Bob Jones University regains nonprofit status
Steve Pettit: “Organizing as a tax-exempt entity is something BJU has needed to do for quite some time,”
As for Bob Jones III … “three decades” of consequence for hard-headedness & stupidity
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/03/lkl.00.html
KING: You are a private institution, you don’t get the tax benefit because — but you are entitled to the thing — I’m trying to find out why you have the rule.
JONES: Yes. We have the rule, because it was a part of a bigger — it was a — it wasn’t the rule itself. We can’t point to a verse in the Bible that says you shouldn’t date or marry inter-racial.
KING: You can’t back it up?
JONES: No, we can’t back it up with a verse from the Bible. We never have tried to, we have never tried to do that.
“JONES: No, we can’t back it up with a verse from the Bible. We never have tried to, we have never tried to do that.”
And that is where B3 lost all credibility by lying directly to those of us who were there when he preached the message.
As a graduate of BJU, I thank God for this. It was good to hear the current president admit that the dating policy that was in the courts for years and cost BJU nearly $1,000,000 was based in culture. Those of us who there in those days remember it being defended as Biblical (I still have the booklet from the time of the court case) and having to try to explain BJU’s position to outsiders. And it was a “big deal” in those days; incoming students were asked to identify their race and questioning the rule was not permitted.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
Whatever your views about BJU’s past and its return to tax-exempt status, our changing culture will inevitably force BJU and other Christian schools to choose between tax-exemption and following their Biblical beliefs. Only a matter of time. Note the other article on this site about the Washington state decision. You may celebrate now, but that celebration may lead to some hard choices in the future. The question is whether the leaders at these Christians schools will have the character to make the Biblical decision, even if it means a declining school enrollment.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
Whatever your views about BJU’s past and its return to tax-exempt status, our changing culture will inevitably force BJU and other Christian schools to choose between tax-exemption and following their Biblical beliefs. Only a matter of time. Note the other article on this site about the Washington state decision. You may celebrate now, but that celebration may lead to some hard choices in the future. The question is whether the leaders at these Christians schools will have the character to make the Biblical decision, even if it means a declining school enrollment.
Wally Morris
At least the case against homosexuality is truly Biblical.
Don’t get me wrong. I am truly glad they regained their tax exempt status. They should have sought that long ago. It will truly help the school survive.
First, agreed 100% with Wally that the end of tax exempt status is probably somewhere down the road for a lot of colleges, and then probably even churches.
And I wonder what the full bill is for this—you’ve got the legal costs (I would guess that’s Ron’s number), and then you’ve got the amount of donations that didn’t get made because the donor still had to pay income tax on that money. Hopefully Steve Pettit gets people together to ask “why did we leave this on the table so long?” and “what other big gains could we have if we took action?”.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Jim]As for Bob Jones III … “three decades” of consequence for hard-headedness & stupidity
Let him who is without guilt cast the first stone.
We all do hardheaded and stupid. Alot.
In this case, there was much more complexity to the situation than critics generally recognize. No small part of the university’s and BJIII’s course (let’s not forget there was a board running the institution, as there still is) back in those days was influenced by increasing—and not entirely unwarranted—fear of government intrusion and government control. This was the same era in which BJU wouldn’t touch accreditation with a ten hundred foot pole… for similar reasons. It was era when many in fundamentalist leadership saw an infiltrating and corrupting “neo” of some sort behind every bush. And and one overriding strategy in responding to all these perceived threats was to not change anything at all ever—especially if outsiders want you to.
I understand all that. I don’t have to agree or approve of any of it to understand it. Nor does anyone else.
Charity means we look for ways to understand and sympathize with those in positions that require extremely difficult decisions—even when we believe they made the wrong decisions.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I think this speaks to Steve Pettit’s leadership. I am very glad he was able to pull this off. MBU also has an outstanding President who is doing great things. Faith just got Tillotson a little over a year ago. I thank the Lord that fundamentalist institutions are in such good hands.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
On the BJU Board:
Today the Executive Board does appear to be managing the University’s affairs. According to some who served in the old days that board was just a rubber stamp for the Jones’ for many years.. That’s also the impression one gets in reading the history of BJU.
Legal Precedent:
The BJU case did establish a legal precedent that will probably eventually cause churches and Christian institutions to lose their tax exemption if their practice of their faith conflicts with “public policy”.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
I personally don’t have much confidence in the BJU Board.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
[WallyMorris]I personally don’t have much confidence in the BJU Board.
You know you can’t just lay this out here without an explanation! Why?
Not so conclusive that BJU was racist:
By this definition: “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”
BJU was wrong on their policies (as they now publicly admit), but I don’t believe they viewed blacks as inferior
I would say they had a flawed theological view on anthropology which they have corrected.
[WallyMorris]Whatever your views about BJU’s past and its return to tax-exempt status, our changing culture will inevitably force BJU and other Christian schools to choose between tax-exemption and following their Biblical beliefs. Only a matter of time.
Probably true. Still a good idea to hold on to it while it lasts… and do long term financial planning with that eventual contingency in mind.
Somebody up the thread says he remembers BJIII preaching the dating policy from some particular text. I have to say that I don’t remember ever hearing that from his generation. And this may be what he meant by “we have never…” I do recall reading old transcripts of BJ senior making an argument from an out of context OT passage… and I think maybe BJII repeating or alluding to it. What I was hearing in the 80’s was a completely different attempt to defend the policy using results arguments and appeals to broad principles—and a lot of resisting “the world” rhetoric. But even that—I think it might have come up maybe twice in four years, or something like that.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I know I’ve seen it
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But BJU has reformed and that is good
Discussion