By Lewis Loflin
Bob Jones the III, head of the racist, anti-Catholic Bob Jones University in South Carolina, visited Sullivan County, Tennessee. Jones should feel at home in a county where local government openly practices religious bigotry (and it's undertones of racism and anti-Semitism) as public policy.
Bob Jones claims "the Bible itself is intolerant and true followers of God's word should be as well" is typical of Sullivan County and the Sullivan County Commission. These are the same gang of bigots who sit by in silence as the KKK holds rallies in a local park, openly attacks the religious beliefs of local citizens, and panders to fundamentalist groups such as the Sullivan County Baptist Association.
The culture of fundamentalist hate so openly displayed at the Sullivan County Courthouse may be catching up with these bigots. The county faces a $4 million lawsuit over racism in the public schools. A black student claims both verbal and physical abuse from students spouting KKK hate while school officials ignored the problem.
The Sullivan County Commission and Bob Jones are examples of what to expect when "the agents of intolerance" get into public office. If the ideals of the KKK are what county government is about, then God help us all!
Bob Jones tells local congregation that "the Bible itself is intolerant"
From the Kingsport Times-News
KINGSPORT: A Christian fundamentalist instructed parishioners at a Model City church Sunday night to speak out for traditional values in a society that has strayed from Biblical teachings.
Dr. Bob Jones told a congregation gathered at Cedar View Independent Methodist Church that many today have become too accepting of sinful acts.
"If you listen to the media today, you would have to conclude that about the worst sin a person could commit is intolerance," said Jones, the president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.
"You can be nice to people who disagree with you, and you have to be, but you can't concede anything to them," he said. Jones garnered national attention earlier this year when he acted to change a long- standing policy against interracial dating at BJU.
The move to reverse the ban followed George W. Bush's attempt to gain voter support by speaking at the school. Opponent John McCain criticized Bush for failing to challenge the policy.
Jones said Sunday moral values in America today consist of beliefs like, "Thou shall not throw out paper and plastic together," and have strayed from the Ten Commandments.
"That's the new code of morality. As long as they're keeping that, they think they're decent people but they could break all of God's laws and have no conscience about it whatsoever," Jones said of many in society.
According to Jones, the Bible itself is intolerant and true followers of God's word should be as well. Society should not put up with acts that cross "the line that God has drawn." Jones said things like lying, incest and insubordination from children betray God's plan for mankind.
Homosexual lifestyles and marital infidelity cannot be declared normal and acceptable because God has defined these acts as sinful, he said.
"We're coming down to the place in America where any church that does that or any individual that does that is declared the enemy of the people," Jones said.
"The day is here when the laws of society no longer draw the line and if they are not drawn from the pulpit and God's people don't draw lines, then where is society going to go?"
Jones challenged the congregation to conduct relationships in a manner appealing to God, even if that means abandoning the comfort factor. "Saying they're wrong doesn't mean you're a bigot. It's the greatest act of love you could give them." he said.
Reference to Catholicism disappears from Bob Jones Web site
By the Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) : Bob Jones University has dropped from its Web site statements from its president calling Catholicism and Mormonism cults.
A new message on the site has Bob Jones III recounting how he contemplated on Christmas Eve "the growing worldwide hostility toward the evangelizing efforts of Bible-believing Christians."
But gone is the "President's Corner" message there as late as March 2 in which Jones said, "The diminution of evangelistic enterprise to cults which call themselves Christian, including Catholicism and Mormonism, is frightening."
The language was cited after Texas Gov. George W. Bush was criticized for speaking on campus Feb. 2 to bolster his Republican presidential campaign. Arizona Sen. John McCain, his top opponent, made the visit a campaign issue, and Bush later apologized for not challenging the school's interracial dating ban and anti-Catholic views.
On March 3, Jones lifted the dating ban.
Mary Shamblin, secretary to school spokesman Jonathan Pait, said the president's message on the Web site comes from the school's quarterly magazine.
"Every time that comes out (the Web page) is updated and, as I understand it, they were a couple of issues behind," Shamblin said. "It's up to date now."
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Updated 8/01/06