BYU diploma yanked over LDS calendar

SALT LAKE CITY — Brigham Young University has yanked the diploma of a man who created a calendar featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries and was later excommunicated from the church.

Chad Hardy of Las Vegas attended graduation ceremonies Aug. 15 after finishing up his last four units of study online in June. But on July 13, in between completing his studies and the graduation ceremony, he was excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A Sept. 30 letter from Norman Finlinson, the school's executive director of student academic and advisement services, said a nonacademic hold was placed on Hardy's record after the church-owned university learned of the excommunication.

"If in the future you are reinstated as a member of the church in good standing, you are invited to contact my office regarding your possible eligibility for the awarding of a degree," Finlinson wrote.

Hardy, 31, plans to challenge the school's decision.

"I intend to fight this tooth and nail," he said.

Hardy's excommunication for conduct unbecoming a church member was rooted in his failure to pay tithing, a lapse in other religious obligations and, according to Las Vegas regional church elder Frank Davie, his involvement with the 2008 "Men on a Mission" calendar.

Hardy's calendar sold nearly 11,000 copies and features 12 returned church missionaries in mostly modest poses, minus their trademark white shirts, ties and black-plastic name badges.

The calendar was intended to shake up the stuffy, cookie-cutter stereotype often associated with Mormons, Hardy said.

News reports of his excommunication helped sales of the 2008 calendar and have landed Hardy larger U.S. and international-distribution contracts for the just-released 2009 edition.