federal Funding....so, it's 'our' rules....

they can be 'private' all they want, but as their students get Pell, and other loans and grants, and as they get federal research grants and the like, they have to obey the rules of the federal government.....

for example...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_/ai_n11440332

[JanMichael]

13. God, I hope he's gay.

nt

[msongs]

14. "free at last, free at last, thank god almight, free at last" - who says LDS is not vindictive? nt

[Starry Messenger]

15. He is seriously cute.

That is so shallow of me. :blush: But I thought you didn't have to even be LDS to go to BYU. Something seems awry.

[TexasObserver]

17. That's why you should always go AROUND Utah.

The Mormon Church is Scientology with an extra hundred years under its belt.

[TexasObserver]

26. Addendum: Utah is actually a place of great beauty with some good people there.

Unfortunately, the state is controlled mainly by the LDS and its followers, however.

[Crunchy Frog]

19. Not wearing that magic underwear.

[AlCzervik]

22. Chad Hardy, he's already got a good porn name.

[Bobbie Jo]

32. ROFL

:rofl: He certainly does.

[Canuckistanian]

23. Lie with dogs, get up with fleas

Lesson learned.

[readmoreoften]

25. They should lose their accreditation.

[tsuki]

31. They should lose their federal funding. nt

[Odin2005]

27. More proof Utah sucks and Religion sucks harder.

[FreeState]

34. This actually happened in Nevada

The excommunication that is....

[Odin2005]

40. Doh, I must not of read the article carefully enough...

read Brigham Young University and assumed Utah...

[XemaSab]

28. He can graduate from Xema U

He's welcome to participate in my commencement exercise. ;)

[Bluebear]

29. :)

[Sheepshank]

33. Now i wonder..

Jim McMahan, star quarterback at BYU, non-mormon, always in trouble. Continued to play without paying tithing and got his degree? Apparenlty the missionary calendar didn't rise above the scruitiny of athletic quarterbacking.

PS how does this fit in with other non mormons that don't pay tithing yet attend BYU and graduate?

[trashcanistanista]

39. They want a cut from his calendar money.

I bet if he pays up they will give him his degree.

[qb]

42. I think he's doing ok... the 2009 calendar is out!

http://mormonsexposed.com/store.php

[LWolf]

43. You don't have to be a member of the LDS to attend the university.

I think he's got a legal challenge.