Quotes of the Day:
"One of the most intriguing questions we can ask is how the son of a Confederate army officer could begin a school in the South that regarded racial segregation as a biblical mandate..." Dalhouse, An Island in the Lake of Fire, p. 5.
"This the University was willing to suffer in order to protect its Biblically-based convictions against interracial dating and marriage. In 1975, court rulings in Virginia took from private schools the option of racially discriminatory admission policies, and the University complied with the law, since it had no Biblical conviction for doing otherwise. It did, however, retain its Biblical convictions against interracial dating and marriage by refusing to allow such within the student body." Dr. Bob Jones III, "A Taste of Victory," February, 1979, Bob Jones University's Voice of the Alumni
Dr. Bob Jones III, March, 2000, "...this rule which we never talk about or preach..."; "...a rule that we never talk about..."; "...this thing is of such insignificance to us..."; "...it is meaningless to us..."; "...an insignificant part..."
Dr. Walter Fremont, former BJU Dean of Education, on lying: "Lying is deliberately distorting reality to deceive or mislead others by falsifying or concealing information."
A Rule that we Never Talk About
Each year every incoming student at BJU is given a rule book. Everyone knew about the interracial dating ban and everyone knew about the ban on smoking, drinking, hand-holding, premarital sex, rock music, and movie theaters. Upon receiving the rule book, every student is required to read the rule book. Every student is required to sign a statement that they have read the rule book and agree to abide by the rules. For 50 years, the Bob Jones University rule book, that every incoming student was required to read and agree to follow, included BJU's rule forbidding interracial dating and marriage. The staff and faculty were required to abide by the interracial dating and marriage ban. Whether faculty and stafff were required to sign the rule book each year like students, I do not know. I presume that BJU enforced the rule with the characteristic Jonesian zeal they displayed in enforcing other rules.
If you estimate that BJU averaged 2,500 students per year over a 50 year period, that would come to 125,000 times that this rule was "communicated" to the Bob Jones Univesity student body. Each communication of the rule elicited the signature of the reader who was required to abide by the rule that BJU never talks about or preaches. Assuming 500 staff, faculty, plant personnel, and BJU-related entities under Bob III's control, that would total 25,000 "communications" of the interracial dating ban and bring the total to 150,000 communications of the rule that Bob Jones III represented on national television that BJU "never talks about or preaches".
Add to that the incalcuable number of graduating preachers for a 50 year period who were taught by professors they trusted that BJU's interracial dating and marriage ban was a "Bible policy," and you get a Peek at the true influence BJU had on the racial attitudes within the fundamentalist movement. So, is BJU's rule a rule that they "never talk about or preach"? I think not. "Never" is a carefully chosen term, an absolute that admits no exceptions.
As an aside, I would encourage every reader to rent the video "The Village". If you want to maximize the impact of the movie, do not read the notes on the movie jacket and do not talk to anyone about the plot. I will say no more about the movie but that it is a powerful movie. As I watched the movie, I related the plot to my experiences within fundamentalism and found the message quite powerful.
Every incoming student was judged according to his race and only allowed to date/marry within that category. My brother-in-law told me a story about his Korean/American roommate. Seems the father was in the Korean War and took a Korean war bride. The son was of average height, slightly darker skin, and slightly oriental eyes. The story was that he was judged oriental his freshman year and was only allowed to date oriental girls. The second year he was able to date caucasian girls. I tried to check this information out with the university but they did not respond.
I have before me a communication dated August 31, 1998 on BJU letterhead in which Jonathan Pait explains BJU's official interracial dating ban with James Landrith of www.multiracial.com.
Dear Mr. Landrith:
Thank you for your phone call requesting information concerning interracial relations here at Bob Jones University. The University has an open admissions policy, and we accept students of any race. The student body is fully integrated with all students participating in all activities and organizations regardless of race.
Bob Jones University does, however, have a rule prohibiting interracial dating among its students. God has separated people for His own purpose. He has erected barriers between the nations, not only land and sea barriers, but also ethnic, cultural, and language barriers. God has made people different one from another and intends those differences to remain.. Bob Jones University is opposed to intermarriage of the races because it breaks down the barriers God has established. It mixes that which God separated and intends to keep separate. Every effort in world history to bring the world together has demonstrated man's self-reliance and his unwillingness to remain as God ordains. The attempts at one-worldism have been to devise a system without God and have fostered the promotion of a unity designed to give the world strength so that God is not needed and can be overthrown.
Although there is no verse in the Bible that dogmatically says that races should not intermarry, the whole plan of God as He has dealt with the races down through the ages indicates that interracial marriage is not best for man. We do believe we see principles, not specific verses, to give us direction for the avoidance of it.
The people who built the Tower of Babel were seeking a man-glorifying unity which God has not ordained (Gen. 11:4-6). Much of the agitation for intermarriage among the races today is for the same reason. It is promoted by one-worlders, and we oppose it for the same reason that we oppose religious ecumenism, globalism, one-world economy, one-world police force, unisex, etc. When Jesus Christ returns to the earth, He will establish world unity, but until then, a divided earth seems to be His plan.
Of course, we realize that this is controversial position and that there are many fine Christians who disagree with us on it. We recognize the right of other Christians to hold differing views; we only hope that they will recognize the sincerity and love with which we hold ours.
Christian students of all races find a happy and harmonious atmosphere here at the University, and the number of minority students grows every year. We believe prejudice to be Biblically wrong, and it is not tolerated in the student body.
I trust this information is helpful to you. Kind regards.
Sincerely yours,
Jonathan Pait
Community Relations Coordinator
Is it not clear that Dr. Bob Jones III distorted reality on Larry King Live with the intent to deceive the entire nation regarding the true nature of the rule that they "never talk about or preach"?
More to come.
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