“Only at BYU-Idaho,” was a phrase I muttered countless times during my six years in Rexburg. And if I’m being completely honest, it was usually meant in a derogatory manner.

Oh, your roommate got engaged to a girl he met just last week?

Only at BYU-Idaho.

It’s -35 degrees after wind-chill and class still isn’t being canceled?

Only at BYU-Idaho.

You were asked to leave class because you had the audacity to wear shorts in the middle of July?

Only at BYU-Idaho.

You have to shave your five o’clock shadow to work out even though the kid running the spinning class has a Hitler ‘stache?

Only at BYU-Idaho.

Those are just a few examples of the cultural abnormalities that I knew I wouldn’t miss when my family and I left Rexburg for graduate school. I wasn’t going to miss wearing jeans every day, I wasn’t going to miss nine months of winter, and I definitely wasn’t going to miss being immersed in the often obscure “BYU-I culture” 24-hours a day.

But for the first time in two years, a story shared on my Facebook feed this afternoon made me miss (almost) everything about BYU-Idaho.

Shared by BYU-Idaho’s student media organization, the Scroll, a BYU-I student has been charged with felony video voyeurism after police say he hid cameras in some girls’ apartment. According to the story, the student, who admitted to the crime, hid two pin hole cameras in the apartment, one in the bathroom and another in a bedroom.

After reading the article, I started going through the comments. One of the first read, “Of course this happened at BYU-Idaho.” Another proclaimed, “We don’t need this type of behavior here in Rexburg!”

I initially agreed with the angry commenters. I mean, my wife lived in the same apartment complex that this incident took place when we were dating. If something like this would have happened in her apartment back then, I would have lost my mind. I would have demanded an apology, restitution, and, likely, blood.

But then I kept reading.

I noticed one post was earning ‘likes’ faster than Madison County locals speeding through icy roundabouts (that’s a regional joke, you see).

A young woman was defending the guilty party. She said:

In another post, she went on to explain that it was her and her roommates who were the victims of this story. It was her fiancée who acted so recklessly, violating her trust and the trust of her roommates. And she didn’t seem angry with him at all. Instead she was pleading for others to spare the perpetrator any further embarrassment and withhold judgement. I couldn’t believe it.

As I continued to read through the comments, I found the other girls who were victimized were making similar comments.

At this point, my mind was blown.

How could a young man enter the home of his fiancée and her roommates, take advantage of their trust, expose the most private parts of their personal lives, and have those same women forgive and defend him?

Instead of being filled with wrath, anger, rancor, or vitriol, they were expressing feelings of love, concern, and forgiveness.

Instead of trying to make their perpetrator suffer for his stupid, thoughtless, selfish mistake, these amazing young women were making a concentrated effort to engage with others on Facebook and remind them of the healing power of Christ’s Atonement.

There is no doubt in my mind that this young man will suffer. He will pay for his crimes and sins, just like everyone else eventually will. There is no excuse for what he did. And the way the victims responded does not excuse or diminish the gravity of their perpetrator’s assault.

But that is not the story here.

These women are the physical embodiment of everything that is great about BYU-Idaho. How a group of young women could forgive their perpetrator and extend a level of Christlike charity only found in the scriptures and conference talks is beyond me.

I sit here shocked, at a loss for words. I am left with just a single thought running through my head.

“Only at BYU-Idaho.”