There
is a danger in our polarized society of loudly critiquing missteps by our
political or ideological opponents and remaining silent when they do the right
thing.
Today,
BobJonesUniversity
just did the right thing and showed humility and Christian repentance that is both
difficult and often lacking in politically-charged debates.The university put out a statement admitting that
their policies of banning black students until 1971 and banning interracial dating until 2005 had "conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint
to it." They went on to say, "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."
BobJonesUniversity has undoubtedly done plenty
to harm the Christian witness...and being made up of fallen creatures like the rest of us, they will surely do so again in the future.But today, they were faithful and true.
I'm sure there will be those on the left who will argue that
this was too little too late or who decide now is the time to pile onto this apology with demands for
other changes to school policy.But as
we head into the holiday week, I'll be giving thanks for some brave students,
faculty, and administrators at Bob Jones who put Christ first.
Hello, I just want you to know that I have always enjoyed reading daily prayers, I added this to my prayers in the morning. I do the reading, the psalm, the bible reading and of course the thought of the day. However, I noticed you changed your site allot. I like it. I have always printed out prayers that are helpfull to me and the surrondings. Now I can't re print them, you changed your site so much you deleted allot of the prayers. Please bring them back. I searched and searched for quite awhile. Nothing, there is a bathroom prayer id number is 3295 this cannot be located. Today I was reading daily prayers, and wanted to print out the prayer, the print is so small you can barely read it. What a waste of my time and ink. Please fix this. I am truly disappointed. Thank you for your time.
Lynn Bergum
Wisconsin 11/25/08
James Gilmore
November 25, 2008 1:21 PM
Forgive me if I'm not standing for this ovation.
For a generation, they've been spewing racist bile all over the place and sullying the name of Christianity, and now they finally get around to acknowledging that African-Americans are people. I can't get excited about this - I can only just ask "what the %^&* took you so long?"
Also - given that they're guilty of perpetuating codified racism and institutionally racist practices long after most other institutions had given that up - I'm going to go ahead and say that an apology isn't enough. What are they doing? Where's their policy to ensure that African-Americans are represented at all levels of the power structure of their institution? Where's the commitment to work against the racism they spread in their own student/alumni community, in their local community, in the churches they serve? Where's the institution-wide self-examination and self-reflection that might lead them to question their other prejudices - their strong institutional sexism, their religious bigotry, their anti-LGBT policies?
I suppose it's nice that they finally came around to doing what everyone else did 30 (or more) years ago, but they're going to need to demonstrate that they mean those words by taking strong, decisive, immediate action to put them into practice.
Ira
November 25, 2008 2:07 PM
Too little. Too late.
Bob Jones U. should go the route of Lehman Brothers.
Greenman
November 27, 2008 11:44 AM
Fine, you've sinned, you've repented, now get on with your life. It wouldn't hurt if you looked at the other people you discriminate against (women, gays, lesbians, transgendered folk) you might not have to do this again and again.
Larry
November 30, 2008 4:44 PM
It was a pretty narrow "culture" they were representing by practicing segregation up until 1971, or banning interracial dating until 2005! Still, better late than never and welcome. Nevertheless - it is perhaps overly cynical to reflect that White Christian conservatives began seeing the light on race just when they were seeking recruits for the culture wars. Prop. 8 would probably not have have passed in CA without the support of culturally conservative Blacks. I'm sure there are many sincere folks at BJU and amongst White Christians who truly regret past sins but I suspect there are others, especially in the hirearchy who see this as an act of political convenience. If they wanted gay votes badly enough, homosexuality would suddenly become OK by them as well.
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.
Diana Butler Bass and Paul Raushenbush both stand firmly within the Mainline Protestant tradition and, along with guest bloggers of all religious backgrounds are dedicated to the revival of religious progressivism and its influence in American politics.
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Hello, I just want you to know that I have always enjoyed reading daily prayers, I added this to my prayers in the morning. I do the reading, the psalm, the bible reading and of course the thought of the day. However, I noticed you changed your site allot. I like it. I have always printed out prayers that are helpfull to me and the surrondings. Now I can't re print them, you changed your site so much you deleted allot of the prayers. Please bring them back. I searched and searched for quite awhile. Nothing, there is a bathroom prayer id number is 3295 this cannot be located. Today I was reading daily prayers, and wanted to print out the prayer, the print is so small you can barely read it. What a waste of my time and ink. Please fix this. I am truly disappointed. Thank you for your time.
Lynn Bergum
Wisconsin 11/25/08
Forgive me if I'm not standing for this ovation.
For a generation, they've been spewing racist bile all over the place and sullying the name of Christianity, and now they finally get around to acknowledging that African-Americans are people. I can't get excited about this - I can only just ask "what the %^&* took you so long?"
Also - given that they're guilty of perpetuating codified racism and institutionally racist practices long after most other institutions had given that up - I'm going to go ahead and say that an apology isn't enough. What are they doing? Where's their policy to ensure that African-Americans are represented at all levels of the power structure of their institution? Where's the commitment to work against the racism they spread in their own student/alumni community, in their local community, in the churches they serve? Where's the institution-wide self-examination and self-reflection that might lead them to question their other prejudices - their strong institutional sexism, their religious bigotry, their anti-LGBT policies?
I suppose it's nice that they finally came around to doing what everyone else did 30 (or more) years ago, but they're going to need to demonstrate that they mean those words by taking strong, decisive, immediate action to put them into practice.
Too little. Too late.
Bob Jones U. should go the route of Lehman Brothers.
Fine, you've sinned, you've repented, now get on with your life. It wouldn't hurt if you looked at the other people you discriminate against (women, gays, lesbians, transgendered folk) you might not have to do this again and again.
It was a pretty narrow "culture" they were representing by practicing segregation up until 1971, or banning interracial dating until 2005! Still, better late than never and welcome. Nevertheless - it is perhaps overly cynical to reflect that White Christian conservatives began seeing the light on race just when they were seeking recruits for the culture wars. Prop. 8 would probably not have have passed in CA without the support of culturally conservative Blacks. I'm sure there are many sincere folks at BJU and amongst White Christians who truly regret past sins but I suspect there are others, especially in the hirearchy who see this as an act of political convenience. If they wanted gay votes badly enough, homosexuality would suddenly become OK by them as well.
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By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.