Friday, March 4, 2011

Davies Fall Out

This whole Brandon Davies thing has been really interesting. There has been tons of media attention on BYU and the Honor Code, and it has implications on the impressions that people form about the Church. You know what was really cool? This morning sitting in a meeting with one of the higher-ups in the Public Affairs Committee discussing this particular issue and what it means for the Church. It's fun working up here.

It's interesting what this does for public perception of the Church. My suspicion is that if you ask most Evangelicals what the Church should have done, they would have said, "let the kid play ball." Their view is probably one that argues more heavily for mercy than for justice, for grace over consequences. Our Church just happens to have a different conception of what is entailed in Christian doctrine.

It means not only holding ourselves to a high standard, but being accountable to that standard. Hopefully the fall-out over this drama will help the university and the Church to also learn how to emphasize the compassionate side as well, because out in the media wasteland all anyone is talking about is how the law is being applied too harshly, but bravo for sticking to our standards.

I don't know. It's an interesting topic though, no?

With that kiddos, have a good weekend! And this song has been in my head all this morning.
People are making all sorts of attributions, but I'm not sure that anyone has any firsthand knowledge about what actually transpired, how it came about

5 comments:

Shelli said...

That was one of the things I noticed in all of the comments from the articles I've been reading. They all want forgiveness, and to them, forgiveness means pretending that nothing happened. Forgiveness without consequences.

Which is just not how things work.

kent said...

Does "media wasteland" mean comments to articles or the actual media? Because everything I have read in the media has been praising the church and very positive. Everyone seems impressed with the university and the church that they would stick to their standards over a sport and value their honor code more than athletics.

I think they agree that the honor code is harsh or strict, but not that the punishment was necessarily harsh. They commend the fact that there was a rule broken and a punishment and that we didn't bend the rule in this situation.

I think the compassionate side will eventually surface. But like any situation of this nature (public or not), it usually starts as viewing it as a punishment for breaking the rules and after the punishment has been paid and there is remorse, then people realize the underlying compassion that has been there the entire time.

But again, I don't see that story existing until next season if Davies comes back or has some sort of positive experience from all of this. Regardless, it's a story that probably won't be picked up by many media outlets.

Douglas said...

I'm proud of BYU for taking a stand. Its easy to do when there are few consequences.

I think forgiveness and mercy are in place. He is allowed to stay in school when the honor code says that he could be expelled. He just lost the priveledge (not the right) to represent BYU as a basketball player.

UCLA does not do this for moral reasons but they do not let athletes live above the law academically (most times to our detriment). I use this example VERY loosely here and only in comparison to our cross town rivals and their attitude of, "If you don't get caught, its not a problem."

I find it refreshing when someone out there actually follows Hinckley's counsel of "Stand for Something." Do the right thing, even when its hard.

Dave said...

I commend BYU for sticking to its guns and upholding a contractual obligation that Davies voluntarily agreed to enter.

I do, however, feel bad for Davies'transgressions being splashed across every media outlet. I hope that he is able to do what's necessary and proper to return to good standing in the church and with BYU. All of this attention has got to be terrible to deal with. I'm just glad my mistakes are not broadcast throughout the world.

Silvs said...

I think the coverage has been mostly positive, but a number of things have been surfacing in the last few days taking BYU to task for how Davies has been treated. Let me point you to this article.
in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Disagree with it if you wish, but there is definitely a perception out there that as a Church the LDS are too strict where a lot of people expect Christians to be more compassionate. We have a different position as members of the Church which weighs works and grace, and justice and mercy, pretty closely to one another, but in the world, we are probably in a minority when it comes to that perspective.

I'm in a different media market than Southern California so I'll let you know right now that a lot of the reaction around here, as conveyed by local sports talk radio, is that the university has not done enough to show its support of the young man upon his dismissal, and at least from what's being conveyed in the media, I think that the perception is pretty valid.

This is something we talked about at length this morning, namely, that the university, as well as the Church, needs to do a better job not only of showing that they will administer justice, but will do as much to minister mercy. That's the point that I'm trying to get at.

Yes, we've gotten a lot of praise for sticking to our guns on bringing the consequences to bear, but we could probably do more to demonstrate to Davies (which maybe (probably) is being done, but we just don't see it) and the rest of the world that we are just as quick to put an arm around him as he tries to get himself back on track.