Bob Jones University

Now that you are out in the field, how has your college helped/hurt you?
It did nothing to help me. However, it did destroy my parents' ability to save money as they neared retirement. Now they are both dead, and I'm driving a truck for a living. As I grow older, the more what happened to us bothers me. It was a travesty. This school grossly misrepresents itself to the hay-seeds. In my case the hay seeds were me and my well-intentioned, but 8th grade educated, Mennonite parents. BJU robbed my parents of desparately needed money and me of the best years of my life. My parents went to their graves not fully understanding what happened. They were good people, but University education was beyond their ken.

What do you think you should have known/done?
I should have known that when Bob Jones University claimed itself to be the Harvard and Yale of Christian schools that I was being lied to. The open admissions policy should have been a clue, and the lack of accreditation, and the lack of Phds on the faculty, and so on.

What should I have done?
I should have gone to a much cheaper State University and gotten a real higher-education experience that would have better met my goals and needs. But. I was a Mennonite kid who wanted desperately to remake himself as a professional man. And I knew nothing of the outside world, much less of the outside world of higher education. I was defenseless against the Bob Jones scam. Me and my parents were cruelly misled as to what this school is.

The only thing I can do now -- the only good I can salvage from this injustice -- is to steer as many naive, fundy kids (and their parents) away from this school as possible.

I no longer believe in an afterlife. But if there is an afterlife -- one that includes justice -- these people will pay a heavy price for their deceit.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I was "forced" to attend BJU even though I won a complete ROTC scholarship to a real college. OK, I wasn't forced, but I was very young and sought to placate my parents who threatened me with alienation if I didn't go. Well, I went and I got alienated from my parents anyway. They completely screwed my mind up from the constant monitoring, being "told on" all the time, and appearing at the Discipline Committee for infractions like not having my top button buttoned. I actually thought that someone there would be a Christian, but I found out that most of them were role-playing just to accommodate the oppressive regime. There was always good sex and drinking there, but you had to be very careful not to get caught. Most of the academics were good, but they loaded down my schedule with all these liberal arts requirements so that gaining the essential knowledge for my field was impossible.

Preferential treatment was always given to Fine Arts and to people who would talk that funny "Vesper Speak." Their bizarre idea of cultured religion has infiltrated almost every Baptist Church in Greenville and probably in a lot of other places too.

Because I was not a part of the Bob Jones pipeline network of private schools, I really didn't fit in. Being ostracized coupled with the disillusionment to make for a very lonely experience. I was afraid to seek any type of counsel because I new several who did and got either campused or expelled for having defiant attitudes. I became severely introverted and depressed and nobody really gave a shit. Yeah, I learned a few things, but going there did not make my parents happy and they won't have anything to do with me now because I finally grew up and learned to make decisions for myself. It's been almost 20 years and I still have trouble coping with the pain and hurt that I encountered there. Unless you are already "one of them," you probably shouldn't consider going to BJU.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Not having a choice of where I went to college, I graced the hallowed halls of BJU in 97. I will preface by saying that BJ does have an incredible education system. BUT because there are issues with the school and it's reputation, having it on your resume is not exactly something that is revered. I have learned since leaving that place, that there is such a false sense of who GOD truly is at BJU. They have claims of being loving, godly, "open-minded" people who do not stray from their faith. The problem is, their faith is not in Christ Jesus, it is in their works (dress, activities-or lack thereof). On campus (and off) the emphasis is not placed on having a good relationship with Christ and being loving toward others, it is based on what rules are you following in the handbook. They forget that one can follow those rules and still have a heart full of sin. But the accolades are given to the student who has short hair and a heart full of pride..which is a sin just as murder and lying is a sin.., and the one who has a relationship with God, but may like to openly listen to U2 gets expelled. It's all based on an outward appearance of "goodness". In my opinion, I believe that Jesus Christ is not a factor on that campus. If you study the life of Christ, he is full of love toward everyone he comes across. He sat with the sinners, and lovingly listened to them and they saw there was something different in who Christ was. It wasn't because of what he was wearing and what activities he didn't participate in.... (side note....jesus did sit with the prostitues and sinners and he did eat and DRINK with them...remember the pharasees called him a drunkard and a glutton??)-- it was because of his LOVE for them. He saw past their sin and loved them through it. BJU does NOT do that. If someone is struggling with sin, they are sent home. No efforts to love and restore them are made. Our God is full of grace toward us as sinners, but those at BJU seem to feel that grace is not to be extended to those who go against their handbook.

The rules aren't a big deal. Are they strange? Yes. But they are just rules. The thing that makes the rules a problem is when they equate the rules with godliness and scripture. The Bible says that it is a sin to add or take away anything from scripture. So when you are making man's preferences into "God's preferences" without having biblical backup, that would be considered sin in God's eyes.

I will say that this is NOT a universal characterization of all students and staff at BJU. But it is the majority feeling. The Dean of Students is the one man who holds to these views more so than anyone else I know. There are "normal" people, who do Love God and who are "real". Overall, the place is not somewhere that I will allow my children to go. I do not want to cloud my children's minds with this false view of who Christ is.

The positives of this university lie in the fact that I met my husband and dear friends who have all shared in this feeling of frustration toward the university. There are many great colleges in this country that are Christ centered. Bob Jones, I must admit is not one of them.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000