"Bob Jones III Tries to Launch a Domestic Holy War"?
So, apparently columnist Deborah Mathis has just now figured out that Dr. Bob wrote a letter to President Bush the day after the election. I opened the editorial page of my newspaper (always a mistake) to find a
column she wrote about it yesterday, entitled "Bob Jones III Tries to Launch A Domestic Holy War."
[O]ne of President Bush's supporters and friends in the evangelical community had insulted liberals with a most heinous indictment.
"Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil," wrote Bob Jones III, president of South Carolina's Bob Jones University. "You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ." (Emphasis [Mathis']).
Like untold numbers of liberal Christians everywhere, my children were livid....
Proudly liberal, they were appalled by the audacity - and the illegitimacy - of Jones' comment. They, after all, are praying, church-going, faithful and conscientious. The grandchildren of a minister on their mother's side and a deacon on their father's. Sunday School veterans and Vacation Bible School alums. The daughters and son of a diehard believer. Young people ever mindful of a higher power - moreover, led and comforted by it.
So far, Mathis makes a legitimate point. Dr. Bob's comment was unfair. It's wrong and divisive to demonize all liberals by calling them despisers of Christ, when quite frankly that is not the truth.
One of the things I've learned since discovering the blogosphere is that liberals actually have moral bases for many of their conclusions, just like conservatives do. For example, welfare and other entitlement programs, which conservatives decry as being wasteful and a violation of the "if any man will not work, neither should he eat" principle of Scripture, liberals see as acts of Christian charity. (Personally, I think the government is not the right vehicle for charitable giving, but that's another discussion all together.) The environmentalist movement and the animal rights movement carry their moral overtones, and the list goes on.
Just like conservative Christians, liberal Christians determine their political beliefs from the Bible and their own logical thinking. To say that a liberal political position necessarily equals an atheistic, God-despising religious position is poorly-reasoned and incendiary rhetoric. (There are many fine qualities that are exhibited by the Jones dynasty, but tact is not among them.)
Unfortunately, however, Mathis' piece goes on from that point to reveal an awfully hypocritical flaw in Mathis' position. The next two quotes are out of order, rearranged for emphasis:
"'How is what he said any different from what the Islamic extremists say about Muslims who don't think God wants them to kill people who don't think like them?'
"'Actually, it's not. Both are claiming righteousness and supremacy and are passing judgment and condemning. That's the kind of vanity and sanctimony that gives religion a bad name.'"
"'The man has issues....Bob Jones has no credibility among real believers... Real believers understand that God is not a bigot and doesn't put up with bigotry."
Apparently Mathis' judgment that BJIII is a bigoted extremist with no credibility doesn't count as passing judgment.
Once again, of course, the old interracial dating ban is the culprit. Yes, of course BJU dropped the ban under pressure during the 2000 primary campaign, as Mathis notes elsewhere in the piece. Of course, if BJU had not dropped the ban, then it would still be branded as a racist institution. Apparently the only way to prove that BJU isn't a racist institution is to go back in time and drop the ban earlier.
Someone really ought to figure out a way to do that. Because I'm seriously tired of hearing about how racist an institution BJU is. I go there, and I know better.
Anyways, both Jones and Mathis have problems with assuming the motivations of the opposing side. As my stats teacher is fond of saying, "I don't do divination." In general, you don't know the thinking process that leads another person to take any particular position. Be careful when saying you do.
Posted by Blog Jones at December 12, 2004 12:00 AM
| Category: BJU Stuff
Due to the proliferation of comment spam, I've had to close comments on this
entry. Sorry. Spammers ruin it for everybody. If you really,
me.
