by

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the New York Times’s article on BYU and beards at least dozens of times in your Facebook feed.

Clearly, BYU’s anti-beard rule is stupid. It just is. That said, stupid isn’t necessarily an affirmative reason to do away with it: plenty of institutions have plenty of stupid rules, and, on the list of stupid rules in the world, the beard prohibition isn’t terribly high.[fn1] For the most part, it’s stupid, but not malicious.

Unfortunately, I learned from the Times article, there’s one situation where it is malicious, hypocritical, immoral, and damaging. BYU no longer offers a religious exemption from its no-beard policy. And that needs to change.[fn2]

I’ll let BYU speak for itself, through its spokeswoman, Carri Jenkins:

The university’s spokeswoman, Ms. Jenkins, said it makes its policy clear to Muslims during the application process. “He would have known all the standards before ever even enrolling in the university,” she said.

I don’t even know what to do with this. This is the same language BYU uses when a student athlete gets in trouble for drinking or having sex. A religious obligation not to shave is not the same thing as drinking and having premarital sex.

Maybe BYU’s administration doesn’t understand the religious obligations some students are under.[fn3] So as a quick primer:

Sikhism

For Sikhs, not cutting their hair or their beard is one of their five articles of faith.

Let me repeat that: not cutting their hair or their beard is one of their five articles of faith. It’s not a hipster trend that may or may not have peaked. It is a central tenet of their religious faith.

But to attend BYU, apparently Sikhs have to violate a fundamental religious duty.

Islam

I don’t pretend to be an expert on Islam (or, for that matter, Sikhism or Judaism), but for at least some Muslims, growing a beard is mandatory for men who are capable of it. (It’s worth noting that not all Muslims agree, but the fact that various sects of Islam aren’t correlated doesn’t mean that growing a beard is somehow not a real commandment for those who follow sects that require it.)

Judaism

Leviticus prohibits “rounding” (or destroying) the corners of one’s beard; per the Talmud, that means that observant Jews cannot use a razor to shave part of their beard. For some Orthodox and Hasidic Jews, that means that, for religious reasons, they do not shave their beards at all.

Religious Liberty

Elder Oaks has spoken frequently in recent years about the importance of religious liberty, and the centrality of religious observance to a functioning democracy. In general, he’s talking about religious liberty vis-à-vis the government, but he doesn’t limit it to that. Elder Oaks asks rhetorically what has led to the threats against religious liberty, then answers his question: “I believe the cause is not legal but cultural and religious.” He further argues that “religious persons should insist on their constitutional right and duty to exercise their religion.”

Elder Oaks doesn’t believe that only Mormons deserve to exercise their religion; it is necessary that all religious people do so. And, in fact, our belief that all people should be able to exercise their religion is enshrined in our Articles of Faith:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

But They Can Go Somewhere Else

Certainly they can. But so what? Do we want to force other religious people to choose between their religious beliefs and their educational goals? Universities are not fungible; while BYU is certainly not for everybody, it has certain strengths that undoubtedly appeal to at least some Sikh, Muslim, and Jewish students. And if BYU truly believes that individuals should be able to exercise the religion they believe in, it should make that exercise easier, not harder.

And the thing is, this is a pointless hill to die on. Being clean-shaven is not a tenet of our religion. Note, again, that that doesn’t mean that BYU can’t, or even shouldn’t, ban beards.[fn4] But it does mean that others’ beards don’t conflict with our religious beliefs and obligations, so granting a religious exemption does no harm whatever to Mormonism. That is, to be more blunt, there’s no ambiguity in balancing the equities, because there is no moral weight on the no-beard side. It is simply a policy, and a school policy, not a religious policy, at that.

For that matter, it’s not even an absolute policy on non-religious grounds. A student who is acting in a play, for example, can get an exemption for the duration of the play, and a person whose skin gets irritated from shaving can get a medical exemption.[fn5] But yet you can’t get it if you have a religious obligation to grow a beard. At a religiously-affiliated school.

So Why The Hard-Nosed Attitude?

Honestly, I have no idea.

That said, if you want to read something really sad, read this description of the bind a Sikh student found himself in a couple years ago. His shaving and cutting his hair is nothing less than tragic.

But the Sikh student was told that the policy had changed because the administration was afraid people were lying about their religious convictions in order to have beards.

To which I respond: so? Banning all religious exemptions to prevent fake religions exemptions strikes me as overkill. Especially because of this: according to BYU itself, in Fall 2014, a full 1.3% of BYU students were non-Mormons. BYU has 29,672 students; that means that about 386 students aren’t Mormon.

That means that not more than 386 students could get a beard card based on fake religious convictions, and that number’s probably closer to 212, since 45% of BYU students are women.

How do I come to this conclusion? Basically, like this: the Honor Code says that if a Mormon student converts to another religion, that student is no longer Honor Code compliant, and can’t continue at BYU. And, while beards are not inconsistent with Mormonism, they’re clearly not required by our religion. Therefore, 98.7% of BYU students can’t fake a religious obligation to have a beard.

So the number of students that could possibly need a religious exemption, much less fake one, is vanishingly small. But BYU’s current policy burdens those students unfairly and inordinately.

Communion Wine

Maybe the problem is a lack of familiarity with the religious traditions that require beards. So let’s think about Catholics: are Catholic BYU students forbidden from taking communion while students? They’ve agreed, per the Honor Code, not to drink alcohol, which would seem to forbid communion wine.

If Catholic students cannot take communion, that’s unconscionable and needs to be changed. If they can, well, why is wine different than shaving?

Changing Places

I’ve tried to think about how Mormons could be put in the same situation; nothing quite works. The best I can come up with is a school forbidding endowed Mormons from wearing garments as students, because they require all students to wear briefs.

But I don’t think that works. Not because the hypo is absurd—it is, but it’s not any more absurd than not allowing someone to grow a beard for religious reasons because, according to Jenkins, “This is just how we’ve chosen to represent ourselves.” The problem is, many college students aren’t yet endowed, and theoretically, a student could put off his or her endowment until after graduation with essentially no religious repercussions. The beard obligations, on the other hand, kick in when a boy can start to grow a beard; for many, that starts before college, and thus, the beard prohibition is a bigger burden on college-aged Sikhs than my hypothetical no-garments prohibition would be on college-aged Mormons.

Even still, imagine how outraged we would be collectively (and rightfully so) if a school enacted such a policy.

In Conclusion, Please Bring the Religious Exemption Back

Seriously. I have to say, reading the New York Times article hit me hard; I don’t like to be embarrassed of my alma mater (a school I enjoyed attending and a school that launched me on a good trajectory, both educationally and religiously). But this is embarrassing: we speak of the importance of religious liberty and religious practice, but we don’t respect the religious practices of those whose religious practice doesn’t look like ours.

Look, I get that BYU doesn’t have to grant a religious exemption. It certainly has the right and ability to require all students to be clean shaven.

But just because it can doesn’t mean it should. And, in this case, BYU should not.

I’m not saying do away with the no-beard policy. It’s stupid, but it’s not harmful. Or, at least, it’s not harmful as long as BYU allows a way for those with a religious obligation to wear a beard to not have to choose between their religious obligations and their educational goals.

—

[fn1] It’s probably worth noting that (a) I’m a BYU alum, (b) I didn’t have a beard at BYU (though I had a couple mustaches), and (c) I haven’t been clean-shaven in at least six years now (most of that time with beards, although I’ve done mustaches during a couple Novembers, and needed a goatee for one Halloween costume).

[fn2] Ideally immediately. Seriously, it’s shameful.

[fn3] That’s actually the best-case scenario: that they’re stupid and ill-informed. Worst case is that they are in fact aware of it, and just don’t care. And I really don’t want to believe either one, frankly.

[fn4] Seriously, the argument that BYU should allow beards because Brigham Young and/or Jesus had one is tremendously adolescent (though I have no doubt I made that argument when I was a student there). BYU students are not Jesus or Brigham Young, and neither Brigham Young nor Jesus was a BYU student. As such, the facial hair that they had has no bearing on BYU’s facial hair policies.

[fn5] And, while I do know people who have medical issues with shaving, rumor was, when I was at BYU, that the medical exemption was tremendously easy to get. Don’t shave for a week, then shave with a dull razor and without shaving cream, and bingo, you’ve got a beard card. (I don’t personally know anybody who did that, but at the very least, that was the rumor.)