Why There Aren’t More Artist Series This Year
I got an email from my mom today. She had noticed that there were far fewer Artist Series programs this year than in previous years, and so she asked why on the BJ Grad Forums. This is the response she got, edited only to add paragraph breaks and for emphasis:
Actually, last year in a meeting (and I was at the meeting), Dr Bob told the faculty and staff the reason for eliminating most of the artist series. He wished to continue bringing people in, but he was receiving alot of flack from parents and others outside the university about the people he was bringing in for artist series. He eventually got tired of responding to all these people and decided that it would be better to not have the artist series, plus it saves money.
Though I am no longer there, I think some of the students will be happy about not having to be “inconvenienced” on a school night to go sit at a concert. However, I wish some people would be more understanding. The groups that we have had in have hardly performed objectionable music. Yes, perhaps when they go to other places they sing jazz or whatever, but the thing is - they respect the University’s stipulations. And for the most part, these groups are not known as Jazz groups.
For example, lets take the artist series from last year - we had Chanticleer come in. People complained because in other concerts elsewhere they performed jazz numbers or whatever or they have some gay members. Chanticleer is primarily known as a classical group. And as for the issue over whether some of them may or may not be gay, that really is not our concern. I am sure the University would not go up and say oh, do you have any gay members…I am sorry you can’t come. NO! That would ruin our testimony. Instead of insisting that we ban groups because they may have a couple gays in them - people need to see the other side - shouldn’t we focus on being a testimony for Christ and reflecting God’s unconditional love for each human being? We read gay authors in literature classes and no one complains…because we can appreciate their talent without condoning their lifestyle.
However, I understand that is getting harder to find classical groups that don’t have the potential for bringin “baggage” that others will complain about. It is sad that these people cannot see past what these groups do elsewhere and appreciate their amazing talent and the amazing opportunity that we have to share even the littlest example of Christ with them while they are here. I have worked with unsaved guest artists for operas who have really had questions about Christ because of their experience here. Some may even come to Him someday because of it.
But all that said, Dr. Bob is probably too busy to keep dealing with complaining people and seeking out groups that won’t be objectionable. There are better things that he could be doing - so I do understand. Hope all of this make sense.
Why on earth should you care if some of the singers are gay? What difference should that make to you? And so what if they also played jazz numbers at other venues?
Is your world so small that you can’t listen to or watch anything made by someone who does something you disagree with? That’s pathetic–and sad, really. You’re cutting yourself off from so much good, so many talented musicians, artists, authors, and actors.
In fact, I wonder what they do listen to? Are they not aware that Ron Hamilton, Mac Lynch, and Steve Pettit are all sinners like the rest of us?
To be honest, though, I don’t mind not having as many artist series as before. We still get the plays–at least until the complainers discover what BJU censors from Shakespeare–and the only opera I’ve ever wanted to see, Mefistofele. But what I really wanted was non-compulsory attendance, not for all the other Artist Series concerts to be dropped because it offended a few small-minded people.
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:55 pm
Great, great post. This kind of unnecessary withdrawl from society [not biblical separation] hurts us more than we’d care to admit and ruins our testimony to the rest of the world.
September 2nd, 2005 at 1:30 pm
Thank you for posting that up there!! I agree completely with Jay C. that this response actually hurts the cause of Christ rather than helping it. Oy!!
Let’s pray that some of these people would realize that and that possibly the whole AS deal would be re-thought under the new admin. this year.
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:07 pm
I suspect that if such complaints were a factor at all, they were only a factor, not the factor. Just think about how many things BJU has done over the years to elicit complaints and you’ll realize the administrators have a pretty thick skin.
What they haven’t had since the death of Bob Jones, Jr. is someone at the helm who’s interested in high culture. Bob Jones, III stated that he wanted to find groups that were also entertaining. So you have to find musical groups that are “classical” and “entertaining” by the standards of someone who’s not a big fan of classical music. They also have to be reasonably priced, which classical groups with name recognition aren’t.
What do you end up with? When I was there a few years ago, it was the “Three Real Irish Tenors” who occasionally lip-synced and used recorded music (which I discovered when the music kept going while the keyboardist picked up a fallen score). So nobody’s happy: not those who appreciate classical music, not the people uptight about a group’s tangential connection to something they don’t like, not the people who’d rather be elsewhere, and not the people who pay the bills.
September 2nd, 2005 at 6:56 pm
—-sound of nail being hit on the head——-
I quibble with the term “high culture.” What BJU does is the low end of high. Their opera productions are 30 years or more out of date and of very uneven quality. BJU may be the only place left in the world where you can hear Shakespeare shouted to the back of a big hall by actors in tights. I could never understand why they put so much effort into the culture stuff and then did little to help students understand and appreciate what they were attending. Maybe that’s changed, but we used to get an introduction to the Artist Series in Freshman Orientation, but you were on your own after that. Several years ago, my piano teacher told me that sur-titles had greatly improved students’ enjoyment of opera.
Its was Dr. Bob Sr (way before my time!) who felt that culture was something his preacher boys needed. That was a part of the school even when Jr. was a student. But its only ever been superficial - its not that you understand opera or Shakespeare or classical music, but that you’ve suffered few a few evenings of it.
September 2nd, 2005 at 8:01 pm
I, too, graduated already (last year) but am still fairly closely in tune with what’s going on on campus. Yeah, I kind of complained about all the artist series towards the end of my time but I’m really sad that they’ve taken them away.
It is going to take pretty much the only outside culture (other than the art gallery) out of the school and that is a sad loss. I really enjoyed getting to hear groups such as the Prague Symphony Orchestra, Chanticleer, Jubilant Sykes, and others. BJU’s culture was one of the really awesome things they really had going for them and now that’s gone.
I think sometimes we take people’s “flack” a little too seriously. I once had a pastor who said very often that there were a lot of people who needed to get their “offenders mended”. People will always be offended. There are those who are offended b/c girls can wear pants to recreate in for example. There are supporters of this university who think Living Gallery is a form of idolatry..I’ve spoken to them myself. Do we pull that from the calendar? No. And rightly so b/c it brings a lot of the community through our doors and gives us a chance to minister. (aside from the fact that it’s not idolatry). I’m kind of sad that that’s been taken away for the most part. I loved talking to visitors when they came to campus for the events.
I think it’s kind of a double standard. If I’m not mistaken, several of the guest artists for the operas have been either gay, mormon, or otherwise anti-what we stand for. I was personally in an opera and had to listen to the soprano tell dirty jokes and swear the entire time we had her here. Am I sorry she was here? NO. Because during those 3 or 4 days we got to show her Christ (as is the case with every other unsaved guest that comes here) and she noticed. If we’re going to eliminate some who do not always conform to our standards, then we’d better eliminate them all.
I’d rather think we’d see the overwhelming opportunities to minister to these people and put that at a higher level than the fact that they *might* (heaven forbid) perform jazz in another venue.
Anyway. I have a lot more I could say about this but I won’t. Mainly I think the offended parties should find more important things to get their knickers in a twist about.
And I also think that Polish choir was the best thing that ever happened during my four years.
September 3rd, 2005 at 9:41 am
Hopefully it is something they will rethink in time to schedule some extra things next year. I enjoyed hearing the Romeros (Spanish classical guitarists), Christopher Parkening, and a husband and wife vocal team of McCracken and Warfield. Mr. McCracken was Irish, I think, and sang a few Irish songs as well. Both of them explained a little about the songs, which I thought was great for a University audience.
I disagree that Dr. Bob III is uninterested in high culture. Dr. Bob, Jr., may have been the most cultured of the Joneses, but I think Dr. Bob III thinks it is as important as Dr. Bob, Sr. did.
I wondered if a lot of flack came from a write-up about Chanticleer in the Collegian last year which listed some of the songs in the program which did sound questionable. Dr. Bob sent out e-mails to parents getting the Collegian saying that whatever they sang elsewhere, that’s not what they were singing here. I can understand that the administration has much more to do than field this kind of thing.
September 3rd, 2005 at 12:58 pm
I had forgotten about the Collegian thing! That probably explains a lot of the complaining. For those of you who don’t know, the Collegian published a story saying that Chanticleer’s program would include “bawdy drinking songs.” The Collegian quickly retracted the issue, and the program didn’t include any drinking songs, but if that’s the message these people got, maybe that explains why there was more complaining about Chanticleer than about other groups.
September 3rd, 2005 at 11:16 pm
I cringe at the lack of good cultural sensibilities with most fundamentalists, especially pastors. I shudder to think what will happen now that graduates of Bob Jones will be getting even less good culture. Talk about removing levies to let the destructive waters flow.
September 4th, 2005 at 12:12 am
Scott - even yogurt has culture - I’d wouldn’t fret too much about BJU ministerial students. There aren’t even that many of them left.
As I mentioned before, BJU didn’t do much of anything to promote good cultural sensibility. Simply banning some styles of music in the dorms is not the same as developing the taste and appreciation of what is good in all the artistic disciplines. In 4 years there I was assigned to read two books; The Scarlet Letter and Huck Finn. Both of which I had read in my public high school. Once on the University plane while out on extension with Dr. Bob III, I was reading Gore Vidal’s great novel about Lincoln and Dr. Bob looked at the book and said, “why would you want to read him?!” So much for an appreciation of culture.
What exactly do you mean by “destructive waters” flowing?
September 4th, 2005 at 12:19 am
That’s a pretty tasteless analogy, given recent events. It’d be like referring to a “tidal wave of support” during the Asian tsunami disaster a few months back.
It’s also kind of ironic, given the point you were trying to make.
September 4th, 2005 at 12:32 am
ROFLMAO!
September 8th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Here’s a few thoughts about the gay aspect of this discussion:
A) There are definitely gay students at Bob Jones - always have been, always will be, though it boggles my mind why they’d want to attend there - possibly because they’re so young and they struggling with their sexual identity and they think being gay is something they can quit or they’re in denial about it
B) There are quite likely gay *teachers* at Bob Jones - at least one (possibly two or more) was fired for being gay while I attended there
C) In an orchestra the size of the Prague Symphony, there is almost DEFINITELY at least one, likely more gay people, so they may just have to content themselves with banning ALL outside acts, while accepting the fact that they’ll ALWAYS have gay people ATTENDING the school “beneath the radar.”
D) Gay people are everywhere; they just don’t look the stereotype that many (not all) people at BJU expect them to
I hope they don’t ban anyone for being gay, of course, and just come around to understanding that homosexuality is simply a perfectly natural biological variation, part of life, nothing to be afraid of.
September 9th, 2005 at 7:55 am
They won’t promote it as a natural biological variation because it is unbiblical.
See Romans 1:18-32 and
I Cor. 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
That doesn’t mean it is anything to be “afraid” of, any more than any other sin listed there, except in the sense of fearing to commit any sin against God.
People can change out of a homosexual lifestyle. See http://www.family.org/fofmag/pp/a0024030.cfm
and
http://www.family.org/married/topics/a0025114.cfm
and especially http://www.stonewallrevisited.com/pages/otherway.html
September 9th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
I’m a little late getting in on this, but I wanted to suggest something. BJU hasn’t released any official statement saying they will never again have outside performers in; rather, they just stopped. Historically, when BJU does something it’s sure about, it makes a very strong stand. The absence of that stand makes me think they may not be entirely convinced themselves. I’ve written a letter to Dr. Steven Jones asking him to consider bringing back the other artist series. If other people would do the same, we may be able to get them back. They may not even realize how many people actually want those artist series (since the complaining voices are always the loudest).
September 9th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
Bob, I think she’s got you. If you’re going to follow the Bible exactly, you have to call homosexuality a sin.
Then the question becomes whether or not homosexuality is a particularly special sin. If BJU is going to never have a gay actor/singer/player on stage, it should never have a divorced one (Malachai 2:16) or a coveteous one (I Cor 6:10 above), because God gives those sins exactly the same weight as homosexuality.
Note also that BJU can’t expel someone because they consider themselves to be homosexual; they can only expel people for things they actually do, such as committing a sexual act or watching pornography. In this way they treat heterosexuals in exactly the same way as homosexuals.
September 10th, 2005 at 11:44 pm
No offense, Barb, but your arguments only work if one assumes that the Bible is the inspired word of God. I do not.
Additionally, programs which supposedly cure homosexuality have been pretty thoroughly debunked
already and homosexuality is strongly being established *scientifically* (have yuo ever heard of James Dobson conducting a scientific experiment?) based:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/08/14/what_makes_people_gay?mode=PF
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2005/08/27/this_day/news01.txt
http://www.news24.com/News24/Columnists/George_Claassen/0,,2-1630-1827_1767311,00.html
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/dara/fruit_flies_060605.htm
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=119103
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/08/12/news/community/fri02.txt
http://www.pflagcolumbiasc.org/psychology.php#1
http://www.pflagcolumbiasc.org/psychology.php#2
http://www.pflagcolumbiasc.org/psychology.php#3
http://www.pflagcolumbiasc.org/psychology.php#4
http://www.pflagcolumbiasc.org/psychology.php#5
http://jgford.homestead.com/
http://www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2005/08/gay_rams_study.html
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1293
That’s just scratching the surface, but I would strongly suggest you read all of those articles–from an array of different sources–in detail in order to better prepare yourself to discuss homosexuality. Focus on the Family is hardly (by any stretch of the imagination) an unbiased or remotely scientific source for this sort of information. They have a solid agenda which is based is nothing remotely resembling empricial evidence.
Additionally, the idea that homosexuality is a negative condition that needs to be “cured” is nonscientific asnnd condescending itself.
One day perhaps I’ll be able to send my kids to Bob Jones, but I doubt it so long as they cling to these outmoded–and more importantly *inaccurate*–ideas. For now, gay rights remain a HUMAN rights issue and Bob Jones is on the wrong side of history. Just as they were with segregation, inter-racial marriage, and still are with subject such as evolution, etc.
September 11th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
It’s Barbara, not Barb.
These former homosexuals would disagree with your assessment:
http://www.stonewallrevisited.com/index.html
http://www.stonewallrevisited.com/menus/pages.html
As would some of these articles:
http://www.stonewallrevisited.com/menus/issues.html
September 12th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Sorry Barbara about the name mixup. Didn’t mean to be so presumptuous!
It’s not my assessment, though. It’s the assessment of many scientists and the majority of gays. Just because a minority of gays either feel a lot of guilt because of their background (not because they need to) or maybe even some small number can change does not mean than most can or should feel they have to.
I’m guessing you probably feel that you cannot intrinsically change your sexual identity right? Same applies to gay people. I’m afraid I have read the type of literature you’re pointing out represents one very narrow slice of the entire picture. I really hope you’ll broaden your horizons by reading some of the links I’ve provided above. You can keep posting links about supposed former gays, but you don’t have the full story unless you’ve read the opposing point of view as well. That’s fair enough isn’t it?
I’ve seen both sides - I was raised in fundamentalism, went to Bob Jones and have read accounts by so-called former gays. I’ve also read many accounts of those gays going back to being gay and admitting that it never really worked - that they were just repressing their true feeling the whole time.
I do feel very pasasionate about this issue, because, as I said, I really believe this is a human rights issue. Just as an aside: I’m not gay but as I’ve acquired gay friends and have come to see how normal their lives really are (not anything like the stereotypes we’re so often presented with), I find it a real shame that they’re not treated with the dignity and respect they so deserve as human beings.
December 7th, 2005 at 5:43 pm
Bob,
I was justing reading this string and noticed that you said “your arguments only work if one assumes that the Bible is the inspired word of God. I do not.” If that is truly what you believe, then I don’t think you will ever “One day… send my kids to Bob Jones.” BJU will hold to the inspiration of the word of God till its end, and as long as it does so, homosexuality will be a sin against a holy God.