So the sick LDS tradition of ratting out others is still alive and well in WRECKSBURG....fucking sad. It was a thing when I was there 51 years ago too.
BYUI isn't the only school where the administrators think they are God. It looks like punishment for insubordination. You can't have your profs saying "No massuh".
It's pretty pathetic that the Morg complains (through its civil representatives) that religious liberties are under attack when it openly suppresses First Amendment rights to free speech. Orrin's Boner.
I can't imagine she will be a member of her own choosing for long with such opposing views. She sounds a bit naive though, Facebook private? If she keeps it up she could be called to a court of love. Funny how hard core Mormons are so paranoid about socialism, Communism, and sharia law but embrace all those characteristics within their own cult.
I'm actually not planning to stay, but I need that to be the story so that the church members are more accepting of the story presented. I won't be surprised if I'm excommunicated. I've gotten word that this story has been under discussion at church headquarters since the KUTV story hit last night.
Others have been there where you are now. You won't be the first or the last to be unceremoniously stripped of rank within its walls.
There is no freedom, academic or otherwise, in such an oppressive environment. I wish you only better things await you than what you left behind.
When the rug was pulled out from under my feet on all things LDS, is when I found a closer relationship to my Creator, as in more personal. And knowledge that I was on solid footing, where before as a LDS I'd been standing on shifting sand. Our relationship as members of TSCC is always allegiance first to the corporation and its party line. God comes in as a distant second.
May blessings be yours as you find your way through this and onward.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2017 07:00AM by Amyjo.
BTW, I was a Poly Sci major for my undergrad degree from Boise State. The chair of our department was a jack Mormon who had been one for most, if not all, of his very esteemed and professional life. He smoked a pipe when he wasn't lecturing. I'm not recommending you take up smoking, only that there is life beyond the cloistered walls of BYU.
If those professors don't tow the party line, on or off campus, they are fired. They know that going into the job. Don't they sign some kind of confidentiality agreement to that effect for their employment?
This was one of the main reasons that I resigned from the LDS Church. The fact that they can't tolerate dissent within their organization. Loyal opposition is not allowed.
Are the other faculty members, students, or the Administration too intellectually weak to debate this person? If they are so overcome with the Spirit, why couldn't they just change her mind? She is a political science professor. Debating these types of issues is part of her job for God's sake!
Boner makes a good point. The LDS Church, and the Beckett Society crowd, are more interested in preserving institutional and organizational religious freedom that allows those institutions (including businesses owned by their adherents) to impose their religious preferences on society. The freedom of conscience of their members is of little concern to them--unless someone is not allowed to join their church.
I would classify her statement as: terrible judgement. Wrong forum, wrong time. And, in my view, she had to know she was not following policy re: her job and church.
So the question is: why? Tired of her job? Wants out of the BYU teaching environment? LDS Church views are no longer her views?
I don't think the consequences of her statements on Facebook were a surprise. Did she do it on purpose? She just had to take a stand outside what she knew was appropriate?
And why use Facebook? I really think a lot of people misuse the social network. Learn to use it with propriety or leave it alone.
Why has it become OK to "air your dirty laundry" and personal opinions (that are nobody's business) on a social network -- like Facebook all the while knowing that it can have a very high cost.
Their personal freedom of expression may be more valuable to them than their employment, but that is a choice or a consequence of their behavior in a given setting.
Personal liberties are not co-equal with employment contracts in the private sector.
Freedom of speech is limited to time, place, and setting. Government employees have protected speech up to a point, but not private employment.
Then, Robertson said, it took a "negative turn." She said the officials pressured her to rethink her stances, pray about it for a few days and "hopefully make the right choice to take down the post." She said the administrators implied that if she took it down, she could keep her job.
Well, calling your employer out publicly (no matter how correctly,) will land you in hot water. This is why you kvetch behind the scenes with selected trusted colleagues on Messenger or in their offices with a closed door. Privacy on Facebook will only take you so far.
A bit off topic, but if Ruthie were a tenured professor at a state school, her speech would be protected. Our colleges and universities are being weakened by the over-reliance on adjunct faculty. I believe that adjuncts have their place, but should be limited to a certain percentage of a school's faculty in order for the school to gain accredidation.
And additionally, the BYUI buildings in the photo have absolutely wretched architecture. My local community college does far better. Does BYU not teach architecture?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2017 11:24AM by summer.
summer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A bit off topic, but if Ruthie were a tenured > professor at a state school, her speech would be > protected. Our colleges and universities are being > weakened by the over-reliance on adjunct faculty. > I believe that adjuncts have their place, but > should be limited to a certain percentage of a > school's faculty in order for the school to gain > accredidation.
Good point, but since BYU-I isn't a state school, it wouldn't have mattered in this case. BYU tenured professors can also be fired (and have been) for expressing their personal opinions off-campus. :(
Right. I'm just pointing out that she would have more freedom of expression elsewhere, especially if she could find a tenure-track position (which is increasingly rare.)
One of my children refused the unsolicited offer of an adjunct professorship there last year. Did not want to deal with the belief/behavior strictures at BYU-I, and BYU-I would have had its hands full with another "troublesome" employee.
BYU adjuncts are thrown into a meat grinder. Just the number of adjuncts used shows they are not serious about academics, free inquiry, or freedom of speech. Otherwise, they would treat them better.