{"id":6876,"date":"2000-02-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-02-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=6876"},"modified":"2020-06-02T03:18:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T03:18:17","slug":"confidently-crusading-bju-is-latest-s-c-symbol-in-crossfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2000\/02\/27\/confidently-crusading-bju-is-latest-s-c-symbol-in-crossfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidently crusading BJU is latest S.C. symbol in crossfire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Confidently crusading BJU is latest S.C. symbol in crossfire<br>The State<br>by CHRISTINE SCHWEICKERT<br>Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Bob Dole wanted to court religious conservatives during the 1996 presidential primaries, he stopped by Bob Jones University on a swing through the Upstate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Bob Jones III \u2014 grandson of the school\u2019s founder \u2014 delivered the benediction for a Dole fund-raiser, asking God to allow the election of a moral man who would shun the \u201cfreaks and the foolish.\u201d Texan Phil Gramm stopped by, too, during his abortive campaign.&nbsp; In both cases, nobody raised a peep \u2014 certainly nothing like the national roar after the Feb. 2 visit of GOP candidate George W. Bush tothe fundamentalist Christian campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Supporters of Bush opponent John McCain used the visit to prod Catholics to the polls in Michigan, helping McCain win there. A U.S. senator has urged the Senate to condemn bigotry and discrimination \u201csuch as (that) prevalent at Bob Jones University.\u201d And a S.C. state senator plans to<br>make another attempt to strip state scholarship money from Bob Jones students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The furor has raised a host of political and religious questions. Has the religious and political atmosphere changed so much since Dole\u2019s visit that a trek to Bob Jones is now a national issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or has Bob Jones University changed in its beliefs, making it more of an issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other questions center around the relationship between the controversial school and South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does the frenzied repudiation of Bush\u2019s visit give the state yet another black eye in the national media?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And is Bob Jones\u2019 rock-ribbed conservatism \u2014 denounced as racist by critics \u2014 seen as representing South Carolina\u2019s beliefs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Special interest this year.\u2019 Politically, observers say, a lot has changed between Dole\u2019s 1996 visit to Greenville\u2019s BJU and Bush\u2019s journey earlier this month. However, both politicians went to Bob Jones for the same reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In both 1996 and 2000, Republican presidential candidates were devout in wooing South Carolina\u2019s religious right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Bush visited, he held hands in a prayer chain that included Jones III and former S.C. Gov. David Beasley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHolding hands makes the \u2018crime\u2019 a little bit worse\u201d for some who watched the news of Bush\u2019s visit, deadpanned Kevin Lewis, a USC professor who studies the effect of religion on the South\u2019s history and politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lewis speculates the intense interest in Bush\u2019s visit \u2014 as opposed to the silence in \u201996 \u2014 is because the 2000 S.C. GOP primary simply drew more national interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Observers considered South Carolina a pivotal state in the early GOP primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere was special interest this year \u2014 more so than ever \u2014 so anything anyone did\u201d drew more attention, Lewis says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The focus on South Carolina was only intensified by the ongoing debate over the Confederate flag flying over the S.C. State House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That, too, has become a national campaign issue, says Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And like the flag, Bush\u2019s visit took on larger-than-life implications. Says Lewis, \u201cIt\u2019s symbolism. You can play with symbolism different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The national media glare<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGod has separated people for his own purpose. (He) has made people different from one another and intends those differences to remain. \u2026Of course, we realize that this is a 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.\u201d \u2013letter to applicant James Landrith from Bob Jones representative Jonathan Pait, August 1998, in which the university told Landrith he could attend if he left his black wife behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If interest in the S.C GOP primary changed this year, Bob Jones University and the opinions of its leaders have not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bobs Jones \u2014 the evangelist original; his namesake son, grandson and great-grandsons; and his university \u2014 have been unfailingly consistent in their fundamentalist religious and political beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, the school lost its tax-exempt status in 1983 because of its ban on interracial dating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if many across America find the school\u2019s beliefs un-Christian or even odious \u2014 Catholics are cultists and the pope dangerous; the races should remain separate because God wants them that way \u2014 the one party that seems least eager to clear the air is Bob Jones University itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the Bush brouhaha, the university has refused reporters\u2019 requests for interviews and limited the already restrictive public access to its 200-acre campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d says Mary Shamblin, secretary to public information officer Pait. \u201cWe\u2019re just referring to our statement \u2026 that\u2019s on our Web site.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That statement says the national media are using \u201cBob Jones University as a whipping boy\u201d and lauds Bush because he has not \u201ccaved in\u201d to media pressure to apologize for his visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some at Bob Jones must wonder whether it really matters what they say. For example, Jones III called last October for moving the racially divisive Confederate flag from atop the S.C. State House. But that call for harmony \u2014 Jones cited Christian tenets against offending one\u2019s brethren \u2014 received little, if any, national attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the words of Terry Haskins, S.C.\u2019 s House speaker pro tem and a Bob Jones graduate, \u201cPeople draw whatever conclusions they want\u201d when it comes to Bob Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for the content of recent national media reports: \u201cOf course, it isn\u2019t fair,\u201d Haskins says. \u201cIt\u2019s absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Shi, president of cross-town Furman University, has little to say about Bob Jones\u2019 positions. It would be inappropriate to comment on a fellow institution, he says. He downplays the controversy surrounding Bush and Bob Jones, saying only that the frenzy of the current campaign \u201chas put Bob Jones in the glare of the national media spotlight more than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the school never has been bashful about stating its beliefs. In 1998, for instance, the school\u2019s leaders came out against \u201cdevilish\u201d concerts at Greenville\u2019s Bi-Lo Center (Pearl Jam and Janet Jackson among them). And in 1999, it lobbied against a referendum to allow Sunday liquor sales in Greenville County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018An island unto itself\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis school is the work of the Lord God, and it exists against all human odds. \u2026 When you walk onto the campus you have entered a miracle. \u2026 The supernatural power of God brought the university into existence in 1927 \u2014 and sustains it until this hour.\u201d \u2013letter to prospective students from President Bob Jones III on the school\u2019s Web site<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At first blush, says USC\u2019s Lewis, it makes sense that Bob Jones is in the Upstate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Upstate prides itself on its predominantly conservative, family values. It\u2019s tough to drive anywhere without spotting at least one billboard warning of the possibility of hell or extolling God\u2019s great love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Bob Jones University does not define South Carolina, Lewis says. In fact, the school really has little to do with the state as a whole. \u201cIf \u2026 it\u2019s not serving many of our kids (as students), then it\u2019s likeHilton Head \u2014 it\u2019s not part of our state \u2026 it\u2019s an island untoitself,\u201d Lewis says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bob Jones serves few S.C. students. Eighty-one percent of the university\u2019s 3,500 full-time students come from outside South Carolina. The university itself was in Florida and Tennessee before coming to the Upstate in 1947, when the city of Greenville offered it free land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even critics of the school say elements of the current attention are unfair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOther people are judging South Carolina (based on Bob Jones), and that\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d says James Landrith, who stirred up his own publicity in 1998 by submitting an application to Bob Jones that he<br>never intended to follow up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Landrith, a white man whose wife is black, used correspondence from BobJones to publicize the school\u2019s longstanding bans on interracial dating and marriage, achieving some national notoriety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t judge the state based on BJU \u2014 not a bit,\u201d says Landrith, who now lives in Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sometimes politically incorrect Dick Harpootlian, chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party, agreed \u2014 more colorfully, of course. \u201cBob Jones reflects off South Carolinians to the extent that David<br>Koresh represented Texas for Texans,\u201d says Harpootlian, calling it unfortunate that \u201cwe\u2019ve been defined as Bob Jones and the Confederate flag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others, however, say South Carolina should take a stand on Bob Jones. State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, hopes to revive a bill to strip state scholarships from Bob Jones students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey have to take a stand one way or the other,\u201d Jackson says of his fellow legislators. \u201cIn light of what has happened recently, I am more optimistic (that the bill will pass).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Passage of his bill would \u201cbe more than just a South Carolina story,\u201d Jackson says. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what I plan to say: If we take no action, what we are saying is that Bob Jones represents us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve reached a point now, with this being played in a larger arena, that South Carolina has to send a message,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Way out of step\u2019 and proud<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not all, however, are hostile to the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1998, for instance, the Greenville County Council voted to set aside $28,000 in hotel tax money to improve the entrance to the university\u2019s art museum. The county justified the expense by saying the museum is a strong tourism draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, despite Jackson\u2019s previous, failed efforts, the state also pays for $679,000 in scholarships for Bob Jones students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The school also has graduated a cadre of S.C. leaders, including four members of the S.C. House of Representatives, the state\u2019s most prominent political writer, a U.S. congressman and a U.S. senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another graduate is Jim Hudgins, head of the S.C. technical education system. Hudgins received three degrees from Bob Jones and one from Furman. Hudgins does not wear his academic credentials on his sleeve \u2014 those around him sometimes profess surprise at his ties to Bob Jones \u2014<br>but he does not repudiate them, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hudgins does, though, make it clear he \u201cno longer endorse(s) the narrow view of Christianity that is expressed in the quotes from Dr. Bob Jones Jr.,\u201d the father of Jones III, about the need to separate the races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Haskins, the S.C. House\u2019s second-ranking leader, is more vocal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve never had to distance myself from BJU,\u201d Haskins says. But he has \u201cat times, made it clear when I disagree with a policy,\u201d as he does with the ban on interracial dating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBob Jones University is an institution devoted to teaching fundamentalist Christian faith,\u201d Haskins says. \u201cThe media is concentrating its efforts on one dating rule that is not even an issue on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bob Jones is \u201cway out of step with current societal mores. (But) this is a private institution, a tax-paying institution \u2026 and nobody goes there under a court order,\u201d Haskins says, so the university has a right to its ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christine Schweickert reports about the state\u2019s colleges and universities. Call her at (803) 771-8488 or (800) 288-2727; send e-mail to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/groups.yahoo.com\/group\/mavin\/post?postID=SYfdKGzCtLTuoTZ1-VdXgKZ89tcqC2_y2Sb_bA0NQEPYJR9FMK6S5APrM6GhVW_WjXM1P-wYhkUKc8jQpMQsPqO0DA\">\\n&nbsp;<\/a><a href=\"mailto:cschweickert@thestate.com\">cschweickert@thestate.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copyright 2000 The State<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Originally published here:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestate.com\/headlines\/a1docs\/aaron_bobjones27.htm\">http:\/\/www.thestate.com\/headlines\/a1docs\/aaron_bobjones27.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Confidently crusading BJU is latest S.C. symbol in crossfireThe Stateby CHRISTINE SCHWEICKERTStaff Writer When Bob Dole wanted to court religious conservatives during the 1996 presidential primaries, he stopped by Bob Jones University on a&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[200],"tags":[139,210],"class_list":["post-6876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-coverage","tag-bob-jones-university","tag-media-coverage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-1MU","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/TMA-media-coverage.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6877,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6876\/revisions\/6877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}