Dear Editor,
I am responding to a letter in Tuesday's Daily Universe which denouncing the idea of minimum church attendance for BYU enrollment.
The authors based their argument on the idea that implementation of such a policy would deny students' free agency. They ought to be reminded about what agency really is.
Agency is the ability to make choices and be subject to the consequences of those choices, for good and for bad. The fallacy in their logic is that the students are being denied the right to make that choice.
In actuality, the students have already made that choice - by signing the Honor Code.
By agreeing to be bound by the terms of that code, they are agreeing to regularly attend their church meetings.
We can debate whether using Ecclesiastical Endorsements to enforce the integrity of that agreement is effective, but agency is not the issue.
Fully-grown adults are indeed capable of making their own decisions. One would think that by now, fully-grown adults would be capable of abiding by them.
Ryan Nelson
Houston, Texas