Bob Jones University

I had a great experience at BJU. I made good friends, received an average education. While I was a student, I respected the professors as competent teachers who honestly believed what they taught. I followed the rules but I didn't know them until the day I registered. I skipped Vespers twice (rode my bike over Paris Mountain a couple of times one beautiful Spring Sunday and went to a rock quarry to shoot my .45 Auto another). I didn't want to lie about skipping required meetings so I reported myself and received 100 demerits. (It takes 150 to be expelled.)

I am embarrassed about BJU and the Pharisaical way the Joneses and the school represent Christianity to the world. I was there when Bob Jones Jr. called First Lady Betty Ford "a slut" while he "preached" to us in chapel. Such things diminish the value of a BJU diploma. I never expected university-level "Christian" educators to act like white-trash, but I really didn't know the Joneses very well before I attended BJU. Somebody, perhaps a bold Pauline Christian, should have rebuked that loud mouth then and there in front of the faculty, students, and administrators. Imagine the hue and cry that would have occurred had a student called Bob Jones Jr.'s wife "a slut". But, we all remained silent: Nobody crossed the Joneses because they were vicious, malicious, spiteful people who rightly perceived that they had been granted free rein to say and do whatever they felt like doing with impunity.

Get on the wrong side of the Joneses and they will vilify you and crucify you, publicly and privately. The staff, faculty, student body, and graduates will blindly support the Joneses/BJU, either by actively aiding the Joneses or by giving silent assent to their vicious attacks. The only "cheek" these Christians turn are the cheeks of those who disagree with them as they roast them on a spit over an open fire.

I lost faith in the leadership of BJU over the years as I watched the Joneses take indefensible positions, invoke the name of Christ and the authority of the Bible to support these positions, and then reverse those very positions as if they never held them. The Joneses, and those they leaven, act as if they are God's Chosen People and the Final Arbiters of Truth on Earth and that all who oppose them are "ungodly," "unenlightened," or "compromisers". Petimus Credimus, BJU is right and everyone else is wrong!

In one instance of Pharisaical hypocrisy and duplicity, the Joneses convinced thousands of students that the Joneses' interracial dating ban rule was based on a "Bible policy". The Joneses, BJU's faculty, and staffers like Jonathan Pait taught that the Bible forbade interracial marriage. Under the threat of expulsion from BJU, the Joneses/BJU required tens of thousands of students to read their rule and to sign the rule book promising to keep the rule. BJU propagated their interracial dating ban and claimed that it was "biblically-based".

When the IRS revoked BJU's tax-exempt status because of the rule, Bob Jones III and Bob Jones Jr. railed against the government in chapel, printed pamphlets defending the rule, prosecuted their rule all the way to the Supreme Court during a 13 year legal battle.

The Joneses begged fundamentalist Baptist preachers and churches for money to fund their legal battle to retain the interracial dating ban AND BJU's tax-exempt status. Although BJU convinced the Court that its interracial dating ban was a taught in the Bible as a "tenet of their fundamentalist religion," the Supreme Court ruled against BJU's interracial ban in 1983. In a heated public tirade in the Greenville News, Bob Jones III declared that the Supreme Court was a "heathen Court" and were the "enemies of heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Bible," and that President Reagan was "a traitor". Despite the loss of BJU's tax-exempt status, Bob Jones III declared he would hold to the ban. He did so for 17 more years.

In 2000, when George Bush spoke at BJU and the press and politicians put pressure on Bob Jones III to change the interracial dating ban, Bob Jones III went on Larry King Live and declared that the rule was "meaningless," "insignificant," and that they had never tried to support the rule from the Bible!

Bob Jones III repeatedly lied to Larry King and to his international television audience. In doing so, Mr. Jones demonstrated that he was (twice) willing to prostitute his frock. First, he prostituted his frock on the altar of racial bigotry in invoking the Bible to support his interracial dating ban. Secondly, he prostituted his frock by characterizing his so called "Bible policy" - which BJU had fought to maintain all the way to the Supreme Court - as "insignificant" and "meaningless".

Who would trust such a person to teach religion and Bible policies?
In my view, only one with the wit and the will common to blind and self-deluded cult members would knowingly submit himself or herself to such hypocritical religious leadership.

I am the father of 5 children. None of them are planning to attend my alma mater.
I have watched and listened to the Joneses for many years. I have witnessed the passionate, unconditional personal loyalty to the Joneses by the administrators, faculty, and graduates of BJU. I have also witnessed a singularly blind institutional idolatry for BJU amongst the BJU family. I have seen the BJU family wink at the viciousness and hypocrisy of the Joneses while they strain at every fault of anyone who is not loyal to the Joneses. While my children haven't seen what I have seen in the BJU orbit, they have come into contact with members of the BJU community. On their own, they detected the Pharisaical leaven of unadulterated hypocrisy that has permeated the BJU crowd. Although Bob Jones III is the Chancellor of BJU, he still carries a "big stick" on campus. Stephen Jones knows that very well. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy at BJU.

I had a great experience at BJU. I made good friends, received an average education. While I was a student, I respected the professors as competent teachers who honestly believed what they taught. I followed the rules but I didn't know them until the day I registered. I skipped Vespers twice (rode my bike over Paris Mountain a couple of times one beautiful Spring Sunday and went to a rock quarry to shoot my .45 Auto another). I didn't want to lie about skipping required meetings so I reported myself and received 100 demerits. (It takes 150 to be expelled.)

I am embarrassed about BJU and the Pharisaical way the Joneses and the school represent Christianity to the world. I was there when Bob Jones Jr. called First Lady Betty Ford "a slut" while he "preached" to us in chapel. Such things diminish the value of a BJU diploma. I never expected university-level "Christian" educators to act like white-trash, but I really didn't know the Joneses very well before I attended BJU. Somebody, perhaps a bold Pauline Christian, should have rebuked that loud mouth then and there in front of the faculty, students, and administrators. Imagine the hue and cry that would have occurred had a student called Bob Jones Jr.'s wife "a slut". But, we all remained silent: Nobody crossed the Joneses because they were vicious, malicious, spiteful people who rightly perceived that they had been granted free rein to say and do whatever they felt like doing with impunity.

Get on the wrong side of the Joneses and they will vilify you and crucify you, publicly and privately. The staff, faculty, student body, and graduates will blindly support the Joneses/BJU, either by actively aiding the Joneses or by giving silent assent to their vicious attacks. The only "cheek" these Christians turn are the cheeks of those who disagree with them as they roast them on a spit over an open fire.

I lost faith in the leadership of BJU over the years as I watched the Joneses take indefensible positions, invoke the name of Christ and the authority of the Bible to support these positions, and then reverse those very positions as if they never held them. The Joneses, and those they leaven, act as if they are God's Chosen People and the Final Arbiters of Truth on Earth and that all who oppose them are "ungodly," "unenlightened," or "compromisers". Petimus Credimus, BJU is right and everyone else is wrong!

In one instance of Pharisaical hypocrisy and duplicity, the Joneses convinced thousands of students that the Joneses' interracial dating ban rule was based on a "Bible policy". The Joneses, BJU's faculty, and staffers like Jonathan Pait taught that the Bible forbade interracial marriage. Under the threat of expulsion from BJU, the Joneses/BJU required tens of thousands of students to read their rule and to sign the rule book promising to keep the rule. BJU propagated their interracial dating ban and claimed that it was "biblically-based".

When the IRS revoked BJU's tax-exempt status because of the rule, Bob Jones III and Bob Jones Jr. railed against the government in chapel, printed pamphlets defending the rule, prosecuted their rule all the way to the Supreme Court during a 13 year legal battle.

The Joneses begged fundamentalist Baptist preachers and churches for money to fund their legal battle to retain the interracial dating ban AND BJU's tax-exempt status. Although BJU convinced the Court that its interracial dating ban was a taught in the Bible as a "tenet of their fundamentalist religion," the Supreme Court ruled against BJU's interracial ban in 1983. In a heated public tirade in the Greenville News, Bob Jones III declared that the Supreme Court was a "heathen Court" and were the "enemies of heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Bible," and that President Reagan was "a traitor". Despite the loss of BJU's tax-exempt status, Bob Jones III declared he would hold to the ban. He did so for 17 more years.

In 2000, when George Bush spoke at BJU and the press and politicians put pressure on Bob Jones III to change the interracial dating ban, Bob Jones III went on Larry King Live and declared that the rule was "meaningless," "insignificant," and that they had never tried to support the rule from the Bible!

Bob Jones III repeatedly lied to Larry King and to his international television audience. In doing so, Mr. Jones demonstrated that he was (twice) willing to prostitute his frock. First, he prostituted his frock on the altar of racial bigotry in invoking the Bible to support his interracial dating ban. Secondly, he prostituted his frock by characterizing his so called "Bible policy" - which BJU had fought to maintain all the way to the Supreme Court - as "insignificant" and "meaningless".

Who would trust such a person to teach religion and Bible policies?
In my view, only one with the wit and the will common to blind and self-deluded cult members would knowingly submit himself or herself to such hypocritical religious leadership.

I am the father of 5 children. None of them are planning to attend my alma mater.
I have watched and listened to the Joneses for many years. I have witnessed the passionate, unconditional personal loyalty to the Joneses by the administrators, faculty, and graduates of BJU. I have also witnessed a singularly blind institutional idolatry for BJU amongst the BJU family. I have seen the BJU family wink at the viciousness and hypocrisy of the Joneses while they strain at every fault of anyone who is not loyal to the Joneses. While my children haven't seen what I have seen in the BJU orbit, they have come into contact with members of the BJU community. On their own, they detected the Pharisaical leaven of unadulterated hypocrisy that has permeated the BJU crowd.