Posts tagged ‘School’
This WTF moment is brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints…
Ok, first, read this.
Here is my favourite part of the article:
“If a student prays and they think that the tight ‘formfitting’ clothing is accepted by the Lord, they have not asked, or have not asked the right question, or they have chosen an answer for their own gratification. I don’t believe the Lord would give approval to anyone to be disobedient to the CES Dress and Grooming Standards.”
Wow.
So let’s get this straight. You need to go and pray but if you don’t get the same answer I do then you’re either lying or you prayed wrong. (This is the same approach they apply to knowing whether or not the Book of Mormon, or the church for that matter, are true. Pray and if you get the right answer it’s true. If you get the wrong answer, you’re not deserving and you need to try harder.) Also, God is backing up the Rexburg dress code nazis because, hey, he’s not busy.
There are so many things I could say about this article. In some ways it made me laugh because it is just so ridiculous. It also makes me feel sad and angry. To me, this is exactly what comes from asking people to put critical thought up on the shelf and stop thinking for themselves. It’s scary and let’s be honest, it’s a fundamental building block of all religions. My husband went to BYU Idaho (formerly Rexburg College) and when he was there, part of the dress code was that they couldn’t wear shorts on campus. The only exception was the school issued gym strip that they had to wear whenever they worked out. Oddly enough, this gym strip included shorts..
One day hubby (Bri) decided to buck the rules (what a rebel!) and make the short (2 minute) walk from his dorm to the gym in his shorts. When he got there, the student behind the counter refused to give him his gym strip because he was wearing shorts. Bri pushed him and said “Let me get this straight, you’re not going to give me my shorts because I’m wearing shorts?” I think he assumed that when faced with how silly that was, the kid would just hand over the clothes. Nope…he still refused. Eventually, Bri stopped a guy who was also there getting his strip, asked if he could borrow his pants and then put the pants over the shorts right in front of the kid behind the counter. The kid promptly handed over the gym strip because Bri was now wearing pants. (Which he was about to remove and give back to their rightful owner and then change into another pair of shorts. You couldn’t even make this shot up it’s so crazy.)
Another interesting sidenote to this article is that BYU Idaho and the main BYU campus in Provo, Utah have different dress codes. So the Lord is cool with certain items of clothing in Utah, but not in Idaho. It doesn’t take a genius to stop and think about that for a moment and realize something is fishy. It does however take someone who isn’t afraid to think their own thoughts, and there’s the rub.
It’s a small world after all…
My little sister-in-law is 19 and beautiful. She is smart and funny, a talented writer and photographer and despite a lot of pressure, she has managed to avoid the Mormon mold. Until now.
After graduating, she had some big ideas. Some very atypical (for Mormons at least – the acceptable range is so much narrower) ideas like traveling. Or volunteering somewhere in South America. She wanted to study fashion and live in London. While we did our best to offer support, money and anything else she might need to make these things happen, these ideas were abandoned. She met a boy, all her friends went on missions, she started talking about BYU Hawaii. We were a bit disappointed but BYU Hawaii was at least somewhere and the chilled atmosphere would suit her personality perfectly. It was still outside the normal range of expectations and so we were pleased. Then it became BYU Provo.
The most recent news is that she will be going to BYU Idaho (formerly Ricks College). And living with her best friend from high school. And will not meet a single non-Mormon during her entire stay. And she’s taking general studies. Basically, she’s passing time until she meets a returned missionary and gets married. I was devastated when she told me. Not because there is anything wrong with BYU Idaho (my husband went there for the year before his mission) or living with your best friend (even though this particular friend has not been good to my little sis and has been pushed on her by my MIL for years) but because the whole concept is so small and my little sister could do so much better. Being young is about meeting people with new perspectives, having your ideas and your identity challenged, learning and falling and growing and sometimes, getting a fresh start. My SIL won’t get any of that and I am so sad for her. And so goddamned angry at her family and the little piss-ant town she lives in. Sigh.
Calgary Catholic Schools and HPV
The province I live in, like most of those in Canada, has two separate school systems; the Catholic and the Public. Confusingly, and in my opinion, wrongly, they are both publicly funded. This means that the local Bishop is the moral guide for the school system. Yup, that’s right. A Bishop. Making what amounts to decisions for a public institution. Creepy. Anyway, this post is not about the Catholic school system but about some recent issues within that system here in Calgary.
The HPV virus is not without controversy and while I don’t object to it I do admit there are some troubling issues surrounding the timing, funding and research of the vaccine. However, this is about what happens when a religious nut opens his mouth and potentially endangers the lives of women. The Alberta Health Services decided to offer the vaccine (Gardisil) to girls in grade 5 in the province of Alberta. They felt that at this young age they could be sure to catch most girls before they became sexually active. Bishop Fred Henry came out and said he felt that giving the vaccination to girls within the Catholic school system would encourage them to have pre-marital sex and was therefore opposed on moral grounds. The school trustees in true Catholic form, stopped thinking for themselves (or about the people to whom they are charged with protecting) and agreed with Bishop Henry. They refused to offer the vaccine in school and gave children the option to go to a local health clinic to receive it.
Fast forward a year and we now have the results of this theocratic “health” decision. Only 30% of girls in the Catholic schools received the vaccination. (Interestingly, the French Catholic board ignored their Bishop and 60% of their students received the vaccine…I can only assume those parents are just as Catholic so it had less to do with moral objection and more to do with being too lazy to take their daughter to a clinic. Grrr.) Great, so now when little Sally gets cervical cancer she can feel good about the fact that she listened to an old man who had never had sex and never would and never ran any risk whatsoever of contracting HPV.
To me this is not about whether or not the HPV vaccine is safe, effective or the right choice for your kids. That debate exists within the realm of science and reason and facts. That’s okay. What I take issues with is that first of all, anyone could actually think that giving young girls a vaccine will encourage them to have sex. That is just so weird! It’s not based on evidence or research or even common sense. It’s ignorant and in this case, potentially dangerous. It is the exact same argument that many make against birth control and it has been disproved time and time again. The second issue is that Bishop Henry has a role to play at all. This is a health decision and as I already mentioned, a publicly funded institution. He can say what he wants at the pulpit but the school trustees should be ashamed of themselves for cow-towing to his religious authority.
I can’t believe I actually used to have a framed picture of Bishop Fred Henry in my house. What the hell was I thinking?
Recent Comments