For the hardliners, it wasnt enough that his vision for the university was flawed, no. December 15, 2020. God has made people different from one another and intends those differences to remain. The university didnt admit any black students until 1971, 17 years after Brown vs. Board of Education. According to the GRACE report, a student told staff with Bob Jones University in 2005 that she had been abused by her pastor since she was 15 years old and that she was pregnant with his. There's no more searching. But placing cultural education on the same plane as religious education was always controversial in fundamentalist circles. Today's chapel message addresses the sins of the fool, which include "slander, perverse lips, contention and rage." y_Z;tn HzMa"`f>cK@)W7j WtjlRCja%i9b>c_A The looks are not easy to decode. But many in the network of fundamentalist pastors that are a major pipeline for incoming BJU students viewed the display in less metaphorical terms, calling it blasphemous, gross, too feminine, and what happens when Christians model their college programs after those of sodomites. Facing widespread queer panic among stakeholders, university President Steve Pettit put out a statement condemning the show as clearly sacrilegious and blasphemous. But the statement came too late, and with inadequate brimstone, to appease the hardliners. Although neither of us was sure what BJU defines as a "serious dating relationship," we figured it was somewhere between first and third base. But there is also this: "The world always looks kind of run down," explains Dickson Beam, and when you leave the neat, prim campus of Bob Jones University, the world does indeed look tired and weary and down at the heels. "I already know the world is wicked and no good," says Don Unruh, a tall, thin ministerial student, a preacher boy as they call them here. 30 views Jim Fri, 08/10/18 5:19 am This is NOT the Babylon Bee folks! The room is open until 10 most nights, except for Wednesdays, when it closes early for prayer sessions. "Sometimes the unsaved look at the saved as being shabby or tacky," is the way Don Allen, a junior, puts it. When he entered what is now Birmingham-Southern College, he caught a glimpse of the way college education could open a door to middle class status and social respectability. This space has been changed to students services, (Hub) staff offices & the executive wing. IFB dominance wasnt confined to the studentbody; the university board was also mostly IFB. The IRS demanded the payment of $490,000 in back taxes. A Strumming Amigo. (Its all but impossible to imagine pentecostals at BJU today!) BJU was now a non-accredited, non-tax exempt university with a national reputation for sacralized racism. There are so many rules, it hurts the head to think of them. "They cared. "But if you come to Bob Jones, well, it's a place where if something can't be done first class, it isn't done at all." This was a product of founder Bob Jones Sr.s upbringing in rural poverty on the wiregrass frontier of Alabama. ", The rules, says Dr. Bob, "are like a mold a sculptor would make--you pour the liquid into it and keep it there until it hardens and then you can take the props away; it's like a hothouse for a tender young plant.". "All the press has been really misrepresentative.". And don't they ever wonder what they're missing, what possibilities lie in the conversations of the flesh? So I sneak gingerly on the outskirts of the campus, approaching only friendly-looking students in small packs. "I've seen what it does to people, how they're always unhappy, always unsatisfied, always searching. Male and female students were not permitted to speak to each other after 7 p.m. (Its all but impossible to imagine pentecostals at BJU today!) * On being advised of the decision of the Court, Bob Jones III ordered that the American flags on campus be flown at half-staff. Copyright 2009. The policy was further modified two days after that; now students are asked to inform their parents about any interracial relationship, and if the parents disapprove, the messed-up delinquents will be referred to a campus counselor. The last Jones was eased out as the university board jonesed for a fresh face. Friday night is the semifinal round of the intramural basketball tournament. Not just the students who are dutifully trotted out by the public relations department, but the ones picked off at random. "Your parents would want to know about it, and if it's OK with them, it's OK with the university.". That's 40% growth. Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption after a 13-year battle with the IRS over whether the university's policies against interracial dating precluded it as a non-taxable religious. Bob Jones University was dedicated to "fundamentalist Christian beliefs" which included prohibitions against interracial dating and marriage. "Last year we were prima donnas, we didn't credit the Lord and we got beat. The Rev. 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org. Please, brought down the mandolin-strumming president of a college that once billed itself as the Worlds Most Unusual University., But many in the network of fundamentalist pastors that are a major pipeline for incoming BJU students viewed the display in less metaphorical, , calling it blasphemous, gross, too feminine, and what happens when Christians model their college programs after those of sodomites. Facing widespread queer panic among stakeholders, university President Steve Pettit put out a. condemning the show as clearly sacrilegious and blasphemous. But the statement came too late, and with inadequate brimstone, to appease the hardliners. In case you've just returned from a lengthy prison sentence, let me fill you in: Bob Jones University has in one short month gone from being a small, rather nontoxic Christian college in Greenville, S.C., to a symbol of monomaniacal right-wing intolerance. It is one of the best known and contraversial schools in the US (as far as religion). Education. The system has its disadvantages, however; it is, after all, difficult to work up a really good blood lust against one's own classmates, and though the student body is divided up into 52 "literary societies" with Greek names and special colors, membership in the societies is compulsory and loyalty a little forced. Bob Jones, in Greenville, South Carolina, is a niche school. Bob Jones Spells Out Dating Policy. Where's the indignant rage? Bob Jones Jr. died in 1997. In the early 21st century, these latent tensions were still thick on the ground. The first 2,500 students arrived the following year. It found it in Steve Pettit. While some students may be embarrassed by the school's policies, the full-court press they've been subjected to may explain their response of resounding silence. During his tenure he bestowed honorary degrees on George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Lester Maddox. ", Now he would like to be a preacher, saving the lost souls of southern California, and to that end Salinas is enrolled in the preacher boy classes, and spends his weekends practicing his ministry. The Joneses exercised near total control over the university day-to-day, messaging, and policy. The students at Bob Jones University are almost all, like me, white. Ironically, the structural changes that enabled a board revolt against Pettit were a result of reforms pushed by Pettit himself. Looking for an old soul like myself. In 1992 he received a bachelor's degree in public speaking from BJU and in 1996, a Master of Divinity. However, the resultant second wave of alumni outrage has since led the hardliner board chairman to resign, leaving the school in a state of limbo as to who next gets the unenviable job of wrangling this particularly bitey nest of squirrels in exchange for a high future risk of severe reputational damage and the incredibly low (for a university president) salary of $150,000. I give them a reassuring but complexly noncommittal gesture before ducking into the throng. They tend to be reedy and thin, shorn lambs whose eyes look small, fierce, in their pale uneasy faces. Now, says Salinas, his father has returned to his mother, the entire family has been saved and he himself has "found the thing I was looking for--the peace. The first place Michelle takes us is the "Dating Room," a place where couples can "be together." Many of your remember the Dating/Social Parlor during your time at BJU. I've trod among the well-groomed Christian scholars as they herd to morning chapel, clutching dogeared Bibles, all of them sharing at least one thing -- their love of and trust in God. Bob Jones University v. United States, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (8-1) on May 24, 1983, that nonprofit private universities that prescribe and enforce racially discriminatory admission standards on the basis of religious doctrine do not qualify as tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. At its founding in 1927, the eponymous Bob Jones Sr. was determined to establish a liberal arts college, not just another bible training institute like Biola or Moody Bible. Thanks, this is a terrific and fascinating essay. "It's good for your testimony to look sharp," Laura Wood explains. The Lord moves in not-so-mysterious ways. Laura bows her blond head in prayer; she herself dreams of becoming a missionary, and in her dream she safely invests all the romance and glamor and sense of adventure that is part of being 21. Denise is black and 22. Michelle is a third-generation Bob Jones disciple, a grad student only months away from graduating. Their appearances didn't have the same fallout as when presidential hopeful George W. Bush made it a stop on his campaign trail. ), Religious Education. Take a peek behind the scenes at the self-proclaimed "Bastion of Fundamentalism" and "Fortress of Faith," Bob Jones University. However, the resultant second wave of alumni outrage has since led the hardliner board chairman to resign, leaving the school in a state of limbo as to who next gets the unenviable job of wrangling this particularly bitey nest of squirrels in exchange for a high future risk of severe reputational damage and the incredibly low (for a university president), If you stop and think about it, its less surprising that a fundamentalist college would put a stop to a fashion show than that such a place hosted a student fashion show in the first place. Eventually, in 1981, the Supreme Court of the United States heard the case. 3. Students were forbidden from attending movies. As of June 22, the university had 5,403 applications for the 2022-23 school year. Bob Jones University is ranked #26 out of 136 Regional Universities South. I have nothing to fear, she insists. Functionally, this meant that a fraction of the total boardjust six members on the executive committeehas the power to unilaterally change board rules, and the chairman possesses an unparalleled power to make board appointments without executive input. 33, is the first in four generations to break ranks for a career outside the university. I went in as a fundamentalist zealot, and came out a Calvinist rebel. Indeed, ex-president Bob Jones III has joined the hardliners, that the school has veered from its unique distinctives. It can be hard to parse whats so distinct about the absolute hodgepodge of hardline accusations; theyre either worried about a vague-but-severe theological drift at BJU, concerned about changing gender norms (a la female athletes wearing shorts), or are reacting to shifting class expectations (staging a Disney, That bunker mentality was propelled in part by white massive resistance to desegregation. I don't want to be mistrusted. But that Bob Jones University commissioned and, albeit with some serious reluctance, allowed the publication of this damning report is a major new . For example, a crown-of-thorns haloed model strode the cat walk wearing a coat stained blood red, a visual representation of a crucified Christ who, in Foxxs words, covered our sinscompletely and fully like a wrap coat covers the body completely and fully.. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. "If you're witnessing to a model, and you look like mud, she's not going to listen. But placing cultural education on the same plane as religious education was always controversial in fundamentalist circles. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. World Wary. 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