‘Last month, the New York Times published an article about Hillsdale College and its Barney Charter School Initiative. As we’ve grown accustomed to expecting from the past year of misinformation, the article was misleading and dishonest. The article serves, however, as an opportunity to remind everyone what exactly these charter schools are and illuminate their purpose.
Probably the occasion for this article was the state of the state address in Tennessee, where Governor Bill Lee mentioned that he was asking Hillsdale College to help with charter schools in the state. This set off a firestorm that touches the most powerful political and educational forces in the land. They are bureaucracies, ruling in the name of their “expertise.” Anyone not a member in good standing of this bureaucratic system is an invader. The articles critical of us and everybody else doing charter schools imply that this bureaucracy is the essence of public education. We hold to the old view that teachers, students, and parents make up the public schools.
Each of our charter schools is a civic project involving hundreds of people from their local community. Often, those involved have school-aged children or grandchildren. If not, they are citizens who care deeply for the families and children who live in their city or town. They educate these kids because they love them—they want to show them things that are beautiful, true, and good.
And so these people—most of them are volunteers, mind you—spend countless hours learning how to manage a school, how to start sports leagues and band programs, create budgets, establish a board, draft applications, or find a school building. Founding a school is difficult, but these people do it for the sake of others—that’s a noble thing.
Why do they work so hard to open these schools in particular? It is because these schools want to help their children become wise, but also become good. Hillsdale charter schools offer an education in the classical liberal arts, emphasizing science, mathematics, literature, and history, but also teaching the arts, Latin, civics, philosophy, and ethics. The purpose of such an education is to form the hearts and minds of its students—to strengthen their characters as well as their intellects.
By the time these schools open, they are big, effective, and excellent. They go on to hire headmasters who know how to build a school culture and make the trains run on time. They attract dynamic teachers who love their subjects because they too have been personally transformed by them. Within a few years, they rank among the best in their districts and states.
When he visited the United States in 1831 and 1832, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about the American spirit of community in his book, Democracy in America: “In no country in the world do the citizens make such exertions for the commonwealth; and I am acquainted with no people which has established schools as numerous and as efficacious … better suited to the wants of the inhabitants.” At our charter schools, these efforts continue for the sake of an education better suited to the needs of the community.
Our charter schools are the work of their communities and those who live in them. They are built with love, and they take on the character of the people and communities that built them. And so, the students flourish there.
In stark contrast to much of what is reported in the news today, the students and parents at these schools are happy. Parents love seeing their children grow into fine young men and women, and the students are proud to see it in themselves, as well.
We use the Latin words alma mater when we refer to our former place of education. The words mean “nurturing mother”—I cannot think of a more nurturing educational environment than these schools.’ An Email from Hillsdale College’s president, Dr. Larry Arnn
‘Emory University has removed the name of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar from prestigious law professorships because he owned slaves and served in the Confederate Army.
‘For the last 27 years I have been a professor at Boston College, teaching a mix of literature and writing courses to thousands of students. Then along came the booster mandates.
When the initial vaccines came out, my wife and I received ours. We had strong reservations about the mRNA vaccines and had decided we weren’t going to get one. However, my getting a vaccine was a condition of employment. We weighed our decision carefully. It was the J&J, or early retirement.
We were prepared to live with whatever the gods had in store, and had actually started thinking about how to fill in the hours. As luck would have it, the vaccine on offer that day was the J&J.
We sat down and rolled up our sleeves.
Subsequent information about vaccine efficacy and side effects, of the J&J as well as the others, made us regret getting that injection. But it was done. And I was still employed.
Early last December, very few, if any, universities had a booster requirement. Then something happened. The CDC sent up one of its smoke signals, or Dr. Rachel melted down again on TV. Whatever the case, universities, “following the science,” issued a booster mandate.
I began teaching in spring semester, hoping that as the weeks went along and more information about the pointlessness of getting the booster shot came out, administrators, and the doctors whispering in their ears, would come to their senses. This is called self-deception.
Every other week I received an email telling me to update my vaccine record. I ignored them. At Boston College, parents, students and alumni had put together a petition signed by some 900 people.
That, in addition to stories of students suffering from myocarditis—I had one student who received a booster waiver because the initial vaccine had done something to his heart muscle—made me hope the booster mandate would be removed, or at the very least, moderated down to “encouragement.”
Not so. A characteristic of people who don’t know what they are doing is to double down.
And double down they did.
Eight months after we were vaccinated, my wife and I became Covid “breakthrough” cases. The virus was mild, a day or two of feeling tired. Of course, we right away started taking ivermectin. And, of course, we passed the virus on to two other fully vaccinated people.
I was aware that some researchers thought that if you had been vaccinated and then subsequently contracted Covid, getting a booster shot, at best, was pointless; at worst, it might be harmful.
The remarks of Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, and citizen of the world, when he said the vaccines offered only “limited protection” against the Omicron variant served to underline my “resistance.”
I was convinced “the science” was on my side.
The Dean insisted “the science” was on his side. I’ll let him speak for himself: “If you fail to provide HR with proof of having received your COVID booster shot before the end of the day on Friday, February 25th, you will be suspended without pay and renewal of your contract will be placed in jeopardy.”
The tone is one bullies use on recalcitrant children. Power corrupts.
Well, I was done. The school and department narrative was that I had abandoned my students. This assumes the university had no other options. They had at least two, one of which would have been to compel me to get a PCR test every time I showed up on campus.
They had other ideas.
I subsequently received a FedEx letter from the President of the University in which he said that “my refusal [to obtain a COVID-19 booster] jeopardizes the health and well-being of our academic community,” a statement so contrary to epidemiological facts as to be risible.
But this is what we are up against.
This is my small story, one of thousands. This isn’t about science. If it was about science, we never would have attempted to shut down our economy. This is about power, and politics. The mandates are just another face of the political correctness that is crippling our universities.’https://brownstone.org/articles/the-purge-call-me-ishmael/
Freedom of choice is gone at Western Australia’s ‘Curtin University, the largest university in Perth, Western Australia (WA) by total number of students, has mandated vaccination requirements for all staff, students, campuses, and activities.
A letter sent by Curtin Chief Operating Officer Fiona Notley to students on Feb. 10 revealed the university was aware that the new directives might be considered contentious by some.
“While we know this is potentially controversial, this decision is part of our strategy to counter the impact of COVID-19 and protect the health and safety of the University community,” Notley said.
Curtin is the first university in WA to enforce the requirement, joining the ranks of universities like Griffith, La Trobe, and University of Melbourne over on Australia’s eastern coast.
While WA has one of the broadest proof of requirements in the nation, the state government has not mandated vaccination for universities.
The statement also explained the decision was made after consultation with staff and the student guild, a representative body elected by students. However, Curtin did not mention whether students themselves were surveyed or consulted in the process.
“The decision was made following a period of engagement with the Curtin Student Guild and our staff. Feedback from the Guild, who represent all students on campus, and our staff, was strongly in support of requiring vaccination as a crucial way of protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our community,” Notley continued.
“In Western Australia, students who wish to attend a campus or facility, or to participate in a University activity involving physical interaction with others must provide Curtin with evidence they have received at least one dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine by 21 February and a second by 21 March 2022.”
Students will also be required to receive a third booster dose within one month of being eligible. Currently, booster doses are to be taken three months apart, meaning students may eventually be required to get vaccinated between three and four times per year to remain enrolled.
“Thank you to all those who have already been vaccinated. I encourage anyone who has not done so to be vaccinated by the relevant deadlines,” Notley said.
‘Jerry Falwell, Jr. is proof that sometimes the apple falls far from the tree, as revealed in a recent Vanity Fair article. The article suggests he has his daddy’s name, but not his nature. He has the Falwell culture but not the Falwell character.
The apple that fell far from the tree was obviously rotten.
If Falwell had any character or self-respect or familial affection, or concern for the cause of Christ, he would climb into a deep Virginia cave and hide therein until his demise. I don’t expect Jerry to do so since he seems to think he is relevant and important. No one cares what Jerry says except the scandal sheets who delight in salacious information, especially if critical of Christians. By Jerry’s vile lifestyle, he has provided many pages of poison that intensified hatred of anything Christian.
I have written about the various Falwell scandals here,here,here, and here.
It seems without debate that Jerry did a sterling job taking control of Liberty University following his father’s death. But for him to suggest he qualifies as the reason Liberty University is one of the largest universities in the world is excessive and embarrassing crowing.
Junior only built upon a deep, solid foundation constructed of sweat, blood, tears, prayers, energy, and total commitment of his father. Without Dr. Falwell, Junior would be known as Jerry, who?
Liberty was originally called Lynchburg Baptist College, which began in 1971 and changed its name to Liberty Baptist College in 1977 and Liberty University in 1985. Liberty was founded by Dr. Falwell, with help from Dr. Elmer Towns and one of my oldest friends, Dr. Harold Willmington, who came in 1972. Dr. Towns and Dr. Willmington provided the academic respectability that Jerry did not possess since he only possessed an undergraduate degree from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri.
While Dr. Falwell lacked academic qualifications, he easily surpassed ivy league university presidents in his ability, wit, knowledge, memory, perseverance, commitment, and genuine love for students. He was one of the most gracious, genuine, as well as one of the greatest men I ever met.
And I often disagreed with him.
Following Falwell’s death in 2007, Liberty experienced spectacular growth and stability under leadership from Jerry Junior. Liberty now boasts over 700 programs from the certificate to the doctoral level ranging from medicine, biology, chemistry, and engineering to design, music, religion, law, and more.
Liberty has more than a billion-dollar endowment fund, gross assets of over 2 billion dollars, an impressive campus with 15,000 students, and a total of 100,000 students when online students are counted. Both the university and church are totally out of debt following payment of a 34-million-dollar life insurance policy on Dr. Falwell.
Liberty’s fiscal stability is impressive even for the secular world and shocking in that it was begun in a small southern city by an independent Baptist pastor with no educational credentials.
The Vanity Fair article reveals a dispute in September 2020, when Jerry and Franklin Graham argued over who should get credit for Liberty’s success. Jerry said, “My dad built the foundation, but I built the house.” Franklin furiously said, “You didn’t build it!” Well, to put this in perspective, if the bull had not done his job, the farmer would not have any calves to count. Jerry Junior did an impressive job continuing the building on his dad’s foundation. But Junior did not possess the charisma, gravitas, discipline, and reputation to build their Christian elementary school, let alone a university, by his own effort.
Junior has a right to crow but not as the cock of the walk. He can share his daddy’s name and sit in the president’s chair, but he never filled his shoes. But he has often disgraced his name.
In the article, the younger Falwell suggests his aberrant lifestyle was not of his choosing, and it was almost forced on him, saying, “It’s almost like I didn’t have a choice.” But that has been the plea or reason for evil behavior since the beginning of time.
Everyone has a choice, and many of Junior’s were wrong.
He said, “Because of my last name, people think I’m a religious person. But I’m not. My goal was to make them realize I was not my dad.” Wow, what a confession. His goal was not to honor Christ, obey Bible commands, seek to win the world for Christ, or even to make the world a little better but to disassociate himself from the one who gave him life!
What a senseless, ungrateful, despicable jerk.
Furthermore, I will not consider any complaints from religious snowflakes about my lack of love for a brother in Christ, and I’m not sure that is possible with Junior. Even if he is a Christian, it is a sign of love to speak the truth, and the truth is—Jerry Falwell is a jerk. I’m sorry if it offends Jerry and his supporters, but he and his supporters know he is a jerk.
He said his father was not a hardline Fundamentalist at home and did not force him to attend church. But that is not true, according to my sources at Thomas Road Baptist Church. Dr. Falwell allegedly permitted Junior to own rock records and even tolerated moderate drinking. While the rock records accusation cannot be supported or denied, awareness of his drinking became known only when he was in law school at the University of Virginia.
Jerry Jr. did not qualify as president of any Christian college. My longtime friends on Liberty’s Board of Trustees, including the current president Dr. Jerry Prevo and board chairman, Dr. Tim Lee, failed when they turned the university over to him. Of course, they can plead they were doing as Dr. Falwell instructed them to do. However, I believe the control of a not-for-profit organization cannot be handed over to anyone as one might award a prize bull.
One can assume a prize bull will get the job done, but a person with the “right” ancestry should still be suspect as to character, competence, and calling before being hired for a high position.
Jerry Junior said his brother Jonathan became his mother’s favorite son. If so, that was a mistake, but with Jerry’s corrupt record of adultery, drunkenness, lying, stupid behavior, and generally vile lifestyle, I wouldn’t believe him if he swore on a stack of original 1611 KJV Bibles. Besides, my sources at the church and university tell me that Jonathan managed to have a grandchild of Jerry Sr. at their home each night following Jerry’s death. Jonathan’s thoughtfulness and kindness at such a time would endear himself to his mother.
The article drags Jerry Sr. and his family through the slime pits, and it must be remembered that Jerry Jr. has not repudiated the article, so an assumption of misquotes is not supported. The following savaging of the Falwell family is one of the most despicable, disgraceful, and dishonest attacks upon Dr. Falwell and his wife.
The Vanity Fair article reveals that Jerry Junior said his father’s much traveling provided a reprieve from an oppressive marriage. “My dad wanted to travel the world as an escape,” Jerry said. He recalled that his mother’s provincial worldview grated on his father. “She wanted to live a small-town preacher’s life. She didn’t let him mess around.” Divorce was out of the question, according to the article.
How silly. Folks at Thomas Road Baptist Church laugh at such ravings. Note the explosive words, reprieve, oppressive, escape, grated, mess around, and divorce. I am convinced either Jerry Junior or Vanity Fair (or both) was determined to deny, distort, and destroy the memory of Jerry Falwell.
The article continued, “According to Jerry, his dad found ways to take the edge off at home, even though Macel never allowed alcohol in the house. ‘Sometimes, he would drink a whole bottle of Nyquil. He called it Baptist wine,’ he remembered. Jerry [Junior] grew up to learn that he too could have a private life that didn’t align with his public persona.”
That is not the Jerry Falwell I knew from the mid-1960s to his death, nor is that reflected in the hundreds of sermons preached on national television. And the thought of Jerry drinking a bottle of Nyquil because Macel would not permit him to drink wine is so ludicrous I even laughed when I read the stupid statement.
‘Juan Cole, a professor at the University of Michigan, proved once again Thursday something that everyone who has been paying attention knows by now: you don’t go to an American university to get an education but to be indoctrinated into Leftist dogma and recruited for Antifa. Cole, who has written a hagiographical and whitewashed biography of Muhammad and is a Leftist go-to authority on Islamic issues, published an article in Foreign Policy In Focus entitled “Islam Wasn’t the Threat — Islamophobia Was.” If this sounds like nonsense, that’s only because it is, but that’s what sells on the Left these days.
Concern for Islamic terrorism, in Cole’s view, has been greatly exaggerated, in part for “racist” reasons (of course), while the rampant terror threat of “white supremacy” has been downplayed or ignored outright. Those who have suffered the most from this lack of focus, he insists, have been Muslims in America, who have borne the brunt of “Islamophobia” in America’s misguided quest to protect itself from a largely nonexistent threat of jihad terrorism.
All this is designed to inculcate the hatred and contempt for the United States that the Left is working to instill everywhere these days, and of course, Cole’s chief targets are conservatives. He begins his ridiculous piece by whining that “Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson excused one of the leaders of the extremist Oath Keepers organization implicated in the January 6th insurrection by describing him as ‘a devout Christian.’ It’s safe to surmise that he wouldn’t have offered a similar defense for a Muslim American.” Aside from denigrating Tucker Carlson, Cole’s point here is that the Jan. 6 “insurrection” was a manifestation of “Christian terrorism,” equivalent to the Islamic terrorism we saw on 9/11.
To drive this point home, Cole has to ignore numerous inconvenient facts, including these: that no one has been charged with insurrection in connection with Jan. 6, the protestors were unarmed, the police opened the doors of the Capitol and invited them in, and no one was killed except one of the protestors, by a rogue cop who has faced no punishment, since he is safely anti-Trump.
Cole also has to ignore the fact that nearly 3,000 people were murdered by Islamic jihad terrorists on 9/11 and that those attacks were just one day’s worth, with 40,000 more jihad attacks coming worldwide since then. He sees 9/11 solely as the impetus for the victimization of Muslims in the United States: “Since September 11th, and even before that ominous date, Muslim Americans have suffered bitterly from discrimination and hate crimes in this country, while their religion has been demonized. During the first year of the Trump administration, about half of Muslim Americans polled said that they had personally experienced some type of discrimination.”
That would be a shame if it were true, but it isn’t. In reality, FBI statistics show that hate crimes against Muslims are rare, far more rare than hate crimes against Jews. No hate crime is justified, but the idea that Muslims in the U.S. have been unique victims of discrimination and harassment since 9/11 is simply without foundation.
And then there’s the larger picture.
On June 1, 2009, a Muslim named Abdulhakim Muhammad shot a soldier to death at a Little Rock military recruiting office, explicitly in the name of Allah. On November 5, 2009, in Fort Hood, Major Nidal Malik Hasan murdered thirteen unarmed soldiers while screaming “Allahu akbar.” On April 15, 2013, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev exploded two bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring many more in the name of Islam. On Sept. 25, 2014, Alton Nolen, a convert to Islam, beheaded a coworker at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma and had publicly supported jihad violence.
On July 16, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn., a Muslim named Mohammad Abdulazeez went on a shooting spree at a military installation, murdering five soldiers. On Nov. 4, 2015, at the University of California, Merced, Faisal Mohammad stabbed four people “in the name of Allah.” On Dec. 2, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif., a Muslim couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, opened fire at a Christmas party, murdering fourteen people. On Jan. 7, 2016, a convert to Islam named Edward Archer shot Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett because “police bend laws that are contrary to the teachings of the Qur’an.” On Feb. 11, 2016, a Muslim named Mohammad Barry entered the Nazareth Restaurant & Deli in Columbus, Ohio, and began stabbing patrons because the owner of the restaurant was an Israeli.
On June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Fla., a Muslim named Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and injured 58 at a gay bar. He insisted that he was doing this out of loyalty to the Islamic State. On November 28, 2016, at Ohio State University, a Muslim student, Abdul Artan, intentionally rammed a car into pedestrians and then began stabbing people with a butcher knife, injuring 11 people. On Oct. 31, 2017, a Muslim named Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov rented a Home Depot pickup truck and intentionally drove it down a bicycle path, killing eight people and injuring twelve.
On December 6, 2019, at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, a second lieutenant of the Saudi Royal Air Force, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, murdered three U.S. sailors. On May 21, 2020, at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, a Muslim named Adam Alsahi crashed through a gate, got out, and opened fire, shooting a Navy police officer. On Aug. 29, 2021, in Plano, Texas, a Muslim named Imran Ali Rasheed murdered a Lyft driver, stole her car, and drove to Plano police headquarters, where he shot two people. He left a note explaining his Islamic motivations.
Longtime readers of my news site Jihad Watch know that this is only a partial list of jihad terror acts in the U.S. since 9/11. Then there are also all the foiled plots.
Meanwhile, how many people were killed or injured in the U.S. in “Islamophobic” attacks? None. None at all. That in itself should have made Cole too embarrassed to publish his piece, but of course, his objective isn’t accuracy, but propaganda and indoctrination.
‘Earlier we documented Bob Jones University (BJU) stepping into ecumenical compromise with Franklin Graham. See BJU Embraces Franklin Graham’s Ecumenical Movement. That was the latest among many excursions, engineered by BJU president Steve Pettit, into non-separatist evangelicallism and the ecumenical movement. From Dr. David Beale’s new book Christian Fundamentalism in America I included a brief excerpt in the BJU/Graham article above and in the BJU: Compromised Spiritual Sanctification for Secular Pragmatism article. Dr. David Beale has written an article to expand on and bolster his argument. That article follows.
“After being the premier fundamentalist academic institution for eighty-seven years, BJU elected Dr. Steve Pettit in 2014, as the president who steered the University out of separatist Fundamentalism into the inclusive, Broad Evangelical movement,” David Beale, Christian Fundamentalism in America (Maitland, FL: Xulon, 2021), 179, 530.
• Dr. Andy Naselli, in his 2006 BJU dissertation, scorns independent, Fundamental Baptists for giving invitations to “surrender oneself to God.” Naselli criticizes the practice and calls it a “second blessing.” Naselli unsuccessfully tried to identify the Fundamentalist movement with Keswick extremes on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Naselli then identified with Broad Evangelicalism. He now serves on the faculty of John Piper’s College and Seminary, which are Reformed Charismatic schools urging every Christian to seek all NT gifts, including tongues and healing. Piper claims that “Signs and wonders” and all spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 are valid for today and must be “earnestly desired.” Piper says, “Prophecy and tongues will continue until Jesus comes.”1 Naselli is a pastor of Piper’s Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Naselli seeks to transform Fundamentalists into Evangelicalism. In 2019, Dr. Pettit brought Naselli back to BJU to present the lectures for the annual Steward Custer Lecture Series. Naselli’s books were promoted. The late Dr. Custer all his life had been a stalwart Fundamentalist. Naselli represents Broad Evangelicalism. The bond between BJU and Evangelicalism has been clear since the beginning of Pettit’s administration.
• Dr. Sam Horn was executive vice president for enrollment and ministerial advancement at Bob Jones University when, on 2-7-2020, Dr. Pettit announced to all, “Dr. Horn is greatly honored today, and BJU is honored to have one of its own become the next president of The Master’s University and Seminary.” Horn succeeded Dr. John Stead. Dr. John MacArthur, a leading Evangelical, had led The Master’s University and Seminary as president from 1984 to 2018. Dr. Pettit preached for John MacArthur in a conference that year (2020). John Street, Chair of Biblical Counseling at The Master’s University, spoke at BJU’s CoRE Conference March 9–10, 2020. Street is an adjunct professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. By claiming that the word Fundamentalism can have no single definition,2 BJU leaders claim the label separatist but practice non-separatism (inclusivism). With such a notion, BJU attempts to sit on both sides of the fence—Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism—at the same time.
• Under Dr. Pettit’s administration, BJU students are permitted to bond with churches of denominations harboring apostasy.3 The following churches (underscored below) are among those approved for BJU students to attend.
• Covenant Community (Taylors, SC): An Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). On one of their website videos, the pastor poured water on a little child’s head and said, “This is like Abraham’s ‘baptizing his whole house’” (Genesis 17). The pastor substituted the word baptism for the word circumcision and called it regeneration. Augustine and Roman Catholicism devised and standardized this doctrine, which assumes an OT circumcisional regeneration for Jewish males.4 Romanism transformed that doctrine into NT water baptismal regeneration to elect infants. Forms of that doctrine passed into Reformed theology. John Calvin insisted that OT circumcision engrafted the Jewish infant into the covenant [elect] family of God; thus, NT baptism engrafts a newborn child into the body of Christ.5 Reformed doctrine leads many to believe the seed of regeneration is implanted at infant baptism, though salvation might occur later.6
• Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church (Simpsonville, SC), PCA church.
• Second Presbyterian Church (Greenville, SC): A Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). This church’s senior pastor is Dr. Richard Phillips, adjunct professor and member of the Board of Trustees at Westminster Theological Seminary, which enforces no dress codes and allows the use of alcoholic beverages.7
➢ Richard Phillips is also on the Board of Directors of (1) the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals; (2) the Council of The Gospel Coalition, and (3) the Council of the Gospel Reformation Network.8
➢ On October 12, 2019, at Phillips’ Second Presbyterian Church, Dr. Pettit participated in a Conference on Reformed Theology.
• To begin chapel on February 5, 2018, Dr. Pettit announced, “We are honored this morning to have as our guest Dr. Gene Fant,” president of North Greenville University, a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) school. Prior to preaching the chapel message, Fant was welcomed with a standing ovation.9 The so-called “SBC Conservative Resurgence” has now spiraled into a deadening mix.10
• Calvary First Baptist Church (Greenville, SC): SBC church.
• Roper Mountain Baptist Church (Greenville): SBC church.
• Rock Springs Baptist Church (Easley, SC): SBC church. Dr. Pettit, BJU President, spoke here October 6, 2019.
• White Oak Baptist Church (Greenville, SC): Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and the Greenville Baptist Association. Their lead pastor is Lonnie Polson, BJU Division Chair of Communication of the School of Fine Arts. Their music director is Jeff Stegall, BJU Associate Professor in the Theatre Arts Department.
• For the article, “Bob Jones University Embraces Franklin Graham’s Ecumenical Movement: HaveYou Finally Seen Enough?” click the following link: BJU Embraces Franklin Graham….
• Dr. Steve Pettit permits dress style, music, and entertainment of the world’s style. For the Artist Series of January 27, 2015, he brought in the music group, “Cantus,” which includes beer drinkers and known homosexuals.11
• The following letter was sent to me on 10-14-2021 from a concerned grandfather who has grandchildren at BJU:
In 2021, at Bob Jones University, the first of the fall semester’s artist series was conducted on October 7 in the FMA. The program was titled “Symphonic Hollywood: Featuring the Music of Lee Holdridge.” The guest conductor was Richard Kaufman. The featured selections were beautifully done, and each was announced by Kaufman, interspersed with lavish praise on BJU and its leadership. Kaufman mentioned his background which included his participation with a Los Angeles orchestra in which he played violin for the recording of music for “Animal House,” a raunchy R-rated movie. He expressed no regret for its production. On the contrary, he mentioned that his contribution helped launch his career as a conductor. Not once did he mention any conflict between Christian beliefs and the moral cesspool of Hollywood. Nor did he give any confirmation of Christian belief. Yet he gave the impression that a believer could function contentedly in such an environment. Toward the end of the program, Jay Matthews and another representative, on behalf of the University, awarded Kaufman with a certificate and plaque granting him lifetime membership as an honorary alumnus of BJU. In the program notes on Kaufman, the bio states that “his wife Gayle is a former dancer and actress in film, television, and on Broadway, and his daughter, Whitney, is a highly successful singer and actress.”
All of this conveys to BJU students that a vocation in the worldly Hollywood scene is perfectly acceptable and, indeed highly commendable. The artist series productions have in recent years included more Broadway-type productions, mingled with the brilliant work of such Christian artists as Dan Forrest. “Broadway” sums up the philosophy of the new Bob Jones University— broad and inclusive.
Students are not learning to distinguish the true from the false kinds of entertainment, evangelicalism, and life-styes. This is lamentable and tragic. There was a day when Bob Jones University could be trusted to instill in its students the virtues of a separated godly lifestyle. Now the University simply wants to “fit into” the culture, to accommodate and even imitate its behavior.
Conclusion
Believers identified with the SBC, PCA, OPC, etc. are lending credibility to false teachers and false gospels. The believer who willingly does such is living in sin. People all over the country know that BJU is Evangelical. It is old news. Evangelicals often say, “Identification is a non-essential.” That mindset constitutes the difference between Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism! Indifference is dangerous! It is a path God forbids! “For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John verse 11). One’s personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ determines his church identification! “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward” (2 John vs. 8). We must never entangle the message of the gospel with man-made organizations and institutions that harbor false gospels.
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers…. After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:28–30).
Every moment of our lives, we are building our ministries upon either the foundation of gold, silver, and precious stones, or upon a foundation of wood, hay, and stubble. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:11–13). “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:10–11a). “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” (First John 2:28). In Romans 1:1, Paul introduces himself as “a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.”
Charles H. Spurgeon promised his church, “That I might not stultify [invalidate] my testimony, I have cut myself clear of those who err from the faith, and even from those who associate with them. What more can I do to be honest with you?”12
Dr. Bob Jones Sr. so often cried, “Earnestly contend for the faith. Stand up and fight.”
David Beale (Enlarged 12-8-21)
David Beale taught courses on Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism for some thirty years at Bob Jones University and Seminary. He is a prolific writer and historian. Since Dr. Beale retired in 2010 he has taught and preached in schools and churches.
4) Augustine, City of God, 6.26–27; Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope, and Love 43; cf. 93; Sermon 294; and On Forgiveness of Sins, and Baptism 1.27.
5) John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (4.15.1—22).
6) L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), 632–42.
7) Letters from a recent graduate to David Beale (2021); see Paul M. Elliott, Christianity and Neo-Liberalism: The Spiritual Crisis in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Beyond (Unicoi, TN: Trinity Foundation, 2005).
10) George Houghton, “Are Conservative Southern Baptists Fundamentalists?” Faith Pulpit, January/February 2004 at: https://faith.edu/faith-news/are-conservative-southern-baptists fundamentalists/; J. Gerald Harris, The Rise and Fall of the Conservative Resurgence: The Southern Baptist Convention: 1979-2021 (Taos, NM: Trust House, 2021); and David Beale, “SBC Today,” in Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices (Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2018), 581–83.
‘A government school in Georgia has been exposed forcing high-school students to develop a business plan for a company that would tackle world hunger by making babies into food, sparking outrage across the state and beyond. In this interview on Conversations That Matter with Alex Newman, Truth in Education leader Rhonda Thomas breaks down the sick “exercise” and even shows some of the graphics and photos. ‘https://rumble.com/vnqql5-eating-babies-georgia-school-has-teens-solve-hunger-with-cannibalism.html
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