Posted on 08/30/2009 12:45:09 PM PDT by greyfoxx39
Next weekend, fans of Oklahoma and Brigham Young will congregate outside Cowboys Stadium for tailgate parties, with one discernible difference.
Sooner and Cougar fans both share a fervor for their historically successful football teams. But BYU and its football program are worlds apart from any other.
"Obviously BYU’s affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” said Roy Brinkerhoff, BYU’s assistant manager of alumni activities, "that alone creates huge differences.”
BYU, located in pristine Provo, Utah, is the largest private and largest religiously-affiliated school in the country. More than 98 percent of its student body is Mormon, and almost half its students have completed 2-year church missions.
"There’s an honor code,” said Brent Babcock, an Oklahoma City chiropractor who graduated from BYU in 1980. "No alcohol consumption, no tobacco, no premarital sex. Even wild man Jim McMahon honored the code.”
So did Pat Brule. Mostly.
Brule, a tobacco-chewing Southern Baptist from Del City, ended up at BYU via a wrestling scholarship in the early 1980s. Brule followed most of BYU’s rules, though he did dip Copenhagen in the dorm with permission from his roommate.
But early on, Brule gained an appreciation of such a strict honor code.
"I’ll never forget, I lost my wallet in the theater. I had like 20-30 bucks in it; I figured that was that,” Brule recalled. "But the next week, I get a call from the theater saying someone had turned in my wallet.
"That’s when I realized, this is a good place.”
While drinking is not part of the culture, Brule said there are plenty of fun things for BYU students to do.
"They do regular stuff I hope my daughter will do in college,” he said. "They go to the movies. There are places in the mountains to go hiking or go skiing. There are open waterfalls in the winter. People get in these natural hot tubs in the mountains and hang out and talk.
"They know how to have a good time without alcohol.”
But like anything else that’s different from the norm, BYU fights negative stereotypes.
"I hear it all the time, that if you go there, you must be weird, must be part of a cult,” Brule said. "When I tell people I went to BYU, they ask me if I have three wives. That’s been gone for years. It’s a misconception of BYU and the Mormon culture.”
Ken Hunt, chair of the BYU alumni chapter in Tulsa, said his Oklahoma friends are always surprised when he first takes them to visit Provo.
"They go there expecting to see a very small university with students dressed bizarrely, because they think of BYU being ultra-conservative in a Mennonite way,” Hunt said. "It’s a dated concept. The students look similar to ones you’d seen in Norman or Stillwater. It’s not what they expected.”
Like the school, BYU’s football program is also unique.
Friday night before the game, while OU’s players eat together and go back to relax at the hotel, BYU’s players will be holding a spiritual fireside chat with members of a local LDS congregation.
"It’s part of their preparation for the game,” Brinkerhoff said. "Going to church and being spiritually fed.”
While it’s rare for college football players to be married, roughly one-third of BYU’s players are. And about four of five Cougar players leave the team for their missions, creating a turnover of about 40 players a year due to graduation and missions.
"Where it hurts the program is that it takes a lot of skill guys a year, year-and-a-half to get back where they were,” said Deseret News (Salt Lake City) sports writer Dick Harmon, who has covered BYU football for the last 35 years. "Sometimes it helps the linemen because they come back more mature.
"But if it was a great advantage, coaches at other schools would be encouraging their LDS kids to take missions.”
BYU faces another distinct challenge in recruiting. Because of its strict honor code, which extends to forbidding mixed gender overnight camping trips and men’s facial hair beyond mustaches, BYU’s recruiting base is largely LDS prospects in Utah and along the west coast.
"Their primary approach is to identify the very best LDS players, who have talent and who can abide the rules that they have,” Harmon said. "But they’ll go after anybody from any background as long as they can come in and live by the honor code.”
None of that, however, has prevented BYU from being one of the most successful programs over the last three decades. Not only are the Cougars the last school from a non-BCS conference (excluding Notre Dame) to win the national championship (1984), only Florida, Boise State, OU, USC and Ohio State have accumulated more victories over the last three years.
That sustained success has created a fervent fan base spanning the world. Even though Provo is 1,200 miles away from Arlington, Texas, at least 15,000 BYU fans are expected to attend the OU game.
"BYU football has like a spiritual following,” Brule said. "We’re as passionate as any other fans.”
Yes, thanks, I understand that it’s a religious observance, and I certainly don’t object to any of those you mention. But putting aside for a moment the reflexive objectivity, I think most people would agree that wearing special underwear to ward off sin just a _little_ difficult to take seriously.
I used to bow down before that god on occasion. I was compelled!
Now, I bow to the living God.
I just saw 2 young men on bicycles near my house. I haven’t seen any of the Morman boys in a very long time.
I’ll take an Okie over a Mormon any day!
I think the mormon dudes on bikes are doing a great thing for manufacturers of short sleeve white shirts.
And YES, they are very nice folk. They ain't Christian, but they are good, hardworking folk.
Joe Smith drank alcohol quite often, why can't other momons?
Personally, I could never trust someone who didn't imbibe, in moderation or not.
Jesus said of Himself...
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.” Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34, 35
The Book of Mormon: The Testimony of Another Jesus...
In the 70s, folks on the Utah State football team said BYU played dirtier than anyone else on the schedule. You just assumed they would cheat, and then BYU would do worse.
There is also a difference between in-state and out of state Mormons. Most of the latter are sincere. Most of the former are so by birth. The difference in behavior is noticeable.
That said, I spent 7 happy years in Logan Utah...
Point #1: It doesn't take a Mormon to "have three wives" -- plenty of divorced men do. (Just one at a time) The difference between a Mormon and non-Mormon with three wives these days isn't the # of wives, it's the expectation of the Mormon that he'll eventually live simultaneously with all three! Lds are unique that way in making the un-Jesus like claim that marriages are forever.
Point #2 re: so-called "misconception of Mormon culture" -- Mr. Brule is the one so misconceiving. He does this in a few ways:
One way is that the flds & other polygamous Mormon break-off sects are still "children" of Mormon culture. (And they still engage in polygamy). Most of these are not ex-Mormons 'cause they were never ex-communicated from the Lds church. They are simply "retro" Mormons -- the way Mormons were 100-150 years ago.
The key point here is that if flds doesn't reflect Mormon culture, then neither does 19th and early 20th-century Mormonism!
Another way Brule "misconceives" Mormon culture is that he forgets that Mormons think "Mormon culture" extends to the afterlife. If that were to be true, then much of "afterlife Mormonism" features polygamy.
Mr. Brule is only thinking about Provo Mormon culture -- which is distinctive even from other concentrated components of Mormon culture. He, therefore, engages on projection.
Go ahead; ANTI!!
Just bring up a lot MORE stuff that our Blessed Brigham did and taught and you get nothing but a blank stare back in return!!
--MormonDude(We do NOT believe [I think...] that stuff HE taught for years, anymore!)
(I was told, anyway...)
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Temple Recommend Questions: 1 Do you have faith in and a testimony of God the Eternal Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost? 2 Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Christ and of His role as Savior and Redeemer? 3 Do you have a testimony of the restoration of the gospel in these the latter days? 4 Do you sustain the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator and as the only person on the earth who possesses and is authorized to exercise all priesthood keys? Do you sustain members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators? Do you sustain the other General Authorities and local authorities of the Church? 5 Do you live the law of chastity? 6 Is there anything in your conduct relating to members of your family that is not in harmony with the teachings of the Church? 7 Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? 8 Do you strive to keep the covenants you have made, to attend your sacrament and other meetings, and to keep your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel? 9 Are you honest in your dealings with your fellowmen? 10 Are you a full-tithe payer? 11 Do your keep the Word of Wisdom? 12 Do you have financial or other oblgations to a former spouse or children? If yes, are you current in meeting those obligations? 13 If you have previously received your temple endowment: Do you keep the covenants that you made in the temple? Do you wear the garment both night and day as instructed in the endowment and in accordance with the covenant you made in the temple? 14 Have there been any sins or misdeeds in your life that should have been resolved with priesthood authorities but have not been? 15 Do you consider yourself worthy to enter the Lord's house and participate in temple ordinances? |
Well, since you are NOT a Mormon© then you PROBABLY do not know the COMPLETE significance of the 'garments'.
I'm sure some of our FORMER LDS members can enlighten you.
(The PRESENT ones tend to pass over anything that is not 'meat' in their way of thinking.)
The BIBLE says lots of things that the LDS Organization® has twisted and ignored.
And that IS true!
Coffee - caffeine..no sugar...
Coke - caffeine ...lots of sugar for the addicts in Utah...
Tractor Guy - this is right up your alley!
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