Looking at my number of posts, I obviously don't contribute much to the discussions here, although I am an avid reader of the various discussions. But I feel I have to weigh in on this one. I find this deeply troubling. I would like to know more of the whole story, but this seems to reek of unrighteous dominion. How does this encourage a potentially less active young man? Where is the counseling? Where is the love?, the encouragement? How would this help someone who is becoming less active back into activity? I am very curious to know whether the bishop ever met with him first to discuss his activity. If he did not, then this is an unbelievable misuse of authority. If there were more to the story, should it not have instead been taken to the honor code office?

Conosticator wrote:

This thread has been very interesting. I can fully understand why people often no longer find the need to attend Church every sunday. Sometimes it is because Church attendance is no longer fulfilling their spiritual needs.

Since I moved to AZ in 2003 my wife and I have been in four different wards. I have had one calling here - seven months as a nursery teacher in 2004 (my wife was the nursery leader and asked for me as a teacher because most of her teachers were too unreliable). She has had two callings in that time, the other being a VT district leader for three months prior to our ward splitting.

Never in my life have I felt that it was my responsibility to ask the Bishop for a calling. Even now I expect the Bishop to make that determination. Other than tithing settlement, and temple recommend interview, we've never met with any of the four bishops we've had here in AZ. I don't think any of the last three knew who we were. Even attending tithing settlement is hard when you have to introduce yourself to your Bishop despite living in the ward for most of the previous year.

I think you should ask the bishop for a calling. Not a specific calling but a let him know you are available and willing to do what ever he and the lord want. Bishops have a hard job. I think we should do what we can to make it easier and help ease his burden.

I don't think that we have enough of the facts to know what to think about this case. On the surface it looks like the bishop made a mistake but we obviously don't have all the details.

Mars wrote:

I just remembered what class I had with Kearl-

He is the Economics 101 professor, the huge one in the JSB with class sizes of 2000 freshman. Kearl is a brilliant economist, but he was also very arrogant, loud, and rude. I found him hilarious, as his favorite classroom past-time was to bash down any student who made a comment, embarrassing them as much as possible. He was kind of the opposite of your typical BYU prof, which is why I enjoyed his class. One of my roommates actually had a nightmare about him once after a rough week in Econ.

One of my wife's uncles is a an Econ. professor I will ask him what he knows about he guy.

I don't think any one of us can judge whether the bishop's refusal to give the p_layer_ an ecclesiastical endorsement was right or wrong, and we won't ever know for sure what the reasons behind that decision were. Unfortunately, we will only ever hear one side of this story. The bishop and other religious leaders involved can't speak about it. So, we have the p_layer_ saying the reason he got expelled was because his bishop thought he didn't go to church. How do we know the kid isn't lying through his teeth. We just won't ever know, so let's just accept what happened and hope it doesn't negatively impact recruiting. To me, judging the bishop and stake president and calling them names is just ignorant unless you were a part of the discussions that led to the p_layer_s expulsion.

If the story is true, and Walton "did nothing immoral, illegal, or against the standards of the church" then this bishop and stake president have abused their priesthood authority and leadership. I'm 34 yrs old, I've been in more than a dozen wards in my day, including numerous college wards, and never have I seen anything like this. It is stories like this that make my support of BYU waiver, not the performance of the athletic teams. I never attended BYU, but have felt like a surrogate student for years because of my love for BYU sports and for the Church. However, stories like this (if it is true) are difficult for me to stomach. Frankly, they are embarassing. I hope this kid lands on his feet somewhere else and is treated better.

etyotx wrote:

I haven't heard that it is req'd that one only attend his own ward.

After I got married while going to school at BYU, my wife and I attended the Provo 9th Ward in the Provo East Stake. (As a side note, the Provo 9th Ward no longer exists as ward boundries were reshuffled about 2.5 years ago, and ward were given "geographic" names).

While we were in the Provo 9th Ward, I served as Executive Secretary and then later as Ward Clerk. I can tell you that, having attended many Bishopric and PEC meetings, that one topic for discussion were the couples/families that never could quite make it to our ward -- because they were constantly attending church somewhere else. One week they'd be at "his" parents ward. The next week they were at "her" parents ward. The next week they were at some homecoming/farewell. The next week they were at a baby blessing of a friend. Yes they were attending church, but the point is they were going to church without having to commit or actively help build up the kingdom. Because their attendance was so infrequent to their own ward, the Bishopric felt like they didn't really know the members well enough to give them a calling. Additionally, they sometimes felt that these traveling church goers wouldn't be at church every Sunday in order to fulfill their callings.

On the flip side, we always had frequent visitors (people that always came because they were "visiting" someone in our ward). If you didn't know better, you'd think they were a member of the 9th Ward. But we couldn't extend callings to these people, because they weren't in our ward.

People are required to attend their own ward. Ask any Stake President. That is where we give of our time, talents and energy in building up the kingdom. When you travel so much, you are basically getting a free ride to church services, one for which you are not paying back by contributing to your own ward through service in a calling.