Brigham Young University, also called BYU, is a university in Provo, Utah. It is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are also known as Mormons.

BYU Honor Code helps students live a Christ-like life.

Although a student does not have to be Mormon to attend BYU, most students are LDS (Mormon.) Any student, whether or not they are Mormon, must sign the honor code and then live what it says. For BYU, unlike some universities, the honor code is not a PR tool or a suggestion, but a serious way of life. Students know about the honor code before agreeing to come to the university and they have given their word to live it. Not doing so results in suspension. The university puts this code above all other considerations and will enforce it even when the person who violates it is the star of a sports team. Some newspapers have noted that most schools who suspend a student for violating an honor code or even for breaking a law will do so during exhibition games or some other time that won’t hurt the team. BYU has gained attention several times for removing a student permanently from the team at great risk to their own success in the world of sports.

The Honor Code is perhaps one of the strictest in the nation. It applies to both students and staff, with the only exception being that non-Mormons do not have to attend church. Students agree to:

Be honest

Live a chaste and virtuous life

Obey the law and all campus policies

Use clean language

Respect others

Abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee, and substance abuse

Participate regularly in church services

Observe the Dress and Grooming Standards

Encourage others in their commitment to comply with the Honor Code

It should be noted that no one, even Mormons is required to attend a Mormon-owned university and so students are electing to attend and to follow the rules. They must be living these standards at the time of acceptance and are required to continue to live them even between semesters and when off-campus.

Living the Honor Code helps students to uphold the standards of the Mormon Church, but it does more than that. Students learn self-discipline and they learn the importance of keeping their word. The Honor Code, simply because it is strict, allows students to learn the value of setting and keeping high standards, whatever the cost. While much of the nation considers standards outdated, we continue to see the consequences of not having any. Many political leaders resign due to their unwillingness to live up to moral standards of marital fidelity. Business leaders get carried away by greed and violate the law, ending a promising career with a prison sentence.

College years are formative. It is when many young people are choosing how they will live and who they will be. Living the Honor Code can help students get through this time safely and to become aware of the value of living with honor. While many students are using their first years away from home making mistakes they will have to cope with the rest of their lives—unwanted pregnancies or diseases, drug or alcohol addictions, even criminal behavior—a Brigham Young University student who lives the Honor Code gives himself time to grow up, get into the work force, and become mature enough to evaluate the long-term consequences of his choices. Young adults who develop the habit of living with honor go on to have successful and happy lives as honorable adults.

Brigham Young University is a university operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes referred to as Mormons. The BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies was built to house and educate BYU students who are attending a study abroad program for up to six months. The center is also used by research scholars, sometimes working with local scholars on various projects. Students study the Bible, ancient and modern near-eastern studies, Hebrew, and Arabic, with a particular focus on the life of Jesus Christ and the work of the apostles. They have classroom study interspersed with field trips throughout the region. It’s built on Mount Scopus overlooking the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and is made from white Jerusalem limestone. The center provides religious services for members of the church who live in or are visiting the area.

Students are oriented prior to embarking on their trip. They are required to sign a pledge that they will not use their time there to try to convert the Jewish people. The purpose of the center is education, not missionary work. Although there were some initial local protests, they subsided when the church worked with the government to create a legal document barring missionary work. In 1986, responding to the concerns, Nathan Perlmutter, U.S. national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith stated there was no evidence of any conversions in the years the church had been conducting their study abroad programs.

During the time of controversy, President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was then the second counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, was asked:

Why is there so much controversy over the Brigham Young University Center now under construction in Jerusalem?

I cannot understand why there should be. Fears have been expressed that it will be used as a means to proselytize the Jewish people. University officials have given assurance that this will not be the case. All legal requirements were fully met, including the requisite public notice in Jerusalem papers, before the government granted construction permits. This is a facility designed to accommodate a program which has been carried on continuously for many years. It is intended to accommodate the needs of students who, in an academic atmosphere, can become better acquainted with the history, the culture, the nations, and the people of Israel and the Middle East. Experience has shown that those who have participated in the program have come away with increased appreciation for the influences and the people to whom they have been exposed there. BYU officials have received from many Jewish people and from people of other faiths expressions of support for this project. I am confident that in the long term it will redound to the good of the people of Israel as well as to the educational interests of BYU and its students.” (Gordon B. Hinckley, “Questions and Answers,” Ensign, Nov 1985, 49)

Students moved onto the campus in 1987. Previously, students who studied there lived at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. The church had operated Study Abroad programs in Jerusalem for seventeen years prior to the opening of the center.

Personal Response by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) constructs about 300 to 400 meetinghouses each year throughout the world. However, an additional number of buildings are constructed every year as part of an intense building program that meets the needs of a growing membership spread across the world and serves a variety of purposes.

Some buildings are used for administrative needs, such as the Mormon Church offices built on every continent. Other buildings are used for the weekday education program of the Mormon Church, including Brigham Young University campuses at Provo, Utah; Rexburg, Idaho; and Laie, Hawaii and the seminary and institute programs that sometime are located near public schools, colleges and universities. Additionally, the Church’s welfare services department constructs a variety of buildings to store and distribute food and goods and to provide employment training as part of the Church’s worldwide humanitarian outreach. The Mormon Church also builds visitors’ centers and museums that preserve the history of the Church so members and nonmembers can learn about its history and beliefs. In seventeen countries, including the Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Dominican Republic, England, Ghana, Guatemala, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippians, South Africa, Spain, and United States the Mormon Church built Mission Training Centers (MTC) where Mormon missionaries begin their training, including language education, before dedicating themselves to preach the Gospel full time for eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-six months.

However, the primary focus of the Mormon Church’s building program is to provide members a place to worship on Sunday. Worship services are generally held in a chapel, a special feature in local church building or meetinhouse. In a chapel, members and interested nonmembers of the Mormon Church gather to worship the Lord through prayer, scripture readings, preaching, singing, and partaking of the sacrament (Lord’s Supper). Additionally, chapels are also used for funeral services that are generally held on weekdays or on Saturday.

Often local Mormon Church buildings include more than a chapel. Such multi-use buildings include classrooms, administrative offices for local lay-leaders (bishop and clerk’s offices), a library, a kitchen, and a cultural hall. Mormons sometimes call these local buildings the “meetinghouse,” “church” or “chapel,” but they generally refer to the building itself instead of some specific section. Most LDS meetinghouses display the Church’s logo, meeting times and a “Visitors Welcome” sign somewhere on the building or on a small marquee in front. Additionally, there is the ubiquitous spire or steeple associated with such buildings that tend to reflect, despite architectural nuances, a sense of familiarity and connectedness no matter where they are found throughout the world.

The classroom part of the local building is used on Sundays for various gospel-centered classes for young people and adults. Additionally, these same classrooms are used during the week for early-morning seminary classes (a weekday religious education program held before the beginning of the local public school day) Boy Scout programs, other youth programs for young men and young women, and other organizations of the Mormon Church. A modest library in the building has material that teachers can use in their lessons, such as visual aids and scriptures.

The cultural hall is often used on Sundays as another teaching station, but its main purpose is for non-Sunday activities, including hosting sporting events sponsored by the Mormon Church; social gatherings such as special dinners for various church organizations; humanitarian service, such as Red Cross sponsored blood drives; cultural art activities, such as plays and talent shows; and wedding receptions. In emergency situations, the Mormon Church opens local buildings to shelter people and as meeting places when a community has special needs during a disaster or tragedy.

In one sense, the local Church meetinghouse is a religious building principally dedicated to Sabbath worship but is also used for social, educational, and community activities during the other days of the week. However, the building is not used for any political purposes such as voting or political party meetings.

Finally, the Mormon Church builds structures of a very special and dedicated nature called temples. The first Mormon temple was dedicated in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, USA. Like the biblical temples of Solomon and Herod, which were reserved only for Israelites who were ritually clean, modern temples are reserved for practicing members of the Mormon Church. In temples, Latter-day Saints participate in the most sacred ordinances of the Mormon Church, including temple marriages, which Latter-day Saints believe can survive death into eternity. More than 125 Mormon temples stand around the world so members of the Church can participate in temple worship as often as possible. Between eight and ten temples are in planning or under construction each year.

In areas where the gospel is just beginning to spread the Mormon Church usually leases a space for worship services and in time eventually builds a meetinghouse. Additionally, the Church has developed many multi-use buildings that incorporate various needs. For example, a temple, meetinghouse and seminary and institute space are shared in one building as in New York City or Hong Kong. All Mormon Church buildings are paid for before they are dedicated to the Lord, which usually happens shortly after they are finished, through a general Church building fund so that even in the most economically challenged areas of the world, Saints and their neighbors can enjoy the benefits of having such buildings within reach when they need them. This is one of the distinguishing features of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Additional Resources

MormonWiki Article on Church Wards & Meetinghouses