{"id":5693,"date":"2004-11-19T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2004-11-19T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=5693"},"modified":"2016-12-22T14:46:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T14:46:57","slug":"on-biblical-norms-and-george-w-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2004\/11\/19\/on-biblical-norms-and-george-w-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"On \u2018Biblical Norms\u2019 and George W. Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

On \u2018Biblical Norms\u2019 and George W. Bush<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Berkley Daily Planet\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

UNDERCURRENTS OF THE EAST BAY AND BEYOND<\/em><\/p>\n

My good Christian friends used to tell the story about a young colored man from the little community of Pineville, South Carolina, who was drafted into the Army just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (\u201ccolored\u201d was a progressive term in those days, a giant step up from \u201cnigger\u201d). When he got his notice papers, this colored fellow\u2014a good Baptist\u2014got down on his knees and told God he would not fear going to war so long as Jesus would walk with him, wherever he went. So Jesus agreed to go.<\/p>\n

And so the young colored soldier went through some of the fiercest battles of the war\u2014first in North Africa, then the invasion of France, Italy, and finally the storming of the heartland of Germany. He came out with nary a scratch, because Jesus was always at his side. Jesus was with him when he got his discharge papers, and with him, as well, on the long ocean trip by troop ship back to America. Disembarking at Charleston, the soldier was so happy to be home and unharmed, he jumped up, shouting, as soon as his feet hit Carolina soil, saying, \u201cCome on, Jesus, I ain\u2019t catching no bus; I\u2019m fixing to walk myself back home.\u201d And so he did, Jesus still by his side. Going through the little town of Goose Creek on Sunday morning, the soldier came upon a little church by the side of the road, where a congregation of white folks were inside, shouting and singing and praising the Lord.<\/p>\n

It was the first church the colored soldier had seen since he got back home, and flushed and full, he decided to go inside and join the good white folks, so he could properly thank God for saving him in the war. But looking back as he walked up the steps, the soldier saw that Jesus was still standing in the middle of the road, hanging back. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, Jesus?\u201d the soldier asked. \u201cThis is where we part our ways, my son,\u201d Jesus answered. The soldier could not believe it. \u201cYou come with me through hell\u2019s firestorm of war like you promised, every step of the way,\u201d he said. \u201cYou come with me through the streets of Berlin, with bombs falling all over like hailstones on a cabbage patch. Why are you abandoning me now, Jesus?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry, son,\u201d Jesus answered, shaking his head and turning back down the road. \u201cThey don\u2019t even let me go in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the story my good Christian South Carolina friends used to tell, anyway, and if you got a problem with it, you\u2019ve got to check with them.<\/p>\n

I thought about that story just after I read a congratulatory letter allegedly written shortly after the Nov. 2 elections to President George W. Bush by Mr. Bob Jones III, who is the president of Bob Jones University over in Greenville, South Carolina. I say \u201callegedly\u201d only because the widely-publicized letter was supposed to have been posted on the university\u2019s website. If so, it has since been pulled, and there\u2019s always the possibility that this whole thing was a hoax. But we\u2019ll treat it seriously, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Some brief background. I lived in South Carolina for many, many years, and now and then got up to Greenville, which is in the foothills in the northwestern corner of the state. It\u2019s a lovely, lovely place with lots and lots of nice people, and I\u2019d rather be stranded beside the road out there than in some places outside of Benicia or Antioch, or even San Leandro or Hayward. But it does have its downsides.<\/p>\n

One of these downsides is that Greenville is one of the centers of what you might call\u2014what\u2019s the best way to put it?\u2014OER (\u201cOr Else Religion,\u201d that is, the kind of religion that says you better believe in what we believe in, or else God gonna do something awful bad to you.) If the Old South is the Bible Belt of America and Mississippi is the buckle, then right around Greenville, you come across the end of the strap that the old folks used to whip you with.<\/p>\n

The other downside of Greenville is that it is in that part of the world that used to not take too kindly to niggers who got out of our place\u2014it is, after all, only a state away from Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan was formed. Bob Jones University was very much in backward step with the worst sentiments of that region, finally accepting Negroes in its classrooms so long as we stayed in our place, but most famously banning\u2014until March of 2000\u2014interracial dating among its students. James Landrith Jr., editor of The Multiracial Activist journal of Alexandria, Virginia, says that he was denied admission to Bob Jones University in 1998 because he married outside of his race. The Activist has a letter from the Bob Jones community relations coordinator from that time, stating that \u201cBob Jones University [has] a rule prohibiting interracial dating among its students. God has separated people for His own purpose. \u2026 God has made people different one from another and intends those differences to remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

BJU\u2019s website still proclaims that the university \u201cstands without apology for the old-time religion,\u201d which sort of gives me the willies, friends, since I was around when some of that old-time religion was still in place, and I ain\u2019t so anxious for some of it to come back.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, on the day after the election, BJU President Bob Jones III is supposed to have written a public letter to President Bush, telling the president, among other things that \u201cIn your re-election, God has graciously granted America\u2014though she doesn\u2019t deserve it\u2014a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. \u2026 You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you. \u2026 Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. \u2026 If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Jones\u2019 beliefs are not necessarily Mr. Bush\u2019s beliefs, and the President is not bound by them or answerable to them. Still, I feel as the 18th century Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L\u2019Ouverture did when he saw, from afar, warships gather in French waters in preparation for sail to Port au Prince. After expressing his concerns, L\u2019Ouverture received a reply from Bonaparte that \u201cwe are sailing to Haiti on a mission of peace and goodwill, and you have all of my assurances that we mean you no harm.\u201d To which L\u2019Ouverture answered, \u201cif this is, indeed, a mission of peace, then why are so many of my enemies in its midst?\u201d<\/p>\n

There are about as many interpretations of the Bible as there are people who read it. And so, one wonders, what is this \u201cbiblical norm\u201d to which Mr. Jones refers, what are its precepts and tenets, and what part will it actually play in the new national government to be established by Mr. Bush?<\/p>\n

I suppose we will have a bit more to say on this subject, in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2004 The Berkeley Daily Planet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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