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DISCLAIMER: This page is an exact replica of a page
located at the Bob Jones University Web Site. The views represented here are those
of Bob Jones University and I post them here only to educate people on what Bob Jones
University's official views are on Catholicism and on interracial dating. I
personally find them rather offensive and bigoted, although I am, I guess, part of the
"antichrist" one-world cabal that will burn in hell. I have highlighted
the most offensive parts in blue, which you can find by scrolling down...
Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
-- First Amendment of the Constitution of
the United States
Bob Jones University firmly believes in freedom of speech
and freedom of religion -- a tenant of America which we must all work together to uphold
and defend. The First Amendment gives Bob Jones University the freedom to create policies
and guidelines under which we operate. It gives media the freedom to report. It gives
every church in the U.S. -- whether Protestant, Catholic or Muslim -- the freedom to
worship. Everyone has the right under the Constitution to believe and practice their faith
even when their faith may be out of synch with another's belief.
Bob Jones University is a 73-year institution grounded in academic excellence and Biblical
doctrine. Our impeccable and respected academic credentials are the envy of many in the
academic world. Our more than 34,000 graduates are the types of people America needs. Our
University firmly believes in freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of America.
This is the crux of the issue Bob Jones University faces today.
Primary Campaign
- Is there a spiritual warfare being waged daily against the people of God and is what is
happening to BJU currently a part of that warfare?
- How do you explain the sudden hatred and bigotry the University is subjected to by the
media and the political "three tenors," McCain, Gore, and Bradley, who sing the
same off-pitch tune of the liberal left?
- Isn't it really a compliment to Bob Jones University that the likes of John McCain, Al
Gore, and Bill Bradley seethe and fulminate against us? Would we not be embarrassed if
they, with their philosophies, spoke well of us?
The great divide is between our biblical world view and their humanistic world view.
- Why has Bob Jones University become their whipping boy? Is it because they want to see
George W. Bush defeated? Do they want him to look "guilty by association"?
- Why has the media for the first time decided to make the candidate a bad guy if he fails
to condemn the beliefs with which he differs held by the group to which he is speaking? If
a candidate is expected to do that, would there be anywhere he could go and make a speech?
Why are the radicals like Gore, Bradley, and Hillary permitted to seek the political
blessing of the likes of Al Sharpton, an outspoken Jew-hater, without being required to
distance themselves from his beliefs, while the Republican candidates are held to a
different standard?
- Does the irrationality and intensity of the persistent hatred now directed at Bob Jones
University seem outlandish?
Religious Freedom
- Does the present liberal feeding frenzy on Bob Jones University, a Bible-based Christian
institution of higher learning with impeccable and respected academic credentials, reveal
a bias toward the people of God who stand unapologetically for the Lord Jesus Christ and
His Word? Is it an attempt to marginalize, by caricature, Christians who are out of step
with an age that is out of joint?
- Do Christians still have the right under the Constitution to believe and practice their
faith even when their faith is out of sync with an ecumenical, antichrist, federal public
policy?
- Is Bob Jones University tax exempt? No. The Supreme Court took it away from us in 1983
with a ruling that said, "First Amendment rights (freedom of religion) must yield in
the interest of Federal public policy." This bone-chilling legal conclusion puts
every church and religious organization in America in jeopardy. Religious freedom
guarantees of the First Amendment are no longer their protection. They are now expected to
adopt prevailing social policy into their belief system or be punished (in the case of Bob
Jones University that punishment was the lifting of tax exemption).
- Does a Christian consensus have to exist to make a belief right? Who decides? Christians
who hold tenaciously to the Scripture often differ in their understanding and application
of their Scriptural interpretations. This doesn't make them insincere or un-Christian.
Christians differ on what the Bible teaches about divorce and remarriage, about the mode
of baptism, about the fine points of Christ's second coming, and a host of other things;
but they respect those with whom they differ.
Interracial
Dating and Marriage
- Why is the focus being placed on something which is such a small
and insignificant part of the University's whole, making it a media obsession? The last
two or three generations of students who have graduated from this institution never once
heard a discussion of this policy. It is not something that is preached or talked about.
This institution, offering more than 110 academic majors, produces men and women of
character and trained intellect of the sort employers need and scarcely find today. We
have a wholesome, disciplined, kind, and joyous student body. Racism and hatred are not
part of our institutional character. The media has missed the point. Instead of exulting
in the freshness and academic importance of the school, they have magnified something that
we don't magnify and never discuss. Why?
- Is Bob Jones University guilty of racism because it has a rule
restricting interracial dating? Students of all races attend here and live in racial
harmony and respect for one another as Christians. If there is discrimination in the
policy, which race is discriminated against? Black, white, or yellow? Each person dates
within his own race. For there to be discrimination, one race would have to be treated
differently than the other.
- Is Bob Jones University's interracial dating policy the issue, or
is its right to hold the policy the issue?
- Since most people of all races choose to marry within their race,
this furor against Bob Jones University seems totally disproportionate. The noise comes
from but a strident few with personal agendas.
- If the people of all races who choose to attend Bob Jones
University have something they can live with, why should the world at large care? It does
them no harm. None of the University's rules have any bearing or influence upon society at
large.
- Does Bob Jones University look down upon interracially married
couples? No. The warning against interracial marriages is not about the couple, but about
the one-world system.
- Can those who are already interracially married enter BJU as
students? Yes. BJU enrolls interracially married couples who wish to be educated here even
though we have our dating policy.
- Is there a Bible verse or passage that teaches against interracial
marriage? No.
- Is there a Bible principle upon which the University's interracial
dating stance is founded? Yes.
The one-world principle-every effort man has made, or will make, to bring the world
together in unity plays into the hand of Antichrist. This first began at the Tower of
Babel, and it will culminate at Armageddon when the Lord returns to establish His rule of
peace and harmony for a thousand years.
Bob Jones University opposes one world, one church, one economy, one military, one race,
and unisex. God made racial differences as He made sexual differences. Each race and each
sex should be proud to be what God made it, and none should reproach the other.
- Does the University believe that those who choose interracial
marriage do so out of rebellion against God? No. It does believe, however, that often the
promoters of it do so out of antagonism toward God because they are often the same
entities that promote homosexuality, abortion, and other forms of social radicalism.
Bob Jones University's policy regarding interracial dating is more of an opposition to the
rebellious and defiant antichrist spirit of the promoters of one-worldism than to
interracial dating itself. Many who date and marry interracially are just as opposed to
one-worldism and the spirit of Antichrist as we are.
Catholicism
- Does Bob Jones University's stand upon the doctrines of Scripture,
which places it at odds with papal edict, justly qualify it to be described as
"haters of Catholics"? Absolutely not!
- We are, however, under a mandate from the Savior Jesus Christ to
"proclaim the Gospel to every creature." This means Catholics, Jews, Buddhists,
Mormons, Muslims, Atheists-everybody, including unbelieving and religiously liberal
Protestants. Bob Jones University stands opposed to universalism-the religious teaching
that all men, regardless of their beliefs, will ultimately arrive in Heaven. Our shame
would be in telling people a lie, and thereby letting them go to hell without Christ
because we loved their goodwill more than we loved them and their souls.
If there are those who wish to charge us with being anti-Catholicism, we plead guilty. But
we are not Catholic-haters. The Christian, scriptural mandate is to present Christ to the
world and plead with all men everywhere to look to the Lamb of God, repent of their sins,
and trust Him as their sin substitute and His righteousness to give them standing in the
sight of God which they cannot have any other way.
All religion, including Catholicism, which teaches that salvation is by religious works or
church dogma is false. Religion that makes the words of its leader, be he Pope or other,
equal with the Word of God is false. Sola Scriptura.
From the time of the Reformation onward, it has been understood that there is no
commonality between the Bible way, which is justification by faith in the shed blood of
Jesus Christ, and salvation by works, which the faithful, practicing Catholic embraces.
We love the practicing Catholic and earnestly desire to see him accept the Christ of the
Cross, leave the false system that has enslaved his soul, and enjoy the freedom of sins
forgiven that is available for any of us in Christ alone.
Summary
Bob Jones University is a 73-year-old, Bible-believing
Christian liberal arts University that has trained more than 70,000 students. What we
believe and practice represented mainstream Christianity at the time of the school's
founding, and for many years thereafter.
The shameful departure from the Scripture by that which calls itself the church so that it
might mirror unregenerate society has become profound in the last 40 years. The University
exists as a valued training place for Christians who are conformed to Christ and His Word,
who refuse to be conformed to the world.
The University's refusal to compromise and contemporize makes it the object of ridicule
and hatred by those on the other side of the Cross.
You don't find Bob Jones graduates doing harm in this world, but doing good. You find
consistently loving people, couples, and parents who are active in their communities and
churches. You find them in all parts of the world living out their faith in a hurting
world.
Their goal is not for riches, even though many are rich. Their goal is not for fame, even
though many are famous. Their goal is not for power, even though many are powerful. Their
goal is to be clean and holy vessels that God can use to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to
a world that is looking to everything else for an answer.
We are far from a perfect place and people, but we try to love Christ as perfectly as
redeemed sinners can. We don't expect everyone to understand us or agree with us, but
we're still naïve enough to expect that in a pluralistic society, there would be respect
and freedom for convictioned nonconformity and honest difference.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; If it had
not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had
swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: Then the waters had
overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: Then the proud waters had gone over our
soul. Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is
escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are
escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 124:1-8).
Visitors since March 2002
http://www.sullivan-county.com/
Updated 8/01/06
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