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. We're at the daily 11 a.m. chapel service, and the speaker is addressing a group in FMA Hall, a huge, red-carpeted facility that seats 7,000 and was the site of the infamous address by Bush. If there is one thing in this world that Bob Jones University believes in, it's distinctions, light and dark, heaven and hell, earth and sea, black and white, male and female, sacred and profane--only by drawing the lines can the borders between God's people and the souls of the unsaved be patrolled. In 1980, I see six. Sunday afternoon vespersthink of choirs in gowns with grand musical accompanimentwere a weekly event. Thanks, this is a terrific and fascinating essay. We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it. "Bob Jones University." She added . Visiting bob jones university dating activist and humbly. Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism. My cover is blown, I'm sure of it. In 2019, the university got 3,869 applications from prospective students for its freshman class. By 1990, the figure has grown to 20. Huron Baptist Association July 1996 - August 2001. Not at all. Nor was it an outlier at the time. The university didnt admit any black students until 1971, 17 years after Brown vs. Board of Education. There we have an 8 to 1 Supreme Court decision - Bob Jones University v United States. As a result, when fundamentalist infighting spills out into the public it can turn into a general popularity contest in which increasingly vicious rumors and accusations are the currency. That was really the major issue that got us all involved.. When finally Delta Theta has triumphed over Basilean, polite pandemonium breaks out briefly and the boisterous high spirits among the winning team members on the court are startling, compared with the prevailing campus decorum. I have nothing to fear, she insists. We Believe!" )B7= By FITSNEWS || Bob Jones University (BJU) - the Upstate, S.C. social conservative school best known for its recently rescinded ban on interracial dating - is Sofascore also allows you to check different . They want to get married, they say. It brings into sight a centurys worth of cultural change and class contest. Jones Sr. was of the view that twentieth-century blacks should be grateful to whites for bringing their ancestors to this country as slaves. As both a historian of 20th century religion in America and as an alumnus of Bob Jones University, Im somewhat uniquely qualified to walk you through the ultimate causes of the late unpleasantness. 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. The divorce rate is so high today because men and women are together only for the physical relationship." "I'd compare the [interracial] rule to if you were dating a rebel or troublemaker," she says. President Jones stated, For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. 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. You get to know the substance of a person. For 1970, the year blacks were first admitted to BJU, I find the grinning mug of a lone black student. Sometimes a date will take place at a restaurant off campus . Bob Jones University would instill Victorian social norms and advance a culture of bourgeois aspirationalism. This was a product of founder Bob Jones Sr.s upbringing in rural poverty on the wiregrass frontier of Alabama. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. BJU is no longer granting any interviews, and members of the press are forbidden on school grounds. Although Bob Joness ban is history, it left a significant imprimatur on the religious right. On Friday nights, men and women students meet together; sometimes there is even a speaker, but on weekdays the sexes remain separate. Sometimes, that meant going to truly ludicrous lengths, like when the campus chief of police applied for a machine gun permit in order to deter any potential anti-Vietnam war protestors from invading the campus. Which is the worry, of course: that things can get out of hand, that the world in its infinite variety provides an infinite number of temptations, that one thing leads to another. Jones Sr. himself had come from Methodist and Primitive Baptist stock, neither of which send many students to BJU today. Its no wonder that student enrollment steadily dropped through the 1980s, 90s, and 00s. The meals begin with a hymn and are served family-style while over the loudspeaker comes a stern injunction to "avoid conspicuous table manners," and not to talk across the table. Bob Jones III, president of BJU (or "Dr. Bob," as he is affectionately known to students and faculty), made a March 3 appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live." It must be theological compromise of the highest order! Because of their crisp shirts, ties and coats, the men naturally carry their shoulders back and, instead of sauntering like slackers, buzz about as if they have some important meeting to make and some poor sucker to fire. Bob Jones University is a beautiful place. We also knew of several campus taboos: no alcohol, tobacco or rock music, no holding hands and no sitting closer than 6 inches for members of the opposite sex. When it is mentioned that this seems somewhat incongruous, what with the emphasis put on avoiding temptation, much less provoking it, it turns out there has been a misapprehension. of Baroque religious art outside of the Vatican, with a particular focus on the Old Masters and Counter-Reformational paintings! It found it in Steve Pettit. Bob Jones University This South Carolina University not only has strict dress code policies like banning Abercrombie and Hollister clothing, but it also enforces strict rules for on-campus residents. Sometimes, that meant going to truly ludicrous lengths, like when the campus chief of police applied for a machine gun permit in order to deter any potential anti-Vietnam war protestors from invading the campus. It is an old-time religion that invokes the wrath of its fierce God on a world of the flesh and saves its sense of pleasure for the paradise to come. hbbd```b``"'H`,~ L~a`v2 &@${XWb>`Y50 "7`H2%*y46$2 endstream endobj startxref 0 %%EOF 775 0 obj <>stream Rich woman - statement about interracial dating ban on interracial dating university's president, a long court decision in greenville, non-denominational evangelical . And so October the 4th, 1990, I started dating the young lady that two years later would become my wife. Student enrollment had gone from decline to rout. . Students were not permitted to go on off-campus dates without a chaperone. I was more conservative than my evangelical church. The university maintains a "dating parlor" a room full of sofas with attendant chaperones where couples are carefully monitored to be certain . It turns out, in recent weeks many well-dressed journalists have lurked outside the snack bar with concealed microphones and palmed tape recorders. During the show, Jones offhandedly remarked, "As of today, we have dropped the [interracial ban]." Long lashes are spiked with mascara, bright eyes blink under the weight of a rainbow of eyeshadows. Victory comes by ruining the public image of the targeted party. That a fundamentalist institution-one most famous for banning interracial dating up until 14 years ago-has also been cartoonishly terrible at handling rape claims is not much of a surprise. How much time did you spend in the. It found it in Steve Pettit. Dating Room activities include chess, pool, Ping-Pong, Foosball and sitting an arm's length apart from each other. degree in Foreign Language Education from Bob Jones University in 1980 and then taught German for the next 32 years at both Bob Jones Academy and University. Education. I am white and 24. It was serious at that point. When classes began in 1927, admission of students was officially restricted to members of the white race, a policy that persisted until 1971. Bob Jones University is a 73-year-old, Bible-believing Christian liberal arts University that has trained more than 70,000 students. Indeed, the Michigan connectionshared by other hardline board members including. (Its all but impossible to imagine pentecostals at BJU today!) In the early 21st century, these latent tensions were still thick on the ground. Certainly, the school would train preachers, missionaries, and bible teachers, but all students would also learn literature, history, drama, art, and be offered free music lessons. Women were obliged to wear dresses or skirts. So I answer honestly, for the first time, about where I am really from. Disagreements over changes made at the school during the eight-year tenure of Steve Pettit, the school's fifth president and first from outside the Jones family, broke out following an October 4 board meeting in which some board . But by the late 00s, the school was beginning to reach the outer limits of its experiment with whether becoming a press with a vestigial university attached was a sustainable proposition. %PDF-1.7 % He is gregarious, charming -- why, downright neighborly. It is one of the best known and contraversial schools in the US (as far as religion). In 2005 I earned a Master's Degree in German from . Just yesterday, the Alliance Defending Freedoms Casey Mattox urged the House Judiciary Committee to remove Christian colleges from a public Department of Education list of institutions that have received exemptions from Title IX. The school had always had a strange leadership structure. A Strumming Amigo. This led to odd juxtapositions. Theres a brittleness to the response thats partly a function of how antiquated this combination of cultural impulses has become. Thus, in the fall of 2022, the hardline conservative faction controlling the university board tried to oust Pettitguilty of the heinous crime of being very slightly less conservative than the boardand send him back to his prior career as an itinerant evangelist who traveled with a Christian bluegrass band. There are so many rules, it hurts the head to think of them. I've weaved my way down the yellow brick walkways that slice through almost-too-green grass. A number of politicians, including Ronald Reagan, Alan Keyes, Bob Dole and Dan Quayle, have visited the school in the past. Well, not much. Eventually, in 1981, the Supreme Court of the United States heard the case. Then, for a 30-year period, interracial dating was prohibited. Like hydrofoiling, presumably.) December 15, 2020. At times it seems more like a high school or a reform school than a college, as if the adults were trying to contain a prison riot rather than expand the young minds of their charges. 8i 50b/b'Nrh }Yn%9Mye%QV_Eh$S M 3W9yT2B ?EK9{tCPMP%w,{4 #dEJDp Y>oS-pz|WKr.@_X#tj(B}FQEkw:?2O +C]c7V?4Dt3Lno:4Xl%5hkoCcmuJ7jVyeg'v4Rauv8gY'K2+A}k&S9q~! It was one of the most dunderheaded choices in the history of Christian higher education. "You know, I'm surprised you haven't heard more about this place," Craig says without missing a beat, still sounding friendly, a little too friendly. Remember, in the late-19th and early 20th centuries, moral self-improvement was la mode urban clerks scribbling away in, , mass attendance at educational lectures on the lyceum circuit and in Chautauqua. 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. In the morning, the rising bell sounds at 7; at night, the lights go out at 11. During that period I also lead groups of students on the German Mission Team until the summer of 2010. Sound like a stretch? In a way, Jones Sr. replicated his own experience of college while setting up BJU, which was then mostly frozen in amber until the 21st century. "At first I wondered about mustaches," said Don Unruh, "but the Dean of Men explained that mustaches could get out of hand.". Institutions of higher education in the . ", All of this is taken very, very seriously, the fundamentalist equivalent of angels dancing on the head of a pin. "No one's going to tell you it isn't rough," she says. "It's not like we're racist or segregationist or make people sit at a different table," says Darren, an auto-diesel major who is sitting with his girlfriend, Sarah. Societies sponsored annual formals. This is particularly true in the Dating Parlor, an enormous, lamplit, though brightly lamplit, room filled with plush sofas and loveseats. ), Under Jones III, the school began hosting a, , a once popular Victorian era entertainment all but eradicated by the rise of film. Love and desire bloom in strange and fantastic fashion here, the ardent undercurrents so intense that at times the campus resembles an erotic minefield. In the evening, after dinner, in the soft light, as the white blossoms on the pear trees tremble gently in the breeze, the couples seem to be standing in a long and patient line that stretches on to eternity. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Jim Wed, 09/06/17 8:30 pm. Jones Sr. himself had come from Methodist and Primitive Baptist stock, neither of which send many students to BJU today. His blond hair is perfectly combed. Friday night is the semifinal round of the intramural basketball tournament. Students were forbidden from attending movies. Its embedded deep into the movements rhetoric and political priorities. Bob Jones University, the Bible college in Greenville, South Carolina, did not admit black students until the 1970s. Although its discriminatory policies preceded desegregation, historian Randall Balmer has noted that it lost its non-profit status due to President Nixons crackdown on so-called segregation academies. (Among those segregation academies: Jerry Falwells Lynchburg Christian School.) Rules of the Game. Just imagine trying to mandate that every student at, say, Pennsylvania State University get dressed up in formal attire, attend a three hour Verdi opera, and do it sober. (1983), when the school decided to stake the flag of religious liberty on its right to racially discriminate. 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. , who was recently forced out along with Lewisis no accident. In a way, its as unexpected as it would be for Vogue to do a cover shoot of Franklin Graham. The personal charisma and extensive connections the family maintained within a broad network of fundamentalist churches gave the school leeway when it came to (mildly) pushing the envelop for a (limited) fundamentalist cultural engagement. "You need to get off campus," says another. In exchange, staff salaries were low, exit rare, and loyalty expected. Everyone, they say, is guilty before God, and as Christians "we have to show them they're in bondage, how they're enslaved by their sin," but such metaphors seem to hang on them heavily, too old, too harsh for the two of them sitting there in the sunshine, in the spring of their lives. Under federal government pressure, Bob Jones University finally opened its doors to unmarried black students. The IRS has a lot of arrows in its quiver if it were to be unleashed against an industry that depends on not . 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. The world is so loose in its belief, the students say as they walk along the covered walkways, never on the grass, the world is so loose and there is trouble everywhere. Their appearances didn't have the same fallout as when presidential hopeful George W. Bush made it a stop on his campaign trail. (Its all but impossible to imagine pentecostals at BJU today!) In a standard religious denomination, there are structures for resolving factional disputes, ie district hearings, synod rulings, systems of appeal, etc. Denise and I pick a spot heavy with cross-campus traffic and sit close together, making a point of flashing our pearly whites and laughing with the jolly, carefree mirth of young interracial love. Such ambiguity is not acceptable. The worlds of high fashion and fundamentalist higher education do not often overlap. Those are the facts of the matter, but they are insuffiencient for truly understanding this moment. I went in a racist, and came out with much more tolerance. Which is why it seems strange that there are no rules against makeup. Unfortunately the comments quoted in The Journal article leave room for doubt regarding the sincerity of this attempt. The high soft voices sing the songs of comfort, sing the songs of rescue far from the fearful ways of the world, and of an almost romantic yearning. Certainly, while I was there, the highest aspiration of a Bob Jones University student was to be considered a renaissance man, someone who combined religious ardor with scholastic aptitude, physical fitness, and artistic and dramatic finesse. Even as a nearly fifty-year-old man who holds zero degrees from Bob Jones University (although I was a student there for a grand total of almost twelve semesters), and whose children will (likely) never include it on their list of universities and colleges to consider, I still feel its pull. But while BJU operates as a quasi-denominational subsituteinasmuch as it provides some of the services of a denomination (clerical training, annual conferences, a sense of shared identity)it has none of structures for channeling disagreements. REENVILLE, S.C. -- In an unexpected move, Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian institution that had come under national criticism for its ban on interracial dating among its. Denise is black and 22. Not wanting to be too blatant, they proceed staring straight ahead until they are dead even with us. I graduated with a B.S. 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