This past week, Mr. Bob Jones III endorsed the Mormon, Mitt Romney, for president of the United States.
Mr. Jones' endorsement was met with surprise, consternation, and disapproval from conservative Christians and BJU alumni. The founder of BJU, Bob Jones, Sr., who said, "It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right," must be turning over in his grave.
If Bob Jones III invites Governor Romney to speak at chapel, one wonders which version of the Bible Mitt will use. Will it be the KJV or the BOM? And, who will snub who first? Will it be Governor Romney distancing himself from BJU's baggage? Or, will Bob Jones simply not issue the invitation to avoid the embarassment of being treated like the "crazy uncle" in American politics?
One Christian who disapproved of Mr. Jones' endorsement was Chuck Baldwin who wrote an article titled "Bob Jones Dances With the Devil". Readers are encouraged to go to Chuck Baldwin's site and click on the links that show Governor Romney explaining where he stands on the issues.
It appears from BJU's website that Mr. Jones is back pedaling by issuing this rather ambiguous statement:
BJU Statement on Political Endorsements
"Bob Jones University has never officially endorsed political candidates and that policy has not changed. In endorsing Gov. Mitt Romney for president, Dr. Bob Jones III and Bob Taylor are speaking personally. As private citizens, we all have the privilege and responsibility to examine the options and come to a choice of conscience. It is in this role that these administrators have chosen to endorse Gov. Romney. Dr. Jones III’s and Dr. Taylor’s statements reflect their views as private citizens and not the view of Bob Jones University as an organization."
Obvious is the fact that Bob Jones University, as an organization, has no voice or views of its own other than that of the Jones family and faculty members like Dr. Taylor. Mr. Jones is well-aware of this fact, as was evidenced in a letter Mr. Jones sent to a former BJU board member, “When any faculty member speaks, he speaks for the university.” Within the BJU family, it is understood that when Bob Jones III and a faculty member speak, they speak for Bob Jones University. While University spokesman, Jonathan Pait, has issued his own statement about the "diversity" at BJU, don't look for BJU president Stephen Jones, or any other deans or faculty members to endorse their own favorite presidential contenders anytime soon.
And, equally obvious is the fact that were Mr. Jones III not BJU's chancellor and Dr. Taylor not a dean at BJU, there would be little interest in their "views as private citizens." Thousands of students, alumni, and fundamentalist Baptists hang on every word the Joneses utter as if it were gospel truth.
Since the 1920's, the Joneses have injected themselves into local and national politics. According to an March 17, 2000 AP article by Jay Reeves, Bob Jones, Sr., Bob's grandfather, "...the son of Alabama sharecroppers, actively campaigned for Klan-backed political candidates in the 1920s, says the book, "Politics, Society and the Klan in Alabama: 1915-1949." "He was very well known at the time," author Glenn Feldman said in an interview. "He managed to involve himself in most of the political races of the time. When he spoke, people listened." Jones, a fundamentalist preacher, traveled the state espousing Klan views and once accepted a $1,600 donation from a south Alabama Klan group after speaking, the book says. A moderate judge of Jones' time "compared the preacher to Judas Iscariot and accused him of selling out his party, perverting his religious mission, fomenting intolerance and prostituting his frock for Klan silver," states the book."
Like his grandfather, Mr. Jones has parlayed his positions at BJU, first as its president and now as its chancellor, into that of an outspoken public figure. As such, he is no stranger to politics or election-year madness and controversy. And, like Mitt Romney, Mr. Jones III is known for his pragmatism, shifting positions, and contradictory statements.
Mr. Jones' public controversies involving politicians may give insight into the attraction flip-flopping Mitt Romney has for Mr. Jones. In one such controversy, Mr. Jones declared Masonry "a Luciferean religion". When he was informed that Senator Strom Thurmond, BJU's most prominent board member, was a 32nd degree Mason, Mr. Jones retained Senator Thurmond on the board; as the world knows, it can be helpful to have friends in high political positions. The controversy was resolved when Mr. Jones removed the one board member who questioned the consistency of having a Mason on BJU's board. Sometimes principles - and those "little people" who adhere too tightly to their principles - have to be sacrificed for the opportunity to serve the "greater good." Or, in the case involving Jones, Romney, Guliani, and Hillary, sometimes principles need to be sacrificed to defeat the "greater evil."
On the national stage, Mr. Jones is best known for waging a bitter battle against the IRS in defense of BJU's 50 year old interracial dating ban rule. In 1976, the IRS revoked BJU's tax exempt status because of BJU's rules banning interracial dating. BJU sued the government to allow it to retain its tax exempt status, maintaining that the interracial dating ban was a tenet of their fundamentalist religious doctrine. BJU succeeded in convincing the Federal Court of Appeals that the ban was was based upon "genuine religious beliefs" that were "biblically based".
In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled against BJU. Quick to point out that Heaven, Jesus Christ, and the Bible were on his side, Mr. Jones announced that the Supreme Court had demonstrated that they are "enemies of heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ" and resolutely declared that BJU would hold to their "biblically-based convictions" and pay the taxes. He may have been wrong on all three counts, but at least he sounded like a leader of conviction willing to stand by what he viewed as immutable principles.
Fast forward to 1999 and the run up to the 2000 Republican presidential primary when candidates dared speak at BJU. Back then, BJU was one of "the places" Republican presidential hopefuls put at the top of their speaking engagements list. Only, in the 2000 election, BJU's interracial dating ban embarassed those Republicans who made this whistle stop to woo the fundamentalist sect of the Religious Right. The media scrutiny was intense as were, no doubt, the political pressures on Bob Jones III.
Finally, Mr. Jones III went on Larry King Live and announced that he was dropping the interracial dating ban. But, of particular interest for this discussion is that he declared the 50 year old interracial dating ban and the underlying "genuine religious beliefs" that he fought to defend all the way to the Supreme Court, "meaningless" and "insignificant." Mr. Jones came off looking like a snake oil salesman who had been caught filling his bottles of potion from gallon jugs of cheap alcohol. Bob's grandfather said, "People won't mock consistent Christians. They will respect them." And, people mocked Bob Jones III, not for being a Christian and wrong, but for being sanctimoniously inconsistent and not honestly admitting he had used his religion as a cloak to justify his racism.
And, that brings us to Mr. Bob Jones III's endorsement of Mormon Mitt Romney. It was not so long ago that Mr. Jones declared Mormonism "a cult." But, that does not surprise those who have known and watched Bob Jones III for the last 30 years.
Have Bob Jones III and the Religious Right perverted their religious mission, the Great Commission? Apparently, they have. But what confounds onlookers is not just separatist Bob Jones' endorsement of a Mormon given Mr. Jones' previous statement about Mormonism. What confounds is that Mr. Jones and his brethren in the Religious Right have forgotten Christ's teachings regarding Christians' responsibility to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world". Christ and His followers never injected themselves into politics. John the Baptist, however, did rub in some salt and shed some light regarding Herod's personal morality and he paid the price for doing so.
Given the lack of direction, principles, basic morality and leadership in American politics, some salt and light couldn't hurt! But Mr. Jones' endorsement of Mitt Romney - well-known for his social liberalism, his pro-abortion position, and espousing positions that generate the most votes - evidences no effort on Jones' part to be either "salt" or "light".
While Mr. Jones' short-term sacrifice of principle may (or, may not) return immediate rewards, the long-term effect will be to marginalize the civic influence of Christians on American society. Christ gave a warning to Christians who fail to be "the salt of the earth". Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are about to teach Mr. Jones and his compromising brethren in the Religious Right that Christians who fail to be salt and light tend to find themselves "trodden under the foot of men".
For more discussion on this subject, visit http://www.independentconservative.com/2007/10/17/bob_jones_3_4_mitt_romney/
