Mormonism is based on guilt and fear. So now the Church has been able to, with a single news release, convey their core message of guilt and fear more quickly and more thoroughly than a year's worth of Sacrament meetings. No one is immune.

We will humiliate you, your girlfriend and your family, we will ruin your career and damage the careers (possibly even ruin) the careers of all your teammates. What is most important to us is control and guilt and fear are the best ways to achieve that.

I think the Honor Code is a joke, but it exists and clearly premarital sex is out of bounds for BYU students. This isn't a case where some ticky-tack violation got the kid booted off the team or out of school. Davies knew that he could get kicked out of BYU for premarital sex.

I don't see how this is humiliating, either. This isn't the Victorian Age. The girl is pregnant; it happens. If people don't know, they're going to know.

Davies's career isn't ruined. He'll either be back at BYU next year or he'll transfer. He has three years of eligibility left. I don't see how this ruins anyone else's career, either. Fredette is the only one on the team that has a clear future in basketball, and Davies's absence won't materially impact that future. As for the team, its a shame but not any different than if Davies had been injured.

I get people who have problems with the policy, but I don't get people who gripe that the policy was enforced. If Davies didn't want to accept that premarital sex could impact his college basketball career, then he should have chosen any other school in the country.

I think you're wrong that it would have been the same if Davies got injured.

Most guys at BYU have some level of a pornography problem. What the Davies incident does is it brings to the surface all the guilt and fear that they've managed to bury. It also makes them saddened over his spiritual welfare, which is more important than his physical well-being.

They can't take a "these things happen" attitude with this one. Just look at the signs at last night's New Mexico game. The whole student body is sharing the remorse phase of repentence with him, as evidenced by their efforts to look at what they still have (Jimmer). Jimmer's 3-pt shooting last night, and his apparent anguish despite his efforts to hide it, are further evidence.

And they won't snap out of it because they know they must suffer in order to be forgiven, and in the end they'll be happier than they otherwise could have been.

Most guys at BYU have some level of a pornography problem? How do you know this? My understanding is that pornography is filtered out of BYU computers on campus and even into the approved apartments.

The comments are amazing to me. Many non-mormons are defending the schools decision based on the idea that is was a contract and he broke the contract therefore should be punished. There is little discussion about the silliness of the contract to begin with. Baffling.

People have lost their critical thinking skills (if they ever had any) and don't even see the big picture of how personal rights are being destroyed. Sure, he signed the contract, but should that contract even exist? And I would bet most of the BYU kids are under such pressure to attend that they would feel pressured to sign about anything. What choice do most of them have? Their families and entire social/cultural world say they have to attend YBU. And that contract goes against really basic human/physical needs (sex) and wow, what a setup.

I'm a nevermo, and maybe my perception/remembrance of some people is off, but I thought most of those defending the CULT in this action were former members. Especially some that very often take a pro-Church stance, as they are in this.

As I've said before, the Church (unintentionally) TEACHES their members to lie and think it is OK without consequences (as in worthiness interviews). Members lie and don't get "caught" or called out in those interviews, so why would they think it any different to lie in signing an "honor code" or to think they would get "caught" breaking it?

That's what's ridiculous about the "honor code." If they wanted to, the CULT could call any member on it at any time, since there is NO ONE is 100% honest (being honest is one of the conditions) and I doubt that everyone goes around "encouraging" other members in keeping it. Exactly what constitutes "encouraging" their fellow CULT members in keeping the Code?

Some people are calling it a legal contract that attendees sign. Such vagueness of "being honest" would be thrown out of a legal contract. How often, and to whom? Is lying about the CULT to non-members (milk before meat) considered "being honest"? Not in my book. Every RM at YBU should be kicked out on that grounds.

How vague is "encouraging" members in keeping the Code? How can that be part of a legal contract? Exactly how (and how often) must you "encourage" other Cult members to keep the Code?

You could be honest today that yes you are keeping the honor code, but who knows really. You may sin tomorrow on accident. So it sounds as if you are only as good as your last day. To tie education in with keeping a moral code is risky, especially at an age where you aren't quite independent yet and don't quite know for yourself the things you were taught are what you plan on patterning your entire life after. You may plan to follow it but being human, people stumble and can't always live up to the standard.

Should not the leaders of the LDS church follow some sort of Honor Code too? I was a convert of the church for 20 years before I left because of a disingenuous representation of the church's history. They are hypocrites! Yet they are pouncing on this YOUNG man, making him a spectacle to make themselves look better.

The Honor Code is a strange little devise to keep control of the masses. But, at the same time, it's not a bad idea in the right situations. Think if our government and leaders had a real honor code and could be ousted for the slightest slip.....it may work. Or if our financial institution had an honor code, not laws that can be skirted or books cooked but actual code that is overseen by righteous zealots.

However, BYU is making a point but at the same time it's going to damage the very thing it "covets" most. The almighty dollar.By losing the #1 seed dropping to 4th or 5th and getting ousted in the first round they give up a chuck of change. That's makes the Monson Inc frown.