The BYU Student newspaper, The Daily Universe, published a scoop last week.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense requires all Air Force officers to sign an oath to defend the constitution — the only obligation for officers in terms of signatory requirements. BYU, however, requires that all faculty, staff and employees sign and abide by its Honor Code, which requires abstinence from tobacco, alcohol and coffee, among other things.
“I told the (university) president in an interview that I would happily abide by the Honor Code on campus, in uniform and on duty, but if I wanted to have a cup of coffee at my house they said, ‘No, that’s not acceptable,’” BYU Air Force ROTC commander Col. Timothy Hogan said.
BYU has one-year limited private exclusions for certain visiting professors. Hogan’s position, however, is a three-year assignment, and the university did not accept his waiver, according to Hogan.
Seriously? You won’t grant a waiver for a non-LDS teacher to drink coffee in his own home? Do you really support religious freedom, religious plurality?
According to the Daily Universe,
The commander of BYU’s Air Force ROTC cadets said the program will move to Utah Valley University.
UVU is just 4 miles down the road from BYU. The story got picked up by both the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, although the News soft-peddled the issue.
Do you agree with BYU’s response? Do you agree with the Air Force’s response?
Wheat & Tares 
This is an odd situation.
The honour code has been rigourously defended by byu and only changed recently due to significant pressure over threat of legal action on discrimination grounds. I would be very surprised if they offered to make an exception in this circumstance.
The more intrusive and specific such arbitrary rules are, the less likely they are able to withstand any sense of reasonable scrutiny. Applying such stupid restrictions makes application outside the “Utah bubble” almost impossible.
I agree LDS_Aussie. The guy could have a mega-sized red bull at his desk and be OK, but not have a cup of joe at home before coming in? At least the officer is showing that he has personal integrity. I wonder what the run of the mill student thinks of this.
As I recall a little more than a decade ago, BYU’s policy was what the commander is requesting, that non-member staff only be required to follow “honor” code dietary restriction while at work. When I was an undergraduate, I had a non-member professor who was quite livid that the policy was changed . BYU brought this on themselves and they should be embarrassed.
This is another weird example of elevating the Word of Wisdom far beyond anything that’s theologically justifiable.
I thought it was an intriguing development.
Part of me is not sure that this needs to be a big deal. Sure BYU could have made an exception, but the only thing lost is to have the AF ROTC move across town. BYU students will still be able to join the AF ROTC and everything that goes with it. It seems silly, but is there really anything lost here?
I also noted that, according to Col. Hogan, the DoD has anticipated this conflict for an unspecified length of time, and made preparations for this before he arrived. How might this effect the other ROTC programs at BYU? Once the AF ROTC has moved across town, it will be a simpler matter for the other branches of the military represented at BYU to follow suit, when the next assigned officer is unwilling to sign BYU’s honor code.
So many honor code (and dress and grooming standards, because I think they are different) discussions end with an “if you don’t intend to live by the honor code, don’t sign it and go elsewhere.” In this case, Col. Hogan (and his employer, the DoD) is doing just that. Abstinence from coffee is not important or necessary to the ROTC mission, so they are moving the program across town. BYU students will still be able to attend, so the only thing that really has changed is the location for classes and offices. It doesn’t seem like the substance of the program would need to change.
For a church that wants to make the case for “religious freedom” and “”religious liberty”, this is a case of “religious intolerance.” It makes the calls for religious freedom sound hollow when they won’t afford others the freedom to worship and practice according “to the dictates of their own conscience. Let them worship how, when, or what they may.” Why is BYU so hypocritical with non-LDS that they won’t follow this Article of Faith?
Like most defenders of religious freedom, the church seems to have a hard time remembering any freedoms but their own. Else why have a meeting on “religious freedom” that was really about how to avoid being called a bigot when you are grumpy about gay marriage at work when we have women simultaneously marching, concerned about our current president’s stance on rights for women (as well as his history of assaulting and humiliating women) and less than one week later we have a de facto Muslim ban. The church was slow to respond to the latter (and half-hearted at best) and literally mum on the former because women’s rights are not just off the radar, but they are actively opposed at BYU which purports to be so family friendly but has openly discriminatory hiring practices, lack of maternity leave (Idaho campus), and no child care support despite staff requesting it.
Yeah, they’ll cut off their nose to spite their face in a heartbeat.
It sounds like the ROTC move to UVU is a reasonable compromise. BYU students can continue to participate, and BYU doesn’t have to make changes to its honor code. I really do not understand BYU’s logic on this, though. The ROTC commander is not someone who is volunteers for the position, they are assigned by their commanders. In that case, it seems a bit extreme to tell them that they have to sign the honor code and promise to give up alcohol, coffee, and tobacco in their own home based on an assignment they may not have wanted. I suspect that, prior to now, either they were finding LDS commanders who were fine with the honor code or commanders who were fine with signing and then disregarding the honor code, and BYU was willing to play along with that arrangement and not investigate them in their own homes. So we have a new commander who is unwilling to go along with that charade, and there is no accommodation made.
I don’t entirely understand the relationship between the ROTC and the host school. Do the teachers get paid by the school? Does DoD pay for them and the benefit to DoD is that they get to recruit people? If the commander was, in some fashion, an employee of the school, that may change my thinking somewhat. But I still think it is unfair to impose your religious standards on people not of your faith.
This seems incredibly stupid and short-sighted on BYU’s part. I didn’t even realize the rule had been changed to not allow non-LDS to drink coffee in their own homes.
If I were a cadet attending BYU, I’d be pretty ticked about this. Sure they can go to UVU for classes and activities, but the difference between being able to do those things on your own campus and having to constantly schlep across town to do those things is not trivial.
Maybe a side topic—
But why do we maintain the ban on harmless substances like coffee and tea?
Unbelievably, mindbogglingly ridiculous. We’re talking a non-member in his own home, and a completely unwarranted intrusion into his personal life outside work. It’s things like this that remind me why I don’t want my kids going anywhere near BYU.
Here’s my post discussing the History of the <a href="https://mormonheretic.org/2012/05/20/word-of-wisdom-in-first-decade/"Word of Wisdom in the First Decade.
I suppose the commander could have lied and said he would not drink coffee in his home. That would also go against the spirit of the Honor Code. I think it’s ridiculous for BYU to force a non-member, who didn’t choose to teach there but was assigned by the US military. Surely BYU could bend on this issue. If the ROTC program goes to UVU, then it’s BYU’s loss, and UVU’s gain. BYU is being pedantic and stupid on this issue. It’s beyond belief that they can’t be flexible with a non-LDS US Military commander on the subject of coffee. Brigham Young not only drank coffee, but encourage the Pioneers to have coffee with them on the trail. Brigham now couldn’t attend the University named after him, not only because he was a coffee drinker, but his beard as well!
Let’s also not forget that Mitt Romney’s dad, George, used to have alcohol in his house and offer it to non-LDS business acquaintances as a sign of being polite. No politeness at BYU!
“Honor” and sipping coffee in the home have nothing to do with each other. Word of Wisdom has become something of idolatry it was never intended to be in the D&C revelations. Pretty stupid to me. Which is why BYU looks stupid in this situation. Good job BYU Honor Code defenders…you’ve succeeded in making yourself feel better about having non-sense rules and enforcing them…that is sooooo important. Pat yourselves on the back and keep telling yourselves you’re defending the honor, and keep telling yourself God is smiling down on you and your purity…because clearly these are the issues the Almighty God of the Universe cares about.
…by the way…keep banning caffeinated sodas on campus. There is no demand for it.
Let’s all sing it together now…
Fighting for a kingdom, and the world is our foe;
Happy are we! Happy are we!
Glad to join the army, we will sing as we go;
We shall gain the vict’ry by and by.
Dangers may gather–why should we fear?
Jesus, our Leader, ever is near.
He will protect us, comfort, and cheer.
We’re joyfully, joyfully marching to our home. (..because our homes don’t have coffee)
Curious: Does anyone know if BYU requires visiting professors, lecturers, speakers, etc. to give up coffee for their time at the school?
I had to read the story twice. The first time I honestly thought it was a joke.
If you read the Daily Universe article, it says that non-LDS faculty can get a 1 year exemption. Since the ROTC officer is appointed by the military for 3 years, they wouldn’t exempt him from the Honor Code. As Daniel mentioned, this policy changed a few years ago. It didn’t used to be the case.
I do not know why the policy was changed a few years back. Before, it was follow the Honor Code on campus, but you could drink at home or a restaurant if you were not a LDS. BYU obviously thinks they have good reason for this policy, else they would have kept it as is.
I also applaud the Air Force officer here. He also has demonstrated honor in a tough situation. BYU is a great campus for ROTC and he must have been reluctant to bring this issue to a head, even though it sounds like the Air Force had a contingency plan in place. If the Air Force thought it was not worth bothering, they could have removed ROTC from Utah County. Clearly, they want to keep a presence at BYU.
I agree with those who are perplexed. The consequences/effects of alcohol/tobacco are evident and documented; Tea/Coffee not so obvious. When I joined the Church I noticed that members got more upset about the notion of having a cup of coffee than eating too much meat; also a WoW violation.
Markag,
I would only add that there are benefits to drinking alcohol, tea, and coffee in moderation. Meat, sugar, etc…in moderation. There are consequences frequently associated with excess of any sort. The WOW is a guideline for moderation and temperance. It was given “Not by way of commandment”. The fact that we have elevated it to strict law about what we should avoid to appear different than the rest of the world is “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” When polygamy failed to make us a peculiar people and teetotalling became “en vogue” , leaders adapted a new policy that over time became the defining difference between us and “the world”. I think we would do much better to let Christlike love define us rather than our inflexible adherence to arbitrary rules.
We believe in religious freedom…unless someone not of our faith wants to drink coffee in the privacy of his own home. That is going too far.