COLUMN: A school where students report to a higher power

From Daniel Septimus,"I Know My Last Name is Septimus," Fall '00 From Daniel Septimus,"I Know My Last Name is Septimus," Fall '00Bob Jones University sounds like the name of a school where you would be taught how to be a regular old American. There probably isn't a more innocuous, normal name this side of John Smith. It is a profoundly religious school where the campus store doesn't sell rock 'n' roll, men and women aren't allowed to hold hands and -- in a sudden reversal of a decades-old ban on interracial dating -- one needs parental permission to date someone of a different skin color. BJU has been accused of being racist and anti-Catholic, but officials have adamantly rejected these labels. According to the editor of The Collegian, BJU's student newspaper, "many are portraying us as people who hate Catholics. They seem to make us look like we take a perverse delight in 'condemning' people. Not true?. [W]e believe God's Word to be true. And the Bible says that without Christ, man goes to hell. And we don't want people to go there!" The school's responses to the current controversy have been fairly benign. The "we don't hate Catholics, we just want to save them from hell" approach is at best oddly benevolent and patronizing, but it probably does not qualify as bigotry. That's not to say there is no foundation for BJU's racist label. In 1987, then-President Bob Jones Jr. refused to meet with Pope John Paul II, saying that he would rather "speak to the devil himself." Sixty years earlier, at the school's founding, Bob Jones Sr. said that he "would rather see a saloon on every corner than a Catholic in the White House. I would rather see a nigger as president." Have there been bigots associated with Bob Jones University? Definitely. Do they deserve to be criticized when possible racist and anti-Catholic views surface? For sure. But there's another issue at hand to which we must try to be sensitive. Had you shown me the school's Web site and asked me whether it was legit or some prank, I probably would have opted for the latter. I cannot help but feel utterly disconnected from the type of discourse at BJU. The religious language and theological context used to interpret even the most mundane matters are totally foreign to me. For example, according to the school's Web site, "God's material provision for the school is abundantly evident in our facilities. We trust our visitors will find them clean, well cared for, and attractive. What's more, the campus is debt-free by the grace of God." There's a lot of talk about construction at Penn, but little of its theological significance. At BJU, the method of argumentation is different, too. In The Collegian, editor Jennifer Wilson wrote that "the Bible very clearly shows us how man can get to heaven. Man must first realize that he is a sinner and has no hope of salvation without God (Rom. 3:10-12, 23)? Catholicism doesn't teach that. The Catholic church teaches that doing certain things earns you salvation: the sacraments, going to Mass, going to confession, etc. But Ephesians 2:8-9 states that grace saves us, not works." I'm not used to using the word "man" to refer to people, let alone citing Scripture to support my opinion columns. The ban on interracial dating also reflected the cultural abyss that stands between us and them. According to Bob Jones III, the ban was not racist. It was established on a very specific theological premise. Apparently, he says, efforts made to annihilate cultural differences will hasten the arrival of the Antichrist. "God wanted a divided world, not a federalized world," he said. God made people different and we must maintain that status quo. In short, unity is bad and interracial dating can contribute to the "one-world system" we need to avoid. I will never understand this position or the others -- not because they fly in the face of empirical evidence or my own beliefs, but because they are part of a socio-linguistic context that I cannot understand. In my culture, rich alumni are responsible for facilities, arguments cannot be won by quoting Ephesians and unity is good. The hateful comments associated with previous BJU officials must be condemned. But I cannot denounce non-hateful, theological views that stem from a sincere commitment to a paradigm I cannot penetrate. Is there a possibility that a guy like me and a guy like Bob Jones III will ever be able to discuss matters of ultimate importance? I'm not sure, but there's always hope. After all, the Lord works in mysterious ways.