To beard or not to beard?
Walking around BYU campus is like looking in a bowl full of
jellybeans: I see many different kinds of people. However, the thing that catches my eye the
most is when I see a male student with facial hair that is not in line with the
Honor Code. When I see this, I think to
myself, “How is he getting away with that?”
I’ve never experienced a person being turned away from the testing
center because of facial hair violations, but I know that it happens. Many students prefer to have facial hair,
which is against BYU’s Honor Code. And
so I ask, how does BYU impact their students by maintaining their Honor Code
standards on facial hair?
BYU has set standards for a reason. They don’t want to be like the rest of the world. They want their students to stand out amongst
the many people in today’s society. BYU administrator, Lawrence Benson, said,
“Beards do not belong here at BYU. They
are a way of expressing individual difference and uniqueness. But what we are going for here at BYU is to
repress our inner selfish desires and conform to what the Lord wants us to be.”
At this point in time, the Lord has said
that beards are not allowed on campus. If
we, BYU students, follow the rules that have been given to us and that we
agreed to follow, it will be beneficial in providing life lessons.
In the 1970s, the beard policy was in place because beards
were associated with hippies, druggies, and protesters. One could argue that beards don’t have that
same association any more and so BYU should change their standards. However, beards can be associated with similar
and same things such as homelessness, hipsters, rebelliousness, terrorism, and
druggies. If you see a man with white
hair, a long white beard, and some scrubby looking clothing, you see a homeless
man. If you see a man with white hair, a
long white beard, and a red suit, you see Santa Claus. The only difference between a homeless man
and Santa Claus is a red suit.
One life lesson that we can learn is that we need to
associate ourselves with good things.
Satan tries to get us little by little.
Something that my husband and I have recently noticed is the growing
popularity of the shirt with an upside down star on it. We found out that the upside-down star is a
symbol of Satan. A person that doesn’t support
Satan probably would not wear that shirt just because it looked cool if they
knew the meaning of it. Now I’m not
associating beards with Satan, I’m just trying to make a point that we need to
uphold our physical appearances. “A
let-down in personal appearance has far more than physical significance, for
when ugliness gets its roots into one part of our lives it may soon spread to
every other part.” (The Quest for Excellence, Bookcraft, p. 38.) By maintaining their standards, BYU is
allowing its students to uphold their physical appearance.
To go along with physical appearance, we’ve been told to
model our dress and grooming after the apostles and prophets of the
church. Elder Nelson said,
“To bear the priesthood means you have a personal responsibility to magnify
your calling. Let each opportunity to
serve help to develop your power in the priesthood. In your personal grooming, follow the example
of the living prophets. Doing so gives
silent expression that you truly comprehend the importance of the Holy
Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God.”
By following the example of the living prophets in our personal
grooming, we learn that we need to look to them in all things. If we can follow after them in one simple
thing, it will make it easier to follow their counsel on other things that are
more important. According to one of my
previous stake presidents, it is an unwritten rule that stake presidents and
bishops should not have facial hair. It
is also a rule that in order to be an ordinance worker at the temple, you have
to be clean shaven. As we follow the
example of the prophets and those we see leading us in our congregations, we
also set an example for those around us, specifically those that we will be
parents to.
With BYU maintaining their standards, it also teaches us
ways to be good parents. Just because
our kids are throwing tantrums or disobeying rules, does not mean that we
adjust and make our rules the way they want them. As a parent, you don’t immediately give in to
your children. It will make it look like
they can disobey rules and throw tantrums and then you will allow them to do whatever
they were throwing a tantrum about. When
a child is objecting to rules you have set, you look at the rules and decide
later whether you need to adjust your rules or not.
Another life lesson BYU teaches us is that just because
everybody else is doing it doesn’t make it cool or right. If that were the case, cohabiting would be
allowed, premarital sex would be allowed, and BYU would sell caffeinated drinks
on campus. The only one in that list
that is not church doctrine is the caffeine.
The prophets have never stated that caffeine is against the word of
wisdom, yet BYU still does not sell it on campus. Maybe we should petition for BYU to change
that standard as well. Even if we did,
it’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.
One last lesson we can learn is obedience. Just because we don’t understand a rule or
don’t want to follow it does not mean that we can disobey that rule. Whether we are at home, work, school, or
church, we have to obey the rules. If
there is a certain dress code at your work and you decide one day that you
don’t want to wear your uniform so instead you wear your everyday clothing, you
could probably get fired from your job.
So you decide to follow the dress code because you don't want the
consequences of not. We can learn to
follow the rules, or we can learn to follow them later. For me, I’d rather take the casserole out of
the oven now before it gets burnt.
BYU is a great example of upholding their standards and not
giving in to peer pressure. They have
not lowered their standards just because someone asked them to. BYU continues to make sure that they stand
out against the backdrop that many people are trying to blend in with. The students at BYU will continue to learn
life lessons as they follow the standards that BYU has set for them. Now if only we can do that. With all this, what other life lessons can you
learn from BYU’s actions?
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