Bob Jones University

I wish that I had known more about other colleges and universities before attending BJU. I came there strong in what I believed. I actually thought that I was going to a place where, after years of attending public school, I would finally fit in. While in high school, because of my own convictions and beliefs, I didn't do certain things. At Bob Jones, I was treated as if I was the worst heathen because my church youth group took trips to the beach or went to a public bowling alley. I had roommates preach to me about wearing pants and swimming with members of the opposite sex.

I went to Bob Jones because I wanted to be at a Christian university and learn Christian principles. By my sophomore year, I was so confused and mixed up, I didn't know what the devil leading me astray or God trying to direct me. I had decided to go home and sit out a semester, look at other places, and that day in chapel it was preached that "some of you are thinking about leaving here and following the devil straight to hell". Regretfully, I stayed. I learned to switch off my mind and just always say that I believed whatever they told me to believe. I stopped questioning because that always got me labeled as "not as spiritual" or not as good a Christian.

It has taken me years to get over going to BJU. My faith and Christian life suffered because of going there. I came there sure in what I believed and left wondering if any of it was real. I feel that I went through a cult or brainwashing type of experience. I wish I had left instead of staying and learning to just keep my thoughts and opinions to myself.That said, I think that I got a good education. I have been able to find jobs and for me, my BJU degree has not been a problem or obstacle in getting a job.

4th Year Female -- Class 1988

Faculty Accessibility: A, Social Life: D-

The policies of the school foster homosexuality. The intergender rules are absurd, and forces students into relationships where they feel forever guilty. I wonder about how many such relationships exist within the administration?

2nd Year Male -- Class 2006

Campus Maintenance: A, Education Quality: F

One semester before I would have graduated from BJU, I was called into the dean's office and told that I was being denied reenrollment because they did not agree with the seminary I was planning to attend. They did not want their label "mixed" with another school's label with which they did not agree. This was in December 1982 and the school was Dallas Theological Seminary. By the way, I did not attend Dallas. Instead, I went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and loved it!

While I had good professors at BJU, the only permissible theology that was allowed to be taught was dispensationalism, which I believed in whole-heartedly at the time, even though I could never quite square it with Scripture. Pity the poor lad who came from a reform background. Pity the rest of us for not being given the opportunity to learn what reform theology was.

There are so many good Christian colleges out there that will challenge you to think about the Scriptures honestly and with integrity, that you don't really need to waste four years at BJU. If you desire to be indoctrinated, and come from a dispensational background, then you may do fine, rules and hypocrisy not withstanding. If you want to be stunted in your spiritual growth and educational pursuits, then by all means, go to BJU.

But if you want to learn in an environment that is faithful to orthodox understandings of the Scripture while also giving you an opportunity to understand other traditions within historic Christianity, then go somewhere else.

BJU will hurt you spiritually. It took several years to overcome the harmful effects of what we affectionately called "Jonestown." While I can appreciate what they are attempting to do, they are going about it in the wrong way. They have long since lost the founder's vision of what a truly Christian university can be and have morphed into a separtistic, high culture, ecclesiastical enclave that caters to independent, dispensational Baptists to the exclusion of all other Bible-believing Christians. For those poor souls who actually buy into the beliefs and practices of BJU, they will forever be ostracized from normal Christian living, and lose all ability to influence their culture for Christ. I find it interesting to note that Bob Jones IV has escaped from his upbringing, having earned a Ph.D. from Notre Dame. I couldn't go to Dallas Theological Seminary but Bob Jones IV could go to Notre Dame. Fascinating.

2nd Year Male -- Class 1983

Campus Maintenance: A+, Social Life: F