As a Kansas graduate, college basketball is in my blood.  This past Tuesday, Brigham Young University shocked the college basketball world.  It dismissed its starting sophomore center, Brandon Davies, for having premarital sex, which is a violation of the university's honor code.  BYU's honor code reflects the values of the Mormon Church and governs some of the most detailed aspects of one's personal life.  For example, drinking alcohol, coffee and tea are prohibited.  (That means I am violating BYU's honor code even as I write this blog.)  The point was not to make one.  BYU and the Mormon faith hold its adherents to a higher standard, and it simply stuck by it.  Whether or not you agree with the Mormon faith, it is refreshing to see BYU take a principled stance in a matter-of-fact way.  As Christians who share many of the same beliefs characterizing BYU's honor code, we are reminded that when we do what we were created to do in the manner in which we were originally created to do them, people will take note because it will appear so counter-cultural to the rest of the world.  Most people reading about Davies's dismissal will likely mock BYU's honor code and the Mormon faith in general for being too stringent.  As of this writing, articles on this topic on ESPN and Yahoo Sports have produced more than 450 and 1,200 comments, respectively.  You can only imagine what they say.  Most people simply won't get it.  But everyone is certainly taking note.  In the end, you can't help but respect BYU's actions to uphold its own standards.  This in turn, causes you to evaluate how well you uphold your own.

As ESPN columnist Pat Forde succinctly sums it up: "When BYU suspended double-digit scorer and leading rebounder Brandon Davies from the team Tuesday for [a then-] undisclosed violation of the honor code, it might have ruined a dream season.  He won't play again this season, just as the games become the team's most important ones.  And in the grand scheme of things, that really doesn't matter to the school." 

(BYU puts principle over performance, http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?co lumnist=forde_pat&id=6175251).