Comments

It is too bad that both changes were the result of public pressure in the media, but it is good that the administration of BJU has humbled themselves in this way.

Finally, justice has been served!
and I know from some Gay/Bi students there, that justice for them
will one day be served.

God so Loved the World..... not certain ones, not certain
people, not certain issues, but He Loved the World ....that
whosoever.... Who so ever, is very inclusive.

Regarding BOB JONES University, I thought all of the above were outlawed a long time ago. Surprises everyday. Racial Prejudice in the United States of America. Baby Please!!!!! as the supervisor at the Dallas Bank used to say.

It's "nice" that the university apologized, but what is it going to do to make up for the 80 years of racial discrimination? What about all those Black people who could not go to school there. All the people treated as 2nd & 3rd class humans because of their policy? A special fund? Black recruitment efforts? Restitution please!!

Evangelical in America is the first source of rasicism an hate.

Did they humble themselves or did they do it for PR. I am pretty certain that the majority of students who attend BJU and especially their families still hold on to the old view as Biblical. Sadly, this hurts missionary goals everywhere...we should expose them for the white skin worshipping pagans that they really are!

When I asked Christ for forgiveness, I am so glad he extended it without demanding restitution.

Christians have always made the mistake of confusing their own beliefs with God. This is not a new story, but one that should have become 'old news' a lomg time ago. Let's not forget the good news of Christ Jesus!

As a student at BJ in the 70's I remember being shocked by the universities policies against interracial dating/marriage and how the treated churches in their Greenville area that allowed it. At the time I was very critical of it. Thirty years later, I now applaud the university's desire to recant publicly of a position that was not based on Scripture but on cultural practices and filters that had skewed their perspective of Scripture. We should all follow suit - take inventory of our beliefs and make sure they can find their roots in truth, not culture. Let's cling to the fact that none of us has it all figured out. We are all growing and evolving in our understanding. We should all be stripping away the scales from our eyes that cloud us from seeing the truth. And in that regard, we need to love and accept each other as we all journey in the same process of being like Jesus.

I grow weary of people comparing the color of a person's skin with the sexual lifestyle a person chooses to embrace. People should be treated equally and fairly regardless of who they are but we do not believe there is any biblical foundation for comparing our skin color to the sexual activity of someone. And I don't need any restitution, either! We have to stop thinking about getting paid for something that happened to our ancestors. Some of my relatives died in WW II and I'm not asking the Japanese to pay me a dime.

Escaping cultural biases and being accurately Biblical are not easy tasks. I had friends in seminary who were an interracial couple, and they gave me the best insights, from firsthand experience, on the difficulties of interracial marriage. They were facing cultural differences and family issues on both sides, beyond those normally a part of any marriage. That didn't make banning such marriage right, but blithely ignoring those issues isn't wise either.

It is easy to condemn from the present the prejudices of the past. What people understand about race today was once unknown. Progress takes time, wisdom, and patience. Those who rail against the errors of the past might better spend their energies applying time, wisdom, and patience to the errors of the present; we have no lack of them (I don't mean gay marriage).

Hatred added to disagreement is a great sin, and many today are guilty.

I’m really pleased that Bob Jones University took this humbling step and apologized. I’ve been involved with the African-American community, and also African Muslims, so I was glad to read this.

I remember hearing that students couldn’t hold hands on campus in the 1960’s. That seemed a little extreme since I wasn’t walking with the Lord when I heard that. But in retrospect, I see that the focus at Bob Jones University was to create Christian leaders. The 1960’s was a time when the Beatles and other rock-n-roll stars were promoting “free love” with the help of the media. The music was powerfully persuasive. BJU wanted to help their students stay on the right track and achieve their dreams while the students were away from the protective guidance of their parents.

For all the bad publicity I’ve heard over the years from the liberal media, I was delighted to find a used textbook published by the university. It was published in 1993 and is called Heritage Studies for Christian Schools by Marilyn Elmer. It includes diversity, like the words to the black spiritual “Go Down, Moses.” The textbook focuses on the basics of American history with concise information and provides Christian perspective. Very impressive for elementary school children.

"It's "nice" that the university apologized, but what is it going to do to make up for the 80 years of racial discrimination? What about all those Black people who could not go to school there. All the people treated as 2nd & 3rd class humans because of their policy? A special fund? Black recruitment efforts? Restitution please!!"

Private school. They can do whatever they want. But, please dont call it a Christian school..I have already said what they are in an earlier post.

As a pastor whose roots grew deeply in the soil of the Baptist version of BJU (a Baptist college/seminary in TN which was not quite as racist as BJU) I am thrilled to see BJU catch up with public opinion. What concerns me is the difficulty for so many of us in the Body of Christ to finally "catch up" with the heart of God. Why are we so convinced we are right all the time?

Our commitment to the fundamentals (I was actually a pastor of the church whose member sent "The Fundamentals" to thousands of pastors early in the 1900's to fight liberalism.) and "being right" have decieved us into thinking we are even right about our hatred, racism, and our personal pride. Our vulnerability to being decieved when we think we "have the truth" is the pride our knowledge gives us. We want to be known for our Biblical knowledge instead of our love and we have been willing to hurt whoever stands between us and our puffed up knowledge.

We know so much more than we love. I would assume BJU will make appropriate amends for the damage its racism and fundamentalist pride have fostered but it will likely take even more time. Perhaps by Bob Jones the sixth tangible grace will repay the the damage done by its pride. Even then when we are with Grace Personified, grace will prevail and we will have reason to celebrate. Until then, thank God for an honest institutional step in a better direction.

I enclose the website of an article that should be required reading before "parachuting" your child into such an austire environment such as BJU. Racial segregation is only one issue. It is a first person article by a Bob Jones alumn which documents her journey and struggles reconciling her faith, grace and contemporary issues left by religious isolationism. I entreat everyone to read it. It is excellent.

http://www.mywire.com/pubs/Esquire/2000/07/01/172034/print/?printcomments=true

As a pastor whose roots grew deeply in the soil of the Baptist version of BJU (a Baptist college/seminary in TN which was not quite as racist as BJU) I am thrilled to see BJU catch up with public opinion. What concerns me is the difficulty for so many of us in the Body of Christ to finally "catch up" with the heart of God. Why are we so convinced we are right all the time?

Our commitment to the fundamentals (I was actually a pastor of the church whose member sent "The Fundamentals" to thousands of pastors early in the 1900's to fight liberalism.) and "being right" have decieved us into thinking we are even right about our hatred, racism, and our personal pride. Our vulnerability to being decieved when we think we "have the truth" is the pride our knowledge gives us. We want to be known for our Biblical knowledge instead of our love and we have been willing to hurt whoever stands between us and our puffed up knowledge.

We know so much more than we love. I would assume BJU will make appropriate amends for the damage its racism and fundamentalist pride has fostered but it will likely take even more time. Perhaps by Bob Jones the sixth tangible grace will repay the the damage done by its pride. Even then when we are with Grace Personified, grace will prevail and we will have reason to celebrate. Until then, thank God for an honest institutional step in a better direction.

PLEAASE! Iam chocking on the irony.

It is amazing how much is known about Bob Jones University by people who have never had any contact with the university, nor visited the campus.

BJU has never been, nor have the Jones been racist. Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., founder, Dr. Jones, Jr., and I believe Dr. Jones, III, Chancellor, had deeply-held religious convictions that the Bible does not condone inter-racial marriage. A little known fact is the Jones wanted to start a Christian college for Blacks. Since they were unable to realize this dream, perhaps they should have admitted Blacks sooner.

However,thousands of BJU students over the years have gone into the communities to share the Gospel with people of every race. They firmly believe the children's chorus: "Red & yellow, black & white, they are precious in His sight." Thousands of missionaries from BJU have gone to the foreign fields, suffering hardships because of their love for people of other nations & races.

The Jones are not the only Christians who held/hold a conviction against inter-racial marriage. There are Christians of all races who believe that God separated the races at the Tower of Babel. We also believe no Scripture later allowed re-integration. [Unlike the allowance for speaking foreign languages when Christians were told to go throughout the world spreading the Gospel. This would be difficult without learning other languages.]

This is not to say that O.T. Patriarchs always followed God's way. Some married out-of-race, took multiple wives & concubines, committed adultery. (David & BathSheba.) Many paid the price for sin against God's precepts.

People usually marry whom they have first "dated"; therefore, it was prudent for BJU to ban inter-racial dating. This policy was instituted only as a problem arose, when an Asian family objected to their child's dating a Caucasian. This was long before Blacks were admitted to BJU.

Most people & news sources ignore the fact that public schools in the South were integrated only about the time BJU admitted Blacks in 1971. The Supreme Court decision banning segregation came in 1954. However, when my older siblings & I grew up in the Deep South and attended public schools, none was integrated. In the culture of the times there was little societal inter-mingling of races. Our family had friends of other races and respected them.

The "hippie & yippie" movement also occurred during this period. It was hard for BJU administration to deal with all the societal turmoil while pursuing their God-given purpose of training Christian youth to serve God. There was genuine, justified concern that "plants" could be sent to cause havoc on campus. It seems that something like this actually happened, which might be why officially, married Blacks were the first to be admitted.

Some people think BJU fought in the Supreme Court their loss of tax exemption only because of the ban on inter-racial dating. It was much more than that. BJU is a private, religious, institution and should be allowed to honor their deeply-held convictions.

Next, churches and religious organizations will have problems due to their belief that adultery, homosexuality, etc. are contrary to the Bible. There are efforts in the US to ban preachers from teaching these principles, or lose the churches' tax exemptions. Laws to this effect are already being enforced in Canada!

There is a concerted effort by some to erase all boundaries in society. This is part of Satan's "one-world". We are being de-sensitized to what God has established in the Bible as right & wrong. It is not judgmental to point out what God in His Word has already judged as wrong. It is an act of love.

i see so much evidence of the ministry of judging here. would those who freely damn Bob Jones University care to count the number of fingers pointing back at them?

i thought, when i visited the BJU campus 30 years ago, that they were on the strict side, but their hearts desire for purity was in the right place.

i have a question for those who push the homosexual agenda. how long will it take for you to apologize for the way the homosexual community treated the Mormons and others who supported Proposition 8 in California.

I've known about the "flat-earth" teachings of Bob Jones University since 1958. What I can't figure out is why ANYONE would WANT to enroll at a close-minded, racist, authoritarian UNACCREDITED institution of higher learning?

Bill:

Read the piece. Sorry, I was not aware that they are a cult! Wow!

Maybe BJU simply realized they were wrong and now are making it right.You can't read their hearts, and please Bob from (nov. 21) Being black is no sin. However being gay is. Before all you gay rights people yell at me, get your facts together on what my position is. It can be found on The Ray Boltz blog. (by feeno)
Peace out and good luck

My how we love to judge one another's motives and beat each other up. BJU's attempt to do the right thing -- albeit far too late -- sure did bring the BJU haters out of the woodwork. Now, when will the BJU haters repent of their own brand of self-righteousness and bigotry.