March 3, 2011
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Brigham Young would not be proud
Brigham Young was not averse to getting it on. According to his Wikipedia entry, the man had 55 wives, resulting in 56 children.
Thus it is with considerable irony we read that the school bearing his name has suspended one of its star athletes for having consensual sex with his girlfriend. The Boston Globe editorial column notes that this suspension will most likely wreck BYU’s run at a championship, making this a poor decision in three realms: personal freedom, politics, and efficacy.
But I would argue that Brandon Davies didn’t make his decision about whether premarital sex would affect his honor when he signed up to attend an academic institution. At at time like that, the terms before him on the form were just words on a piece of paper. They lacked reality and immediacy. Rather, he made a choice on the night when he decided he and his girlfriend should act like a man and a woman in love. The argument that his prior commitment to an impersonal institution is the most important consideration in defining his honor – and settling his deep questions of love and faith – is legalistic and shallow.
The Biblical punishment for consensual, premarital sex between a young man and woman already in a relationship isn’t really punitive, by the way. It just requires the couple to get married, to tie up any loose ends and ensure continuity and stability in the community.
Comments (4)
Did Brigham Young marry those women first? Polygamy != premarital sex.
Btw, the biblical prescription you refer to was a part of the law system of Israel in the OT. It also called for sacrifices to be made at the temple in Jerusalem and for 10% of one’s income to be given to the tribe of Levi. It’s obsolete.
Furthermore, Mormons have several holy books, the Bible just being one of them.
I think the suspension is harsh. However, like it or not, he broke his contractual commitment. Also, if BYU is willing to put that in their requirements, then they’re willing to lose a shot at a championship over it. For them, morality (even if it’s an extreme position they hold) > basketball. I admire their integrity if nothing else.
@stuartandabby -
No one is saying polygamy is exactly equal to premarital sex. However, there is a spectrum here, with marital sex at one end and one-night stands on the other. To which end do you think sex in an established and publicly acknowledged relationship falls? Remember, that’s all that it took for people to be married originally: public acknowledgment and acceptance of a relationship by both families.
I certainly am not saying BYU can’t suspend him. They have the power to do so. I’m just saying that it appears they punished him without respect for the tradition set forth in the Bible, which treats it as an offense of far less severity than, say, violent assault (which, looking at other athletes’ cases, would result in the same suspension.)
That the Mormons have the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible is true, but irrelevant, as long as we agree that the Bible and its traditions are important to them.
A statement like, “Mormons have several holy books, the Bible just being one of them,” actually muddies the moral side of the issue: if BYU elders are allowed to decide their morality with selective reference to the Bible, discarding those parts which disagree with their ideas, then why can’t Brandon Davies do the same?
Don’t know, but if you think contracts that you sign are ‘just words on a piece of paper,’ and ‘legalistic and shallow,’ please never sign a contract.