It Truly Does an Old Atheist’s Heart Good to See Bible Christians Having to Eat Crow!


The inset is from a message the founder of Bob Jones University delivered on April 17, 1960 in response to Brown vs. the Board of Education and its impact on the desegregation of all white colleges and universities. Plus, the fact that, like many whites in the south in the 1940’s, Bob Jones Sr. was a member of the Ku-Klux Klan.

When Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, the BJU student body cheered in chapel and Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. said he would not fly the university’s flag at half staff to honor this communist agitator.

The following paragraphs were taken form a 32 page booklet sold in the University’s book store in 1972 (when I was a student there) to support the Biblical bases for the University's stand on Biblical racial segregation, a point so strongly believed he even base the inspiration of the Bible on it:

“Now, we folks at Bob Jones University believe that whatever the Bible says is so; and we believe it says certain fundamental things that all Bible-believing Christians accept; but when the Bible speaks clearly about any subject, that settles it. Men do not always agree, because some are dumb-some people are spiritually dumb; but when the Bible is clear, there is not any reason why everybody should not accept it.” (page 1)

“Now, notice-this is an important verse- the twenty-sixth verse of the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, ‘And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth…” But do not stop there, “…and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.’ Now, what does that say? That God Almighty fixed the bounds of their habitations. That is as clear as anything that was ever said.” (page 6)

“Now, what is the matter? There is an effort today to disturb the established order. Wait a minute. Listen, I am talking straight to you. White folks and colored forks, you listen to me. You cannot run over God’s plan and God’s established order without having trouble. God never meant to have one race. It was not His purpose at all. God has a purpose for each race. God Almighty may have overruled and permitted the slaves to come over to America so that the colored people could be the great missionaries to the Africans. They could have been. The white people in America would have helped pay their way over there. By the hundreds and hundreds they could have gone back to Africa and got the Africans converted after the slavery days were over.” (page 10)

“I want you folks to listen-you white and you colored folks. Do not let these Satanic propagandist fool you. This agitation is not of God. It is of the devil. Do not let people slander God Almighty. God made it plain. God meant for Christian people to treat each other right. … Yes, Paul said, ‘God…hath made of one blood all nations of men…’ All men, to whatever race they may belong, have immortal souls; but all men have mortal bodies, and God fixed the boundaries of the races of the world. Let me repeat that it is no accident that most of the Chinese live in China. It is not an accident that most Japanese live in Japan; and the Africans should have been left in Africa, and the Gospel should have been taken to them as God command His people to do.” (page 13 - 14)

“If we would just listen to the Word of God and not try to overthrow God’s established order, we would not have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the lines between the nations. That was not God’s purpose for this nation. When someone goes to overthrowing His established order and goes around preaching pious sermons about it, that makes me sick - for a man to stand up and preach pious sermons in this country and talk about rubbing out the line between the races - I say it makes me sick.

The trouble today is a Satanic agitation striking back at God’s established order. That is what is making trouble for us.” (page 15)

“Now, you colored people listen to me. If you had not been bought over here and if your grandparents in slavery days had not heard that great preaching, you might not even be a Christian, You might be over there in the jungles of Africa today, unsaved. Bt you are here in America where you have your own schools and your own churches and your own liberties and your own rights, with certain restrictions that God Almighty put about you - restrictions that are in line with the Word of God.” (page 22)

“A Christian relationship does not mean a marriage relationship. You can be a Christian and have fellowship with people that you would not marry and that God does not want you to marry and that if you should marry you would be marrying outside the will of God. Why can’t you see that? Why can’t good, solid, substantial people who do not have any hatred and do not have any bitterness see that? Let’s approach this thing in a Christian way. Let’s make the battle a Christian battle. Do not let people run over you by coming along and talking about the Universal Brotherhood of man. There is not Universal Fatherhood of God and Universal Brotherhood of man. There is not a word about that in the Bible.” (page 28)

And finally his closing prayer:

“Our heavenly Father, bless our country. We thank Thee for our ancestors. We thank Thee for the good, Christian people - white and black. We thank Thee for the ties that have bound these Christian white people and Christian colored people together throughout the years, and we thank Thee that white people who had a little more money helped them build their churches and stood by them and when they got sick, they helped them. No nation has ever prospered or been blessed like the colored people in the South. Help these colored Christians not to get swept away by all the propaganda that is being put out now. Help us to see this thing and to understand God’s established order and to be one in Christ and to understand that God has fixed the boundaries of the nations so we would not have trouble and misunderstanding. Keep us by Thy power and use us for Thy glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” (page 32)

So what does the University now claim as Biblical in its apology to the African-American people:

Statement about Race at Bob Jones University
(Posted on B.J.U.’s website 11/20/’08)

At Bob Jones University, Scripture is our final authority for faith and practice and it is our intent to have it govern all of our policies. It teaches that God created the human race as one race. History, reality and Scripture affirm that in that act of creation was the potential for great diversity, manifested today by the remarkable racial and cultural diversity of humanity. Scripture also teaches that this beautiful, God-caused and sustained diversity is divinely intended to incline mankind to seek the Lord and depend on Him for salvation from sin (Acts 17:24–28).

The true unity of humanity is found only through faith in Christ alone for salvation from sin—in contrast to the superficial unity found in humanistic philosophies or political points of view. For those made new in Christ, all sinful social, cultural and racial barriers are erased (Colossians 3:11), allowing the beauty of redeemed human unity in diversity to be demonstrated through the Church.

The Christian is set free by Christ’s redeeming grace to love God fully and to love his neighbor as himself, regardless of his neighbor’s race or culture. As believers, we demonstrate our love for others first by presenting Christ our Great Savior to every person, irrespective of race, culture, or national origin. This we do in obedience to Christ’s final command to proclaim the Gospel to all men (Matthew 28:19–20). As believers we are also committed to demonstrating the love of Christ daily in our relationships with others, disregarding the economic, cultural and racial divisions invented by sinful humanity (Luke 10:25–37; James 2:1–13).

Bob Jones University has existed since 1927 as a private Christian institution of higher learning for the purpose of helping young men and women cultivate a biblical worldview, represent Christ and His Gospel to others, and glorify God in every dimension of life.

BJU’s history has been chiefly characterized by striving to achieve those goals; but like any human institution, we have failures as well. For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it.

In so doing, we failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry. Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful.

On national television in March 2000, Bob Jones III, who was the university’s president until 2005, stated that BJU was wrong in not admitting African-American students before 1971, which sadly was a common practice of both public and private universities in the years prior to that time. On the same program, he announced the lifting of the University’s policy against interracial dating.

Our sincere desire is to exhibit a truly Christlike spirit and biblical position in these areas. Today, Bob Jones University enrolls students from all 50 states and nearly 50 countries, representing various ethnicities and cultures. The University solicits financial support for two scholarship funds for minority applicants, and the administration is committed to maintaining on the campus the racial and cultural diversity and harmony characteristic of the true Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

29 comments:

Harry H. McCall said...

But as our Christadelphian commenter Jason keeps telling me:

“Why should we listen to anything you have to say? You don‘t believe the Bible; you an atheist!”

Jason, it sure looks like Bible Believing Bob Jones University has a major problem with the truth.
It also sure seems Christian truth changes over time.

Oh, yes! The evolution of the Christian truth!

opi said...

"God fixed the boundaries of the races of the world.
[...]Chinese live in China. It is not an accident that most Japanese live in Japan; and the Africans should have been left in Africa"

I love how he skips fact that "americans" where born (as nation) not on thier land.

Steven Carr said...

'BJU’s history has been chiefly characterized by striving to achieve those goals; but like any human institution, we have failures as well'

Yes, they keep reading the Bible and applying it.

Note that the 2008 statement did not refute one single word that had been written about Acts 17:26

It didn't even quote from it (unlike the previous statement which was based on the Biblical text)

The Blogger Formerly Known As Lvka said...

So I assume that in the parallel little Universe that You live in Dr. Martin Luther King was NOT a `Bible Christian` ? :-\

Jeff said...

Exactly what I was thinking, opi - how could someone follow that tortured logic without coming to the conclusion that white people should have just stayed in Europe and left North America to the Indians? Maybe all NA-born Caucasians are destined to head back to Europe as missionaries.

zilch said...

Maybe all NA-born Caucasians are destined to head back to Europe as missionaries.

But they have to become slaves to the Native Americans first, Jeff. If I'd stuck around, the way I figure it, I'd at least get one day a month off, because I'm 1/32 Indian. But I've already gone back to Europe to spread the good news; unfortunately, practically everyone here is already atheistic. Oh well.

James said...

WOW! It's exactly the same crap spouted about gays today from the pulpits. "Communist, fascist agitators".

Harry H. McCall said...

Lvka, the Southern Baptist convention did not apologize for Biblically supporting slavery until, I believe 1998. The LDS Mormons would not even let the black man hold the priesthood until 1978 when the United States government forced them to.

Dr. Martin Luther King as thrown in southern jails by God fearing church members who were also on the law enforcement department. Plus, just where the Hell were all the God fearing Southern Baptist in Alabama and Mississippi when black Americans were being beaten and jailed? At home reading their Bibles and praying to God to stop these Niggers!!!

By all accounts in the Jim Crow South including Bob Jones, Sr.; King was a Godless communist who I heard described at BJU was an atheist wolf in a Christian sheep’s clothing.

As the Christian Bible believing governor of Alabama, George Wallace stated in his 1963 inaugural speech: “ In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Lvka, your Bible mentality is as out dated as the chrome dome monk you have as you characterization.

I’m sure your out dated monk figure would have used his Bible to attack Dr. King with both theologically and physically.

District Supt. Harvey Burnett said...

Harry,

In all sincereity I appreciate you pointing out the racial injustice that existed and the pious attitude that cam along with such. I think we all learn from lessons of the past and this was certainly one but this is what I am glad to hear and read:

"In so doing, we failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry."

Let it be on record from this American Indian/African American that I accept the apology gladly and the ISSUE IS SQUASHED!

I'm proud that at whatever point, the issue was addressed, acknowledged and repented of. We're human and humanity has it's issues and those issues are called sin...that's why we recognize that we need Jesus, and I'm thankful.

Now about the only thing that can follow suit is naturalism and specifically Darwinian evolutionary theory which is one of the MOST racist and gender biased concepts ever known to man...Did Gould, Dawkins or any of their hinchmen EVER apologize for the racism and gender bias of eviolutionary theory? Let's see a post on that...

This may get you started:

"[Man] attains a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can women—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. If two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, history, painting, sculpture, music (inclusive of both composition and performance), history, science, and philosophy, the two lists would not bear comparison. We may also infer, from the law of the deviation from averages... [that] the average mental power in man must be above that of women." ~ Charles Darwin, "The Descent of Man in Relation to Sex" (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1896), 564.

And shall we refrence Gustav Labon's statements?

At least Christianity and Christians face their shortcomings, atheists seem to just explain them away scientifically...

Thanks.

Jason Long said...

How many times has religion been used as an excuse to deny civil rights? Every time they have been wrong. Every time they will be wrong. Witches, slaves, women, gays...

said...

God Almighty may have overruled and permitted the slaves to come over to America so that the colored people could the great missionaries to the Africans.

Could what the great missionaries? Is this an original error or a copyist error?

Harry H. McCall said...

"so that the colored people could be the great missionaries to the Africans."

My mistake. I copied wrong and left out "be".

The Blogger Formerly Known As Lvka said...

Harry,

Many words, no answer. Try again.

Gus said...

"So I assume that in the parallel little Universe that You live in Dr. Martin Luther King was NOT a `Bible Christian` ? :-\"

Out of curiosity, how did you reach that assumption, and why is it relevant?

Anthony said...

Now about the only thing that can follow suit is naturalism and specifically Darwinian evolutionary theory which is one of the MOST racist and gender biased concepts ever known to man...Did Gould, Dawkins or any of their hinchmen EVER apologize for the racism and gender bias of eviolutionary theory? Let's see a post on that...

Harvey, the bottom line is that Darwin was WRONG on these issues. Yes, many evolutionists believed that women and other races were inferior, they wrongly transferred the biological theory of evolution onto their views of social evolution. There were also a number of evolutionists during the later part of the 19th century who did stand for equality.

I don't dispute that evolutionists in the past have been sexist and racist. I tend to believe that much of that came from their culture (which was mostly Christian and patriarchical) that was incorporated into their evolutionary thinking and given justification for that thinking. It was wrong during Darwin's time and it's wrong now.

I find it interesting that most evolutionists that I know of today would tend to agree with feminism and would agree with the equality of sex and race.

Check out this interesting link on the topic, it is an article on evolution in the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women

District Supt. Harvey Burnett said...

Thank you Anthony, I appreciate that observation. You've said more than most of the major teachers of evolution regarding the failure of Darwin on these points.

Steven Carr said...

The difference is that Darwin was using facts which were best explained by sociological reasons rather than by evolutionary ones (Why few women were as great achievers as men, at least up to Darwin writing.

So Darwin was wrong, while modern Christians can only apologise for racists being correct when they say the Bible backs their views.

I quote '“Now, notice-this is an important verse- the twenty-sixth verse of the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, ‘And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth…” But do not stop there, “…and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.’ Now, what does that say? That God Almighty fixed the bounds of their habitations. That is as clear as anything that was ever said.”

Yes, it is very clear what Acts 17:26 says which is why racism is correct, if you are a Bible-believing Christian.

Of course, other Christians choose to believe other bits of the Bible....

District Supt. Harvey Burnett said...

Steven Carr,

You're off the deep end my brutha...the deep end.

Later.

Heather said...

Mr Carr - You clearly quoted, "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth". If we are all already made of one blood, it is kinda silly to worry about mixing it now, eh?? And that God fixed the bounds of our habitations, that could mean a ton of different things, fixed it to land, fixed it to earth, fixed it to what?? If a person has cause to want a segregated society, that person can twist words to mean what supports their view. However, it is just that, a persons view...not Gods. God clearly made all mankind from one man, Adam, from one blood, Adam. Rasicm is just plain silly when you see that we all carry the same blood already!! :)

Steven Carr said...

I see Heather cannot bring herself to quote the Bible , rather than praise it, while Burnett cannot quote the Bible, but resorts to abuse.

So I shall quote Acts 17:26 and she can tell me where it claims that races should move from one country to another.

'From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. '

God determins where people should live. not the US immigration service.

The Bob Jones University of 1960 read this bit of the Bible and believed it.

The Bible also says 'Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."'

It has been carefully explained to me in the past that this means that God hates whole nations of people.....

That is racism, which God abhors, so did this alleged god really hate Esau?

Heather said...

Steven - Could that not be interpreted as God set our time on this earth as well as where we are located? Our place on this earth has been determined by God? It may be determined to change!! It is interesting that you talk about God hating whole nations...I just had a "conversation" with someone about that exact scripture. I don't see where it makes it appear that by hating Esau, God would hate whole nations...Were not Jacon and Esau brothers? Would that not make them of the same "nation"? And yet, he "hated" one, and "loved" the other. I understood it to mean that God does not favor one nation over another.

Oh, and I quote the Bible here plenty. :) I am not sure what you were implying...

Harry H. McCall said...

Heather, you have a New Testament God love vs. Yahweh the God of Jewish hate.

If you think that Yahweh loves us all, then way kill the Canaanites…women, children and babies too?!

Why does God demand death any Israelite who loves a foreigner? “Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting.
When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand,
And went after the man of Israel into the tent, driving the spear through the two of them, through the man of Israel and through the stomach of the woman. So the disease was stopped among the children of Israel. (Numbers 17: 6-9).

Why does God demand all foreigner wife be put away? “Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. "So now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.” (Ezra 10:2-3)

Heather, you have too much wishful love theology.

Heather said...

Harry - Because I do not question God of the OT does not mean I understand it all that happened and why. However, it does make me even more greatful that Jesus was born and died for our sins. I am very grateful that I don't live in the legalistic times of the OT.

I think I will take your comment on my love theology as a compliment. :) Although, I wouldn't call it wishful...love is at the core of Christianity.

Steven Carr said...

HEATHER
I am very grateful that I don't live in the legalistic times of the OT.

CARR
It must be awful to live in a land ruled by your god, musn't it?

Harry H. McCall said...

Great point Steven Carr!

So which is worst Heather, a rule of the Torah or Christianity where Paul’s view of “Original Sin” is a curse on all people born into this world? That is, the minute we are born, God hate us via sin.

Jew do not have a doctrine of Original Sin, and thus, do not need a man to shed his blood for them as the New Testament God of love demanded!

Heather said...

Harry - I apologize for asking, but doesn't the Jewish follow the OT? (I am asking, I am not sure). If so, they have to atone for sins they commit, right? Or, simply live free of sin, right? We all know that is impossible, to live free of sin. I suppose I would prefer to realize that man is subject to "original sin" and that by the grace of God we can be saved.

Edwardtbabinski said...

Hi District Supt. Harvey Burnett,

You said that "Darwinian evolutionary theory is one of the MOST racist and gender biased concepts ever known to man."

I guess you haven't studied the history of racism and genderism in general. Racism preceded Darwin as also did genderism. The Southern Baptists still embrace genderism, and reiterated it in no uncertain terms in a recent position paper adopted by the SBC.

Racism arose amongst Christians prior to Darwin's day. Christians continued defending their racist views after Darwin's publications. Louis Agassiz was an anti-Darwinian who examined the skulls of Blacks and deemed them inferior, his research appearing in the creationist work, Types of Mankind.

Even Henry Morris, the founding creationist at ICR in the twentieth century, continued to defend the superiority of humans descended from Noah's two sons Shem and Japheth in comparison with the cursed sons of Ham/Canaan. As did Christian leaders in South Africa, and southern Christians in the U.S., the most Bible-proud Christians in the U.S., whose pre-Civil War leaders claimed they were the only true Christians and broke with their northern brethren to form their own southern denominations over the very question of whether or not ministers ought to be allowed to own slaves. That's the BASIS of the founding of Southern Baptists, Southern Methodist, Southern Presbyterians, and those same ministeries also cried loudly when it came to the political secession of the southern state from the northern ones, just prior to the Civil War. This was a time of crisis for the notion of biblical authority. Modern day Christians historians have likewise agreed that was precisely the case. Historians at Wheaton for instance, one of whom said he broke down and cried after reading what the southern Christians had to say about Blacks and about their northern brethren.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You also wrote: "Did Gould, Dawkins or any of their hinchmen EVER apologize for their racism and gender bias?"

Gould has written extensively against racism. Google:

"Stephen Jay Gould's Battle Against Racism"

Edwardtbabinski said...

Hi District Supt. Harvey Burnett,

Racism in the western world was driven in the gut by upper class anxieties over rival races taking their place in the social order.

The spread of intellectual racism in northern U.S. states can be traced to WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) seeking to protect and defend their country against the incursions of "undesirables."

It was at Harvard, in 1895, that the infamous Immigration Restriction League was formed. Being good Christian leaders of the ruling white classes they desired to prove the inferiority of recent immigrants to our shores. By demonstrating the "inferiority" of those at the bottom of the social heap, the upper classes presumptively justified their being at the top of the social scale. They could "prove" their superiority with the IQ test. And, with the same instrument, prove the inferiority of the black.

One of the Vice Presidents of Harvard's infamous "Immigration Protection League" was also the president of Harvard University, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who "EXPRESSED [IN THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER] IN TRENCHANT PHRASES HIS HEARTY DISAPPROVAL OF 'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES'"

The very same DARWIN-HATING, WASP president of Harvard (and V.P. of the Immigration Restriction League), Abbott Lawrence Lowell, was also pro-segregation, anti-Semitic and homophobic.

In a 1922 letter to a black undergraduate, Lowell confirmed that he would not be permitted to live in the freshman dormitories: "I am sure you will understand why, from the beginning, we have not thought it possible to compel men of different races to reside together."

He became disturbed by the rising number of Jewish students at Harvard. As documented in Jerome Karabel's 2005 book The Chosen, Lowell thus urged Harvard to adopt a 15-percent admissions quota on Jewish students, warning "the summer hotel that is ruined by admitting Jews meets its fate because they drive away the Gentiles, and then after the Gentiles have left, they leave also."

A 2002 article by Amit R. Paley in The Harvard Crimson focused on Lowell's role in a secret Harvard "court" that expelled eight students and one philosophy Ph.D. candidate for being homosexual or associating with homosexuals. Two of the expelled students, Cyril Wilcox and Ernest Cummings, committed suicide that year. Another, Keith Smerage, killed himself 10 years later.

Philip R Kreyche said...

I've found it amusing, how consistently Harvey insists that Richard Dawkins and other modern evolutionary scientists somehow have the responsibility of apologizing on the behalf of other scientists long dead. Why this obligation, Harv?