And the reason is…

They couldn’t find me.

“She said because school officials had difficulty contacting him to alert him that he was failing to meet requirements.”

WHAT???!!!!  BYU had difficulty contacting me so that is why they didn’t follow their policies when they yanked my diploma?!!!  Hello, I walked across the stage!  They had no problem finding my facebook page, myspace page and all the other information about me online that is found in my hefty “academic” file!  The LDS church had no problem contacting me, stalking me, finding my personal email and my personal phone number, let alone my personal address.  Oh my, what little fibbers they are over there in Utah County.

Had they given me proper notice, I could have challenged the church and kept my membership if that would have made me qualify for my sheepskin.

Interesting.

The article:

The Religion News Service article was picked up by ethicsdaily.com. Here is the link:

From the site:

It’s a sad reality we live in that the only way to protect your rights and challenge injustice is to have the enormous funds to do so.  I was successful to raise a little over $5,000 and paid $5,000 of my own money to get me into a circus court at BYU and to get the complaint ready to file the lawsuit to challenge BYU’s unethical practices.

Unfortunately, it will cost about $20,000 more just to move forward to file the suit.   That doesn’t include what it will cost to see this through.  It has cost over $12,000 just to get this far.  I don’t have $20K.  The calendars have yet to pull a profit.  The charities are the only ones who have financially benefited from the project so far.

Until further notice, or until I have the funds available to me, the suit against BYU is on hold.

Thank you to all of those who have been supportive and for those who have donated to the cause.  I will still collect donations, and once I have the amount needed, I will move forward.

That’s right!  The 2010 Men on a Mission Calendar goes to print this week!  I just got the finishing touches done.  We will be having a pre-release sale of the new calendar in a couple weeks for our fan club, so be sure to visit www.mormonsexposed.com and join the fan club for discount codes and release dates!  The Hot Mormon Muffins Calendar will be coming out later this Spring/early Summer.  They need a little more time in the oven.

Check out the preview of the 2010 Men on a Mission Calendar:

PS:  So what’s the latest on the BYU case?  I am weighing out my options right now.  In the meantime, I have some calendars to put out!

This past week has been a difficult one – having to make the decision to further this fight with BYU.  There is a part of me that wants to walk away and get back to the normalcy of life.  My Dad wrote me an email asking me to do just that – forgive BYU and my leaders, and come back into the church (and then get my diploma).

I believe in forgiveness.   I believe forgiveness is the key to unlocking the unlimited potential of happiness.  I have experienced incredible joy and relief through forgiveness.  That is why I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place.  However, this case is one that needs to be challenged.  Though I am trying to forgive those who I feel have been wrong in this situation, I still must challenge their lack of integrity and their unreasonable actions.  Many times in life, I have been the one to bend over and take it.  For those who know me, and know what happened to me in St. George, UT with the good Mormons of that community – you know what I am talking about.  The pup is all grown up, and this time I am going to take a stand.

I understand BYU can set their own rules – they are a private school.  The problem I have is their policies are designed in a tail spin of un-Christian ethics, and they don’t follow their own policies when they don’t want to.  They are designed to take away the fundamental rights of students and faculty – in other words, they are designed to be self-serving.

If this was just a personal issue, like it was with getting excommunicated, I would just forgive them and get on with my life as I did immediately after I was ex’d.  We are dealing with a contractual, paid-for-services issue, amongst now other personal issues that have only escalated the situation.

Prior to the BYU debacle, I had nothing bad to say about the church, even though I was not happy about Frank Davie saying too much to the press.  But bottom line, they gave me no reason to speak out against their decision.  I felt I handled it very well with the press.  I was in a position to say some pretty bad things about the church – I had a national audience.  But I didn’t because that is not what I, or the mission of my project was about.

It’s what happened the following months after the excommunication as things started to spiral out of control is when I started to get angry and decided to stand up for myself.  The article the church put up on their about me and the innuendos it created, followed by a “deletion” letter from BYU in the same week is what made me jump into the line of defense.  I felt like I was being ganged up on from all sides.  The timing of it all seemed a little too orchestrated, and it was a bit overwhelming to handle.

That is why I have created a website – and have taken a stand for the injustice and intolerance of this situation.  I am allowing people to have a front row seat to see just how “apostates” are really treated when you dare not bow your head and say yes.  People write to me all the time telling me their stories of how BYU’s unforgiving policies put them in the same place as I am.  This fight is for YOU, and for all of those who have been unfairly treated in the system who never had a voice, or had the resources to have a voice.

A lot of people have been asking me, “what’s next?”  A press conference will be announced shortly with the details.

I have decided to challenge BYU and the LDS Church, not because I need the diploma, and not just because I earned and paid for it – but to take a stand against intolerance.

I started out in this journey on a light note, showcasing individual Mormons as being normal – human.  Our message was about “stripping” off stereotypes that divide us as humans.   It was to show kindness to our brothers and sisters and extend a hand of friendship to those that believe or live differently than ourselves – and to prove that under our labels, we are all the same.

We are human, and we are beautiful.

The LDS Church decided to take my personal expression and make it all about them.  They have chosen to make an example out of me of how they do not tolerate individual thought and expression, and to instill fear in their followers of what will happen to you if you dare express yourself as you are.

You are human, you are beautiful.

The LDS Church has demonstrated intolerance to personal and private art & beauty.  Their involvement in Prop 8 showcased their intolerance and fear on a grand scale that someday our children will be shameful for, much like I have felt about Mormon prejudice towards blacks.

I am now taking a stand and implementing the Zero Tolerance for Intolerance campaign with this pending lawsuit.  The campaign will be about shining the light on the unethical and immoral practices of religion that are sadly protected by our constitution. Or are they? The only way to know is to challenge it.

On a side thought, how is it that the church and BYU can sexually harass me by asking me personal questions about my sex life and practices – especially when I did not solicit them? If those same questions were asked in a workplace, a lawsuit would be filed, and someone would be looking for another job.

Please take a stand with me, not to tear down or challenge someone’s personal beliefs – but to take a stand against unethical practices and challenge the status quo by embracing religious, cultural and lifestyle diversity and demonstrate love.

Well I am sure you are not surprised that BYU has decided to not offer an exception to their zero excommunication tolerance policy and offer me my degree.  I am officially BYU-unworthy.  And apparently unworthy of many other things based on the from Mr. Heperi.  He states that his findings on my ( website has led him to believe I am not living a chaste and virtuous life, having respect for others, and participating regularly in church attendance- therefore no diploma.  Also, being honest and speaking openly and publicly about what happened to me is also considered a violation of the BYU Honor Code.  (You have to be honest, just not when it might expose church leaders of behaving like high-salary corporate dignitaries rather than humble servants of Christ.)

I don’t seem to understand where my website gave Mr. Heperi the idea that I am not living a chaste and virtuous life.  My Stake President made the same assumption about me.  Really now.  I am so flattered to think that two people now actually think that someone wants to have sex with me.  Hats off to you, Elder!

The grand finale shocker is that producing the calendar is a violation of the Honor Code according to Heperi because it is “inappropriate in light of the teachings of the Church.”  It was not so inappropriate that the ran a story about it, advertising it to the entire BYU student body.  (They sure as ‘heck’ have not run a story about how BYU took back my degree – interesting.)  They also did not find the calendar so inappropriate to discipline the several BYU models that appeared in the now three additions of Men on a Mission.  This might change things for the student body attending BYU and might just set another standard that no one can really live up to, at least not honestly.

So all of this all boils down to that pesky little calendar, and my plans for future “offensive and disrespectful” projects.  My Stake President would not put this in writing (he just made innuendos to the media that there was more) but BYU sure did.   Bottom line:  I was excommunicated for the calendar, and now not given a diploma because of it.

The moral of the story: When you sign up for “higher learning” at BYU, not only do you have to sign the future of your education away to their ‘on the go’ policies and procedures, but you also waive your rights of free speech and thought – oh wait, sorry Provo, Utah.  You have freedom of speech, there are just “consequences” for it.

I intend to challenge BYU as far as I can for every student who has ever been jerked around by their unreasonable, unfair and intolerant practices.

I still think this is so funny…