As a visiting parent, I was surprised to notice the number of students who had snuck food and drink into a local theater. This practice is fairly common where I live, but in Provo, with BYU students and a 90 percent Mormon population, I found this appalling. I purchased popcorn and a drink at the snack bar but when I started eating it in the auditorium, I looked around and wow! Of the 29 people, I could easily count over half had their own snacks.
What is going on here? I thought BYU has an Honor Code, I thought we as Latter-day Saints have a moral code. I thought we are to be “honest in your dealings with your fellow man”. There are signs outside every theater telling us we are not to bring in any outside food or drink.
Why do these otherwise moral people “sneak” food in? I’m sure many feel justified because the snack bar prices are so high. Yes they are, but so is a steak at a restaurant. I don’t think any of us would feel justified in going into a restaurant, ordering a $4.95 appetizer and then drinking our own cans of soda and eating the barbequed steaks we brought from home. And then leave our spilled soda, our empty cans, our dirty plates and our utensils behind for restaurant staff to clean up.
As a business owner myself, I certainly wouldn’t allow someone to agree to purchase one of my products and then have that individual change with agreement without my permission. When we purchase an admission ticket to watch a movie, that’s the agreement, to watch the movie. That ticket doesn’t give us the right to eat our own food in the theater, especially when there is a sign posted that says we can’t. Where is there any moral justification for that kind of behavior?
I’m sure there will be some who say I am “straining at a gnat” and maybe I am. A long time ago a Bishop once told me that we don’t lose our morality by a blowout, it’s always by small leaks.
There is an Honor Code at BYU, we as members of the church should be living higher moral principles. Hopefully we can do what we know is right. When I return for graduation, I’ll probably catch another movie and I’ll probably be counting again.
Marvin Coleman
Veradale, Wash.
