(BJU) I'm a former BJU student

How this student rated the school

Educational Quality	C-	Faculty Accessibility	C-
Useful Schoolwork	F	Excess Competition	C-
Academic Success	C-	Creativity/ Innovation	F
Individual Value	F	University Resource Use	F
Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	B	Friendliness	C-
Campus Maintenance	B	Social Life	F
Surrounding City	C-	Extra Curriculars	F
Safety	F

Describes the student body as: Afraid, Arrogant, Snooty, Closeminded Describes the faculty as:

Female

ACT:33

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Quite Bright

Lowest Rating Useful Schoolwork	F

Highest Rating Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	B

She cares more about Safety than the average student.

Date: May 09 2012
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm a former BJU student. I was expelled for attending an "unacceptable" church with a group of people including both genders. Since BJU can't conceive of a situation in which males and females can be off campus together without engaging in a sexual orgy, this group was also "unacceptable" to them. A lot of people say "oh, well, it's your choice to put yourself under these rules." It wasn't my choice, but if you're reading this maybe it IS yours. Given the choice again, I would never never never never come back to this school.

Responses

I wrote to say that what the college did was unacceptable, but you are not the only one screwed over by "Christian" colleges. I've heard stories of PCC students being expelled for watching the "wrong" movies on Christmas break - at home, the same college playing with certain students ability to graduate, and other petty nonsense. So you are not alone.

So let me get this straight…you broke stated(written)rules which you had a responsibility of knowing & obeying, were given the stated(written)consequences of breaking said rules…and the SCHOOL is the one with the problem???

This is a fair and well-written review. I would have loved to know more about what the reviewer thought about BJU and life there, since trying to learn about what BJU is really like on the inside feels a lot like trying to find out the same thing about North Korea. BJU does forbid students from attending the "wrong" church off campus, so this whole story sounds exactly right to me. I can believe it. I have not just read over 20 reviews on this site of BJU; I have read the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 BJU Student Handbook. The 2015–16 Student Handbook states, "Students are to avoid any types of entertainment that could be considered immodest or that contain profanity, scatological realism, sexual perversion, erotic realism, lurid violence, occultism and false philosophical or religious assumptions."

Yes, at a higher learning institution called Bob Jones University, you can get in trouble for watching a movie, reading a book, or listening to a song that contains philosophical or moral assumptions that the university deems false. What happens if the Big Guy turns out to believe THEIR philosophical or moral assumptions are false I can only imagine, but I doubt they worry about that very much.

Reviewer, I REALLY enjoyed reading that sentence

Since BJU can't conceive of…

It is both funny and, as far as all my research can tell me, absolutely true.

The reviewer also makes an excellent point in that attending BJU and being forced to submit to its strict rules or be harshly reprimanded or expelled was not their choice. The reviewer declines to go into detail about it, so I can only assume the most likely scenario, which is that one or both parents/legal guardians simply picked out BJU for them. I understand and agree with the reviewer's sentiments completely. I have become more and more repulsed by BJU the more I learn about it, and the one BJU grad I've met in person was as nasty, petty, close-minded and legalistic as the school itself is reputed to me. This guy was VERY loyal to BJU and its way of thinking, so I can only assume the most pleasant grads or former students are the ones least loyal to the regime, and in BJU's eyes, least loyal to God. But I don't take BJU's talk about what is and isn't good in the eyes of God all that seriously. Their word is hardly final.

I want to say THANK YOU to the first responder here. "You are not alone" is a kind and respectful thing to say. Other reviewers of BJU have mentioned PCC- I assume that's Pensacola Christian College- and yes indeed, even a little research has told me that place is very much in agreement with BJU and its ways. To anyone who has been mentally or spiritually harmed by BJU's harsh and illogical system of discipline and indoctrination, hearing that they are not alone and that others understand can be a wonderful thing.

As for the second responder: I assume you must be the BJU loyalist at this little party. You have failed, sir or ma'am, to "get this straight". You make it sound as if this former student- whose infraction, on its own merits, was hardly an unreasonable act- broke their sacred duty to the Marine Corps. Like they deserted their post in wartime or something. I don't believe that a college student is a soldier charged with carrying out solemn duties, not even at West Point- because there, they are cadets, trainees learning to become officers and soldiers. You clearly are exclusively sympathetic to Bob Jones University's authorities on this one. The thing is, fella, human beings were NOT meant to just do as they are told and follow orders without thinking. That gets us to Dachau and Auschwitz if we aren't careful every step of the way about who and what we obey without question. Because the fact is, NO mortal being or institution should be obeyed without question. And BJU is very much mortal, however they claim to be the personal and exclusive representatives of God.

YES. YES, BJU is the one with the problem. Beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt. There is such a thing as respectful and proper obedience to lawful authority, but that's just it- LAWFUL authority. BJU imposes conditions and demands acquiescence to rules of conduct that are called for by no other institution of higher learning in the world (apart from other Jesus freak colleges and all universities in North Korea). It demands you obey rules that are wrong in the eyes of most of mankind, because a free society is much more permissive of people thinking for themselves than BJU is. Very few colleges forbid you to from some of the things that BJU forbids. BJU is a terrible place. The one grad I ever met was close-minded, monstrously corrupt, and intensely hostile to any other thinking but his own, which was a copy of Bob Jones'. Yes. The school IS the one with the problem. Thanks for your time. Remember, it's 2016, not 1916.

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