[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMuGxdMKd1o&w=420&h=315]
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney enthusiastically accepted the endorsement of Dr. Bob Jones III, Chancellor of Bob Jones University, during the last election.
“We’re proud to have Dr. Jones’ support and look forward to working with him to communicate Governor Romney’s message of conservative change to voters,” Romney spokesman William Holley said in a statement in October 2007.
The endorsement of Bob Jones was once a much-sought-after prize in South Carolina’s early primary. In 2000, George W. Bush’s speech before the BJU crowd brought controversy to his campaign because of the university’s rule forbidding interracial marriage and dating. One month later, BJU reversed its long-standing policy on CNN’s Larry King Show. All serious Republican candidates, including Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George H.W. Bush made the pilgrimage to America’s “Fortress of Faith” in the upstate town of Greenville.
Back in those days, the following statement by Dr. Bob Jones III, then president and now-chancellor of BJU, barely raised an eyebrow:
I’m sure this will be greatly misquoted but it would not be a bad idea to bring the swift justice today that was brought in Israel’s day against murder and rape and homosexuality. I guarantee it would solve the problem post-haste if homosexuals were stoned, if murderers were immediately killed as the Bible commands.
The New York Times also reported Dr. Jones’ encounter:
“Mr. Jones compared homosexuals to murderers but said it would be impossible for a homosexual to be a Christian, although a murderer could be because after confessing Jesus as Lord ‘he doesn’t murder any more.'”
Dr. Jones also told the Washington Post that President Jimmy Carter was not fit to be president and that “no question that Ronald Reagan is the unanimous choice of Bible-believing people all over the country.” The issue of gay rights seems to have been the basis.
Recently we began a petition drive demanding an apology from Dr. Bob Jones III and from the university that bears his grandfather’s name for advocating we – gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, many of whom are part of the current student body of Bob Jones University – be stoned to death. A frequent criticism of our efforts, however, has been that this statement is 32 years old, somehow implying that the passage of time has nullified the impact of this hate speech.
Bob Jones University, to date, has neither apologized for nor recanted these statements by its president.
On the contrary, we know from experience that Dr. Bob’s homophobia has not abated in that period. To prove this we began a project of listening to his more recent sermons. We were shocked to realize how obsessed he is with the issue of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. At the time of this posting we’ve listened to over 50 sermons Dr. Jones gave between July 2000 and April 2001 and have detailed some of the more egregious comments below. We are continuing to research this matter, however, and fully anticipate finding many more examples of homophobic hate speech as we proceed.
Our questions for Governor Romney are:
(1) Were you aware in 2008 that Dr. Jones and BJU had advocated the stoning to death of homosexuals?
(2) If yes, why did you accept his endorsement? If you weren’t aware, why not?
(3) This time, will you accept his endorsement? Or will you join our petition drive calling on Dr. Jones to apologize for his rampant, blatant homophobic statements?
It’s your choice, Gov. Romney.
And to all of you who are reading this blog, thank you and please join us:
Demand an apology.
Stop the hate.
Almost every day of the week the entire Bob Jones University student body and many faculty, staff and administrators, gather in the cavernous Founders Memorial Amphitorium to listen to a chapel speaker. Often the speaker is Dr. Bob Jones III. It is in that setting that these statements are made. Please remember that many of us have been present at the time these statements were made.
[NOTE: While conducting this reasearch, we’ve discussed an oddity that occurred to those of us who’ve departed BJU. Dr. Jones frequently speaks about sex, which might seem strange to some, but what’s disturbing is that in this auditorium when many of these sermons were given, there were 7th and 8th grade students from Bob Jones Junior High School present, some as young as eleven years old. We know; many of us were present at that age, at that time. Please keep that in mind while reading and listening]
1. In a sermon posted July 2, 2000, “If the Foundations be Destroyed”:
@ 14:06: “They sit in a Christian university… They might preach sermons and sing songs but they’re homosexuals, adulterers and fornicators of every kind. By and large people in this society have come to accept sexual impurity as a normal and acceptable way of life. … There has been so little preaching of sin in churches they can do it without conviction, society accepts it as all right. They used to be guilty about it when society said it was dishonorable for a man to cheat on his wife or a wife to cheat on her husband or to be a homosexual or to be some kind of sexual deviant. Society used to say these things were bad but society doesn’t say that anymore and because people don’t know what God says about it that’s become a lifestyle they can live without guilt.”
2. In a sermon posted August 27, 2000, “There’s a New god Coming”:
@12:07: “The gods of the pagans involve bestiality and prostitution and homosexuality. All these things are done in their worship, if you can believe that, and all of that corruption became part of the worship.”
@24:31: “…you read Romans chapter one about those that God gives up to a reprobate mind because they believed a lie…and all kinds of perversions – homosexuality – all kinds of perversions resulted.”
3. In a sermon from the first day of the new school year, 2000-2001, posted September 4, 2000, “A Life Hid With Christ In God”:
@22:38: “This is the kind of moral filth that characterized your life: pornography. All kinds of illicit sexual practices. Uncleanness of life, of thought, of habit, of relationships. Inordinate affections – that’s perversity like lesbianism and homosexuality, the kind of affection that the Bible condemns – inordinate, out-of-bounds, illicit perverse affections, an abandonment to sin. You did all of these things on the other side of the cross because your nature couldn’t help it.”
4. At a Sunday morning church service on the campus, posted on September 8, 2000, “An Everlasting Sermon For An Everlasting Preacher”:
@18:35: “God has already decreed that men should pastor His church. God has already decreed that homosexuality is an abomination.”
5. In a sermon posted, posted September 12, 2000, “God’s sufficiency in spiritual perplexity”:
@11:33: “We live in the most degraded and debauched day. I mean, imagine…the survivor of all survivors, a homosexual guy who prides himself in running around naked on an island being a national hero! The inheritor of a million dollars for his brazen cunning and his sinfulness. People who have products to sell are swarming in there saying, ‘Would you wear our label? We want you to advertise our products.’ Unbelievable! We’re at such a deplorable level. Insanity as well as sinfulness.”
6. In a sermon posted on September 13, 2000, “God’s Sufficiency In National Problems”:
@2:53: “I’m neither republican nor democrat, I’ve never voted anything but republican but only because that is the closest to the ideological and philosophical beliefs that I have based upon the scriptures. They’re a long way from what I wish they were. They’re extremely deficient, I was appalled at their national convention this summer when they took great pains to parade a homosexual congressman and give him a speaking opportunity and made much ado over him and they made every effort in the world to hide the Christians from view.
“That ought to scare all of us. Tells us a lot about what we might expect from the next administration. I don’t like that at all. I’m very concerned; I wish there were another party that had a chance to win a national election that I could vote for because less and less do I believe in the Republican ideals as they become more and more centrist and they’re just going out of their way to avoid any kind of…show any kind of respect or appreciation for the believers in this country who’ve done so much to get the republican party to where it is on the national level. …
“Are you aware that in June, President Clinton declared June to be gay and lesbian pride month? [Dr. Jones reads the entire letter from President Clinton about this]:
“God would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if he allows a nation, that wants to give special privileges, that wants to recognize as normal a perverted lifestyle that the Bible declares to be sin. Because God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for accepting that kind of a society. God hasn’t changed.
“The problem isn’t that they want rights, the problem is that they want special rights. The rights to pedophilia, the rights to go into the schools to corrupt the minds and the morals of young ladies and young men. They want the right to push their agenda on this society. That’s what they want.
“Kidnappers don’t have that right. Kidnappers are put in jail for their crimes. Rapists don’t have that right. Thieves and murderers don’t have that right. But this kind of sin… [NOTE: the audio on file almost sounds like it has been edited here, leaving us to wonder what Dr. Jones might have said that even his own staff removed before transmitting publicly] … There’s a great pressure on to have some kind of special appreciation for the sin of homosexuality that we don’t have for other sins.
“I mean there’s a whole perversity of thinking in all of that, I mean when you really stop and contemplate it, why in the world should one brand of sin get preferential treatment? And why should all of society be asked to move over and accept a sinful and perverted and corruptive and death-dealing lifestyle? It is that. Why should we be asked to accept that and run the risks of all that? Hey, if somebody wants to be a murderer or a homosexual or a thief or a kidnapper or a rapist nobody can stop them from that. But don’t ask law-abiding citizens to sanction that and to appreciate that and to approve of that and to make special laws protecting that. There’s the problem. We’re in big trouble because of the sins of the nation.”
7. In a sermon posted September 19, 2000, “Keep Yourselves In The Love Of God”:
@26:34: “What about my sexuality and expression of it? It must also be kept in the love of God. It means that pornography can’t be a part of my life, homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery, all of those things.
“Will Durant was asked one time by a man, ‘Mr. Durant, in all of your study of history have you seen a common denominator that is characteristic of civilizations that destroyed themselves?’ He said, ‘Yes. Sexual perversity.’
“Sexual perversity was the common denominator that brought down every civilization that has ever existed on the face of the earth. And I do not believe in this country there is any greater blight, any greater threat to the well-being of this nation than the rampaging onslaught of homosexuality and the politically-driven idea that it must somehow be considered a normal lifestyle and accepted.”
8. In a sermon posted September 28, 2000, “Leaving The Past In The Past”:
@14:21: “In I Corinthians 6 it names the things that are characteristic of unrighteousness, it says people who live this way will not inherit the kingdom of God. ‘Neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind’ – that’s homosexuals and lesbians – ‘nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God such as were some of you.’ We all have a bad past.”
9. In a sermon posted October 25, 2000, “Answered Prayer Begins With Knowing God”:
@13:58: “I had an eloquent letter sent to me this morning from *****, that has bearing upon what I’m saying to you right now. He also needs our prayers today. *****. He has requested your prayers today. Let me tell you his story from his own lips:
‘I’m the *****. Originally I intended to write you during the George Bush thing when I was pinned to the wall in the newsroom for being a BJU grad. Well, it hasn’t gotten any easier since then. Please understand, this is not to gripe. I am not ashamed of my BJU diploma or my testimony or the gospel of Christ. I spent 4 years in the BJ dorms making mistakes, sometimes getting into trouble, but learning valuable lessons and growing tremendously. I feel much more mature 2 years out of school.
‘In the last 8 months, however, I must tell you the attacks I have been defending have been rough. I’ve been called every name in the book at work because of my beliefs against homosexuality, fornication and the rest. I’ve been called a homophobe, a Catholic-hater, a racial bigot. I’m sure my story is not that much different from other grads in similar environments. I’ve learned that this God-hating society has no respect for people with morals. I don’t know. There’s a lot of frustration in being a one-man battlefront. Honestly I feel like all the troops are in Greenville in boot camp and here in the trenches I’m surrounded on all sides.'”
10. In a sermon posted November 7, 2000, “Jeremiah’s Intercession”:
@9:10: “Other Bush appointments are even more disturbing. His first appointment was a Democrat to the insurance commission. His next appointment was a militant pro-abortion Democrat as commissioner of Health and Human Services and just recently he supported a long-term supporter of abortion and gay rights Martha Hill Jameson to the 164th District Court. These are disturbing realities.”
@15:57: “I remind you again, I’ve told you this before that the President of the United States Bill Clinton pronounced June National Gay & Lesbian Pride Month.”
@18:23: “‘The [New York Torah] Court stated that Senator Lieberman caused grave scandal for the Jewish religion by the fact that while claiming to be an observant Jew Lieberman has been misrepresenting and falsifying to the American people the teachings of the Torah against partial birth infanticide, against special privileges and preferential treatment for flaunting homosexuals and against religious intermarriage of Jews.
“‘Rabbi Joseph Friedman, a spokesman for the rabbinical court said that Lieberman has also ‘flagrantly violated our sacred court by upholding partial birth infanticide and legitimizing homosexuality which is abnormal and unhealthy behavior the Torah strongly condemns as sinful and immoral.’ Well hooray for the Jewish and Torah court!”
11. In a sermon posted February 12, 2001, “He Is Precious”:
@19:24: “I just heard this last week of a printer in Toronto Canada. A gay activist organization came to him and said we want ya to print some material for us, we’ll pay you to print some material for us for the furthering of our political agenda. Our gay rights agenda. And he said ‘I’m a Christian. I cannot print that which will further that which I know the Bible decrees to be sin, I’m sorry, I can’t do that.’ They took him to court. The court ruled against the printer. Fined him $5000. He’s taking it now to the Canadian Supreme Court. Why is he doing that? Because his Savior is precious. He loves what God loves and he calls sin what God calls sin.
12. In a sermon posted April 3, 2001, “We Are Not Ignorant Of Satan’s Devices”:
@14:42: “The indulgence of sexual appetites outside of marriage leads to all kind of disease, destructive, debilitating disease. God has built into His universe consequences for sin. Just as an appetite for food that gets out of control brings harmful, debilitations to the body, so sexual appetites used outside of the way the Word of God instructs us they are to be used brings debilitation, destruction.
“AIDS is God’s judgment on the sin of homosexuality.
“And there are all kinds of diseases that are God’s judgment on the sin of heterosexual adulterous use of the sexual appetite.”
13. In a sermon posted April 17, 2001, “Lest Satan Should Get An Advantage II”:
@3:57: “[A recent graduate of BJU] said he is constantly bombarded in medical school with teachers, with department heads, who are homosexuals, who are promoting the homosexual agenda, trying to make it appear to be a normal and acceptable way of life. They’re doing their best to brainwash their students that sin is normal and okay. And he said, ‘It’s a spiritual battle every day of my life.'”
Of the fifty sermons we’ve reviewed, approximately twenty-five percent of them refer in part or in their entirety to Dr. Jones’s views about homosexuality, quite often in harsh terms. We have no reason to doubt that ratio will continue as we examine further sermons.
We also discovered a number of other oddities, apart from the homophobia, which warrant mention here. The first is a comment in a sermon where Dr. Jones postulates a theory (@22:00) that Elian Gonzalez saved the United States of America. He duly notes that the history books won’t record this.
The final statement we’ll mention in this entry is one we found particularly offensive because its false equivalency greatly demeans the suffering of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
In a sermon posted February 20, 2001, “Christ Prayed for Us”:
@16:22: “Here in the United States, it’s becoming increasingly aware to me and it probably is to you that we believers who stand up for the Lord are more and more treated like the Jews were treated in Germany at the time Hitler was coming to power. They were marked, they were isolated, they were limited, they were made the object of derision and hatred, the symbol of everything dangerous, and of everything that impeded the way of progress in a new nation that was under construction.
“We live in the post-Christian era in America. The deconstruction has taken place, the new construction of a heathen, pagan nation is taking place. And believers, who are a part of what has been destroyed, are looked upon with great suspicion and great hatred, we’re marked, we suffer opprobrium, we’re ridiculed, we’re lied about, we’re slandered, we’re made to appear evil, and threatening to the populace at large and so this hatred grows and grows as derision grows and grows, the editorials increase against the Christian believer and the Bible-believing church, the Christian school, and after a while it’s just like the Jews were in Germany under Hitler. And in surrounding countries like Poland. When Germany took over these nations they were marked for death and extinction. They were lied about, the general populace was made to fear them and consider them a threat and so the populace got behind the government in snuffing them out if possible.
“Are you ready for this? To be hated for His sake? You better be.”
*In the 2008 elections, readers will remember that President Obama’s ties to the Rev’d Jeremiah Wright were reported as “Obama’s preacher problem.” We have no intention to link Rev. Wright with either the homophobia or the racism that have long characterized Bob Jones University. His record on both these issues speaks for itself. If controversial religious affiliations are going to be a part of the national political conversation, we believe that all such affiliations should be examined equally. Mr. Romney seems to be satisfied that he has had Bob Jones III’s support. We want the world to understand that Bob Jones III is an extremist whose consistent hate speech has damaged countless lives over many decades.
8 comments
I have reprinted your press release on my blog and I am happy to help out in any way I can:
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2012/01/press-release-mitt-romneys-jeremiah.html
Pingback: Mitt Romney’s “Jeremiah Wright” Problem « chucklestravels
Thank you very much, Daisy!
Pingback: Jeremiah Right (D) = Bob Jones (R)? Only the Corporatist Media Knows for Sure (Because it Gets to Decide for Itself and Make Up a Fake Narrative to Keep Straight White People Scared) « ENDAblog
Pingback: Demand an Apology | Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Alumni of Bob Jones University
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I will agree with you Daisy and more power to you my friend.
Reading this made me sick to my stomach. I’m sure there are Christians who’d feel just as sick knowing there are people like this out there. I shared it with who ever I could. My parents wanted me to go to BJU and I am thrilled that I never went there. I grew up in a strict extreme christian home and I couldn’t understand the hate as I was more of a fan of Jesus’ teaching about love.
Anyway I am rambling, this article was very informative and even though I knew there were religious leader like this out there, I now have a great piece I can reference in any debate. Thank you so much.