Bob Jones University Apologizes

Hi, I stumbled on your site doing a google search for something else. I must say that I went to Bob Jones University and apart from my salvation has probably been the best decision I have ever made and the most life-changing. I am not a "southerner", "fundy" or caucasion... nor do I come from a "good Christian home" where everyone told me to go to Bob Jones. Quite the contrary, I grew up with a hard background, have lived on the west coast and abroad and have always enjoyed associations with a variety of people (most military folks do due to the constant traveling). I have 5 best friends - two of whom are african american, two of island descent and one caucasion. I myself am hispanic and islander. I transferred from a large state university where I left behind a fully paid scholarship, my apartment, my car, my job and my boyfriend - to take the risk of going to this Christian school. Again, it was not a decision I have regretted.

Of those 5 friends, 4 of them I met at Bob Jones. The school is racially diverse. To be honest, I did not know about the dating rule when I went. I found out my first week on campus. I agree that the rule should not have been in place, but I had already cut all ties to come so I stayed to give it a chance. My african-american best friend and I prayed all the time that the rule would be dropped. The next year it was. Another friend of mine who is a minority and I were approached by the New York Times during the events and we tried not to comment, but she asked a few questions which we finally could not resist answering: No! It is not true that minorities aren't allowed on campus! Of course they are! Hello... we are minorities standing in front of you :-) No, really, we were kind; but the article that came out in the paper COMPLETELY made up everything that we said. It did not actually report any of our real answers... which said that we were happy at BJ, we had chosen the school voluntarily. My friends are highly intelligent and could have attended prestegious schools elsewhere. Their choice of this school was not by coercion. It was by choice.

Why then go to this school? Because there is more to this school than it's failure in the racial dating rule. There is the other 99% of what they are doing well. As people we tend to focus on the failures. I know, I do it myself. But I can say that I have received a fine education, made quality friendships for life. I found my life mate (who is also a minority may I add!) and I learned much about how to make failure right in my own life and seeing others make it right.

It's easy to attack others for their failures. We must be careful though, because if our own lives were flashed upon a public screen, it would not be a pretty sight either. The spirit here I believe needs to be one of repentenance and forgiveness and then restoration. Let's take care of ourselves and then lets take care of others.

I hope that my sharing is a help. Again, I don't fit the usual BJU mold of a student. I was not living for God when I first showed up with two tatoos and a naval piercing. But I did show up with a HEART desiring to KNOW GOD and to live for HIM with my life. I found that there, despite the failures of man around me and my own failures within. I hope this shows the "other side of the coin" and that there can be good in the midst of failure.

sincerely,
an ordinary person, with an extraordinary God

Domestic Diva,

We all know that what happened at BJU isn't Christian or just, but your husband should not base the the South on that school.

As a person from the American South, it's unfair to generalize the the region like that like that. I do not mean to be gruff when I say that but the South being the haven for racism mantra is getting very outdated. As a person from one part of the deep South, the ATL, I really have to disagree with you and husband's assessment of it. In the ATL,especially the outskirts of it, I promise that you will find a haven of diversity in it, Even in the smaller towns, you'll find the same thing.

Sometimes my non Southern friends, especially those from the North bug me when it comes to this issue. They make it seem that because I'm a Black Southerner that I'm supposed to live a segregated life. The ironic thing about my " enlightened" peers is that thought they were brought up in known multiracial havens like New York and Connecticut, for some incredible reason they cannot grasp the idea of being in one. Everything has to be about only Black people , they( my friends) are so political and pro-Black to the point that they almost have no clue to what true diversity is. For my friends to boast about it,their lives seem far more segregated than mine.

I'm not going to pretend that racism doesn't in my state, but the problem is no larger than that anywhere else, in some instances there have been to some non Southern places that makes some parts of the deep South look like the Land of Oz.

Racism existed and continue to exist in all parts of the country. I remembered reading an story about baseball great Jackie Robinson. He said that in spite of his mom trying to flee the racial in justices that she experienced in her native Cairo , Georgia, he thought that the racism/segregation that they experienced was just as bad in Pasadena, California. Fredrick Douglass and his wife( who was White) was relegated to racial segregation out of all places, churches in Pennsylvania. The very first state that sponsored slavery wasn't a Southern state: it was Rhode Island.Even in 2010, racism and (I just don't mean " subtle" racism as my friends like to call their racism. Not entirely true. Racism is Racism no matter how it is) continues to thrive not only in North America, but in many parts of the world.

I wanted to answer a couple of questions while I was thnking of it.

BJU is an independent Fundamental College and is not related to the Southern Baptist Convention in anyway.

The other thing which makes this BJU thing seem odd is that their position for taking a segregationist stance was based in their theology of the end times. It was their take that the anti-Christ would come to power once a one world government was established. Part of trying to stave that off was to try and keep the races separate and thereby keep nations separate and in due course prevent a one world government from taking place. It certainly was a flimsy shield, but that is what they used to say. Based on that an American shouldn't marry a Canadian for example.

In reference to colleges, small colleges are not bastions of racism, but they really tend to be bastions of free thought or the road less travelled. The flip side of that is that they may be small because they just suck and nobody wants to go there.

I know where you are about having mixed kids and sending them off to school. I doubt you'll have a problem anywhere in terms of schooling. Where they will run into difficulty is in dating.

My cousin Matt is mixed and when it came time to date he ran into two problems. He grew up in a white family and naturally liked white girls because that is all he knew. Alot of white families had different ideas about that so he struggled on that front. So he decided to date black girls, but struggled there too because culturally he was so different from them and he actually ran into flack from some girls parents for being from a white family. So there you have it. He eventually married a white girl and has two beautiful kids. Its really fun because his kids are tow-headed blondes with blue eyes, they look almost Swedish. He said he would get the weirdest looks when out in a restaurant with them because here sat a black guy with these two white kids that obviously could not be his.

Thanks for giving enlightening us on BJU. I don't think many of us have personal information about them.. so all info is greatly appreciated.

Many good comments here and probably even the ones I don't agree with are from good people. I agree it was high time Bob Jones University got over its racial hang ups. Rather than harang them for apologizing since you are so late to the game yourself be glad that they saw their policy as hurtful. Rather than being judgemental and predjudiced by attacking people that do not think the same as you or by attempting to belittle and characterize an entire section of the country or religous group as stupid or backward be happy that people are learning to get along. Then most importanty don't fall into the perversion of the modern diversity movement that has become more about uniformity than it ever was about diversity. If you really want diversity you need to take the good with the bad and persevere in education on a person by person basis. Cohersion into big government diversity programs is as much "brainwashing" as any religious institution has ever attempted. Governments have participated in brainwashing as much as the religous groups ever have, in fact the invented the offical process of brainwashing. We have separation of church and state not because religion is dangerous, its because reglion under the control of government is dangerous. It forces uniformity, it forces everyone to think the same way. It even happens when our government tries to force nonreligion, they force everyone to think atheistically and that it is somehow better or the only independent way to think. Beware of group thought, the majority is far more dangerous than an obscure religious college in South Carolina. The majority ushered Lenin and Stallin to power, the two combined to kill more jews than Hitler. The majority also gave Hitler power. How was that? Was everyone in those majorities stupid? No they were not. They were uniformed either by vocation or by choice and bit on something that sounded nice, but turned out to be a trap. This may seem off topic, but the anti-racisim movement is in danger of being off track in a facist-like forcing of everyone to think exactly the same.
Going to an all black church is not wrong and niether is going to an all white church. They are that way naturally and because people are free to accociate to whomever they want. Bob Jones is probably virtually all white because of its policy, but it may be also that most fundamental Baptists are also all white, not by intent, but by culture. What do we do next? Force them to believe in other religious practices or doctrines so that more blacks will apply? Where does it stop? Maybe we should blame blacks for not-merging into white culture and becoming part of white churches? Sounds rediculous doesn't it? The same applies to everyone, that is what MLK thought.

I wish I could think that you might be joking. Government doesn't force people to eschew their faiths, just to respect the separation of church and state. If you choose to see that as denying your right to worship, so be it. Your faith must be fragile, if you need to declare it in all places. Can you not carry it in your heart, silently and without overt demonstrations of your piety?

Finally, Bob Jones might have changed its regulations, but I doubt that the attitudes that supported them are gone. How would you have felt if a Christian attended a college dominated by Hebrews, and was denied the right to get to know a Jewish girl?

Grow up.

I've stopped saying things surprise me because when I do, something else strange happens. What I can say is that unfortunately there are still a lot of racial issues out there. We've come a long way since the 60s but there are still some barriers to be broken down. I hope more and more institutions and individuals will open their mind to change and see that with our differences we're still all the same--human.

<abbr>Shelias last blog post..Oh Shelia Mix #1</abbr>

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.. but it amazes me. I'm waiting to see how people will react with Obama. Some true colors could shine. ;)

This is exactly why my husband hates the south! I grew up in a strict Christian school where all they did was shove the Bible down your throat. In high school they preached to us constantly about "going to Bob Jones". Reps would come once a month and try to make us "sign up for the best times of our lives". During a choir tour I had to visit the Bob Jones campus and let me just say you are right in thinking that they do not have a lot of diversity in that college whatsoever. Heck, the Christian school I attended didn't have a lot of diversity in it either. The problem with Christian colleges or high schools like the one that I attended is that they try to rule too much of your life. I know several people from my graduating class that opted to attend Bob Jones only to be kicked out several months later for doing things like just watching an R rated movie. I do not think that a College or any school for that matter should try to control your life. What you do at college is your business but when you off of the grounds or in your dorm it is YOUR BUSINESS. All it is is brain washing at its finest. You would be wise to stay far away from places like this. Places like this is where those "religious freaks" are created, and I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. I am a Christian but will never associate myself with those kinds of people because it really does turn people "off" from any form of religion. Because of my experience in Christian schools like Bob Jones, you can bet that my children will not go through the same thing. When children are so sheltered like that all they do is backslide the second they graduate from high school, I've seen it first hand. Stay away, stay far away!

Maybe that is why I married a "black man"? Because I was told my whole life that it was "wrong". hmmm...good post! Didn't want to bring up my past, but as you can tell I could talk to you about this for days. It is ugly and something that is very, VERY real in southern baptist institutions still to this day. For those that are interested, I attend a nondenominational church now because my husband, children, and I can walk in those doors without people talking about us behind our back...it feels good to be accepted instead of constantly criticized for loving who you want to love.

-thedomesticdiva.org

<abbr>Domestic Divas last blog post..Arnold Sandwich Thins: Great Alternative to Ordinary White Bread</abbr>

Wow, somebody's quite bitter. I wonder if the Lord is proud...

Wow.. You have alot to say. :)

My cousins, which are black.. went to SMU (Southern Methodist University) Baylor and TCU ( Texas Christian University).. they didn't have a bad experience at all. They wanted their education and moved on. I realize that some of the Christian schools are really different from others... but I had never heard of Bob Jones University until recently. All I can say is wow!

Maybe it is the Bible belt, maybe it is the Southern Baptist, who knows?

<abbr>Domestic Divas last blog post..Arnold Sandwich Thins: Great Alternative to Ordinary White Bread</abbr>

Bob Jones is a Southern Baptist school?

I went to Greenville, SC once...it was the most backwards place I have ever been in my life. Most of SC is. It's the epitome of the bible belt. Everything is still closed on Sundays but Waffle House and church, at least it was when I went. I bet if you researched you'd find many other colleges with the same mentality in that area.

I've never been there before. I got invited a couple times... by white women of course, and i'm too paranoid to go. They have a lot of dark woods there...lol

I know that's right E!