“Anyone want to take a bet on whether West Virginia University would hold a scholarship for a football player?”

Actually, the answer is no. Missionaries become recruitable after serving a mission. Neither the school (any school) nor the athlete are bound to any scholarship commitment. BYU recently had a punter who lost his scholarship to the UW while serving a mission. BYU lost Ben Olsen when Ben chose to go to UCLA after his mission. The jab at football, while sometimes justified, is not in this case.

I attended a state school in the Midwest on full scholarship. The state itself had a policy that a student could take a two year leave for public service and return with his/her scholarship intact. I don’t know what WV’s policy is but the ACLU may have become involved because the school was applying similar provisions inequitably (approving missions for Methodists while rejecting Mormon’s requests). What bothers me is that this young man has other options available to him without getting the courts involved. He could just complete his undergraduate education and then serve his mission.

This issue is quite personal to me, as we had to fight like he** to keep my wife’s schloarship when she took a semsester off when our first child was born. She had been shown nothing regarding this policy when accepting the scholarship and was a Dean’s List student. It seemed in our case the decision was that of one {insert explicative here} lady that seemed to have a personal problem with young families. We won out after the dean of her department and a couple other friends with clout got behind us, but it was clear that our University did not have to hold the scholarship. WVU, and my alma matter are within their rights, but I struggle why any University would want to push away a gifted student for starting a family or serving their god.

The student in question is already back from his mission. And yes, he was told before he left on his mission that the scholarship would not be held for him.

We don’t know from the news article that I read what his current plans or alternative options are. However, I would say that what he’s doing is to blaze a trail, or clear the path, so to speak, for the next LDS student/missionary that goes to that school who wants to both go on a mission and accept an academic scholarship from the school.

Similar “trail blazing” or “clearing of obstacles” had to be done at other schools, including the federal military academies (West Point, Annapolis, etc.) After those schools learned that the student/missionary came back so much “improved” they gladly continued the scholarship deferrment for future LDS missionaries.

I see his goal not so much as selfish, but to improve the situation, which will allow more future RM’s to enjoy that school’s offerings, and improve the school by having more RM’s go there in the future.

As it is now, prior to this lawsuit, this school is effectively saying “Future LDS missionaries or RMs need not apply for scholarships, you’ll have to pay full tuition.”

The ACLU has traditionally gotten involved in scholastic situations where school rules are in conflict with established religious practices. Examples are cases in which school dress codes would prohibit the wearing of ear-locks by Hasidic Jews, or the wearing of turbans by Sikhs, or the hijab by Muslim women.

So I can see the parallel to LDS missionary service. 19 year-old Mormon males are expected to serve a 2 year mission, just as much as Hasidic males are expected to wear the long locks of hair in front of their ears, and as Muslim women are expected to wear a hijab, and as Sikh men are expected to wear a turban.

Interesting question, and yet another reason why Mormons need to re-evaluate the ACLU as a favorite scapegoat and embodiment of all things liberal (and therefore evil).

If there’s no disparate treatment, i.e., if other religious or non-religious students taking a two-year break don’t get their scholarships back upon their return, then WVU is on pretty solid legal ground in cancelling this missionary’s scholarship – particularly if the missionary was on notice this may happen before he left on his mission.

I don’t see the same parallels between the LDS mission and the yarmulke or veil. As arJ pointed out, Church policy is pretty flexible with when men can go on their missions. There’s no reason (well, besides social pressure) that a young man can’t go on a mission after he graduates from college and finishes his mission before he turns 26.

6. “In fact, this sort of thing is usually worked out during recruiting.”

That’s right. Everyone knows the deal going into it. It apprears that our RM in WVa knew the deal doing into it as well.

8. I only used the example of Ben Olsen to show that athletic scholarships are not held binding for RMs. Before that, I mentioned Derek McLaughlin, though I couldn’t recall his name. Derek lost his scholarship to UW while on his mission. It’s not common, but it does happen.

Does a school need a good reason to take away a scholarship? BYU took my brother’s away when he took a semester off to spend time with his son that was dying of cancer. I thought these things were totally up to the school, or are some like a contract?

It’s nice to see Mormons say nice things about the ACLU, an organization that doesn’t really give a damn about your religion, but will fight tooth and nail to ensure you get to practice it according to how they interpret the First Amendment. They may not always be right, but what a great tool they are.

For those who insist that there’s no reason the young man in question couldn’t have finished university and then gone on his mission, I share two points.

#1) Personal revelation. Perhaps he felt called to go then and not later. It’s not really our place to judge or our place to assume that he was just going because that’s when everyone else goes.

#2) I myself don’t have any experience with this but won’t that two-year gap between graduating and applying for a job tend to make employers shy off?

Interesting comments. A friend I went to high school with back in the early 80s received a 2 yr full ride academic scholarship to BYU. He was to turn 19 during his first year of college. He was told the scholarship would not be held for him or deferred if he went on a mission. So he opted to take the scholarship and go to school for two years, and then go on a mission.

“Are there any lawyers in the bloggernacle?”

You forgot the smiley face after that.

Our lawyer/stake pres was recently interviewed in the local paper:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070707/LIVING/707070329

Here’s one of the cool Q/A’s:

Q: Does practicing law create a conflict or is it complementary to your spiritual life?

A: I guess Jesus didn’t have many good things to say about lawyers. But he’s very forgiving.

Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.