what is it this time? "Wives there's never a time you shouldn't be able to sleep. if you're not able to sleep then you should be baking."?
No its "A single woman who chooses to have a child, regardless of the means, is walking on thin ice" more or less. It was "REAL LIFE PROBLEMS FROM BYUI STUDENTS" except none of them were
real problems. The single woman wasn't breaking the law of chastity, she was having a child. Class was making it sound like adoption wasn't good, either, and I dunno. The scenario had real problems, yes. They were 1. A woman shouldn't feel that her happiness is dependent on her procreating, and 2. If she really does want that, then she shouldn't be denied it and expected to live the rest of her life in a family oriented culture while denied one of her own. 3. The circumstances which had driven her to this desperation are certainly problematic, but the reactions to her decisions don't strike me as such.
It all cut a little closer to home than I'd like to discuss publicly, though.
The second scenario was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay stupider. Girl A's roommate, Girl B, argues with her about the Proclamation because she was raised by a Single Dad. How should Girl A correct Girl B? Cite Doctrine for your response!
How about Girl A does what literally any Missionary worth his salt does and realizes that preaching to someone who is upset is faux pax number 1? She could have a heart to heart. She could try to understand Girl B's POV. She could just give her some fucking space, but if I was Girl B and I was mad, I wouldn't take to being preached at. Correcting someone is a careful process in Church, and you don't just throw scripture in someone's face and expect it to stick. The entire question is willfully ignorant of Section 121.
But the greater frustrations with the class are more generalized:
1. This shouldn't be required. BYU PROVO doesn't require this. End of Discussion. Because make no mistake: this isn't a run of the mill religion course. This isn't even a class about The Proclamation. This is a class President Clark's set up to pimp his resume. I mean no disrespect to the man but this Semester I've been taking Foundations Capstone and the teacher all but admitted today the class only exists to meet some more nebulous accreditation requirements. My time and money are being wasted for no reason here and I can't get around this class any way but through it. In no way is this related to my major, or any other major on campus.
2. The class presents itself as a one of discussion but there isn't going to be any such thing. In a run of the mill religion class a student may feel safe to speak up and a professor may try to guide the student. If I ever once spoke my mind in this class I cannot imagine the sheer shockwaves it would send out. It presents situations that I think ought to be morally grey areas and asks me to come down on them as simple black and whites. Something which I'd like to point out I rarely ever even had to do as a Missionary.
3. I can't stand this mechanical approach to the Gospel. I just hate having every single thing spelled out and delineated. This is more a problem with BYUI in general. Rather than the school operating on the whole "teach true principles and govern themselves" I feel trapped in Pharisian Jerusalem where, to prevent me from breaking the Sabbath laws are set to govern the mere number of steps I can take. I'm a rebellious young man chafing at the rules, yes, but there comes a point where I feel like I'm going to scream, haha.
This entire reply hits a little too close to home considering I know return missionaries living there and attending that college.
As a convert, that place scares me. No offense meant at all. I met a recent convert who had to leave that area because there was strong friction between him and individuals in his ward due to his appearance and voice. He came up here and I advised him to go home and get over the death in his family in order to be around a more positive environment. Where here is not important.
Either way, I'm struggling... with everything.
Am I the only old Mormon here? By old, I mean old in church terms as far as not getting married before cut off point of attending single's wards.
So here's the thing about BYU Idaho. The school offers smaller classes which can just really, really be great. You get more of the professor's attention and the classroom discussion can really benefit. We have a fair smattering of people from everywhere, and its nice to be able to learn from each other. Its also nice to look at matters from a uniquely LDS perspective at times. This has its pros and its cons.
For instance I really loved the time we spent addressing that you could have a passion for the physical sciences and not need to discard your faith in one class, but it drives me mad when this opportunity is instead wasted for coddling people. Like when I took a class on Climate Change that was actually a class on "Yes it's fucking happening" and not a class on "here's some science, bitches."
Rexburg itself is a double edged sword. It has the charm of a small town in America, and in general the people are friendly either because like you they're just students trying to make it through or they're kindly old people who genuinely welcome lonely young adults to their homes and feed them. But as a small town it can be suffocating at times, haha.
At times the School's affiliation with the Church is a blessing. Elder Holland came to speak to us the other day, and his remarks were something I'd really been needing to hear. The Temple is not five minutes from my apartment by foot. A lot of young people understand problems that are unique to Mormon youth, and so there's a ready support in the area for you when you need it.
At other times though, Culture makes us all sort of crazy. I have nothing personal against President Clark--I've never met him--but I'm sort of creeped out by the softcore cult of personality built around him. You can't question President Clark because President Eyring and Elder Bednar were both Presidents of BYUI and that's a sign donchaknow?
The Honor Code itself is something I originally had no real problem with. After all, I'd signed on to stricter rules as a Missionary. I mean, at BYUI I could even hug girls and wear t-shirts if I wanted! How bad could it be?
But the thing is the Honor Code isn't just what's written on that page. I mean, it
is, but its also an accumulation of things not written. For instance, you can't let girls into your bathrooms. This is written nowhere and its nonsensical bullshit. But because someone says its in the Honor Code, it holds the weight of the word of God because there is no telling at all what the penalty for an infraction is, and fear leads one to assume infractions are met with severe retribution. There's just this web of unspoken myths around so many aspects of your day-to-day life that you don't know what's what until you wind up going mad.
And there's the fact that Students are Second Class Citizens in this town, make no mistake. Because we're not state residents we cannot vote, which leaves a select few to make policy decisions regarding the cost of rent in town etcetera that strongly effect us. And if the Student is Second Class, then the Unmarried Student is something beneath that. It may sound petty to make this comparison, but I mean, our internet and television are censored. And the censorship has only been scaled back after great public outcry. When I moved into Rexburg, there was no censoring of TV beyond the obvious "porn and PPV". You wanna watch The Walking Dead? No problem. You want to marathon Bones? No biggie.
But then last year, just before Christmas, they just censored it. No discussion. No warning. No dialogue. Word comes down from on high and
everywhere in town must comply. If you don't comply you can lose your school approval which means Students cannot live in your apartments which means you're out of business. If you don't censor TV the school can drive you out of business.
And when I mean they censored our TVs I don't mean they just went through and took out R rated movies. I mean
we couldn't watch ESPN or the Disney Channel at first. It took a MASSIVE student outcry to get them to relax the TV censorship. Its still censored, of course. If you want to watch Bones you're gonna have to find a way, but on TV you're not doing it.
And the same applies to your internet here. Its not just pornographic materials that are censored. You wanna look something up in Urban Dictionary? Too bad. That's "Obscene/Tasteless" so you're not looking at that. You want to do research for your school project? Better be using the school's horrible and unreliable library software, because God only knows what will become of you if you access a source that SOME COMPLETELY OTHER UNRELATED PAGE ON THE SITE contains something that might be objectionable to the kind of nonagenarian who thinks ankles are the tits of the foot.
This is life in Rexburg, really. It's a constant battle between what's good and what's horribly constricting. Church can be amazing here. Church leaders have a good deal of experience working with people like you and they can be remarkable people who just really want to make sure you get through this okay and happy and healthy. They can also be like "If you MUST kiss a girl, make sure its standing up and for less than a minute!" There's just this giant mass of rules and regulations that prevent you from ever coming within twenty miles of trouble ever. You can't get in a snowball fight here. You can't text in a crosswalk. There are signs EVERYWHERE in town reminding you of a litany of fines you could incur for crossing the street.
I joke, but in all honesty
the only thing to do in Rexburg is get in trouble.
I love the Lord, and I believe in the Gospel, I do, but Rexburg is . . . Rexburg isn't a place I would choose to live.
Stuff like this never ceases to amaze me, it really shouldn't amaze me because I see this all the time within my family and friend circles back in Utah, and yet it still does. I've said this before that the church really needs to rethink and change how they treat their single adults. Because they're ADULTS not teenagers! 
