Stupidity at the Y

"BYU spokesmen said the honorary degree is not an endorsement of Cheney's policies."- Deseret News, 'BYU To Give Cheney Honorary Degree', April 25, 2007 (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660215019,00.html)
First, I love Cheney, and I would put a "Cheney 08" bumper sticker on my car if I could find one.

Q. Why do you give someone an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service?
A. As a symbolic gesture meaning something.

Is it not to honor them? Is it not to commend their "public service"? It's not like we are all so dumb that we don't realize that the Church is quite in bed with the nationwide Christian Conservative, Republican, right-wing, etc. movement, so why try to deny it? The honorary degree to Cheney (and not to Harry Reid, Al Gore, or Ralph Nader) is a statement.

"A number of professors and students who either opposed Cheney's visit or welcomed the visit while criticizing the vice president's policies had said that if BYU chose to bestow an honorary degree on Cheney, it would feel to them like an endorsement of Cheney's policies by the university and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the school." And those professors and students are 100% right, despite the BS puff of the Church PR spokesman.
Just this one Semester BYU has banned YouTube (1984 anyone?) and
changed the honor code on homosexuality
(http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660212970,00.html)
That change makes explicit the concept that being of homosexual orientation is not a punishable choice.
"Being homosexual isn't against the Honor Code, but engaging in homosexual activity is." (BYU News Net). Hence, it is a big step on a slippery slope... it is a concession that people may be born that way. It really breaks the grain against decades (or centuries, or millenia really) of teaching that being gay was a choice, hence, punishable.