{"id":5296,"date":"2014-01-20T20:43:34","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T01:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/?p=5296"},"modified":"2019-03-09T08:48:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T13:48:39","slug":"president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2014\/01\/20\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"President Stephen Jones’ Statement, MLK Day, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Want to apologize to Mr. Daulton for making\na liar out of him. Dr. Short is<\/em> coming, but I asked for just a couple of\nmoments to share something with you that\u2019s on my heart and something that I\nhaven\u2019t shared with you as a present group of students since you\u2019ve been here.\nWanna say something. Today is Martin Luther King Day. It is a holiday. We\u2019re in\nschool. In fact, the only people who really get the day, I think, and other\nholidays, bankers \u2013 what a life! \u2013 and the postal service and, and folks like\nthat. I know other people I am working with, they\u2019re working in town today as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I want you to understand, in our not celebrating\ntaking the day off, it is not making a statement about the holiday or about the\ncause of which Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most notable champion. It was\nneeded. It was good. And it has been what our nation needed. So I want you to\nunderstand that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, if you\u2019ll think about it, we also don\u2019t take off\nLabor Day. You go through school through Labor Day. We go through Veteran\u2019s\nDay. We go through President\u2019s Birthdays. In the summer we go through Memorial\nDay, we work through Memorial Day. There\u2026 because everything is compressed and\nwe\u2019re doing a lot. And in order to have such a short school year, and you just\ngot back last week, to take a day off just does not work in the calendar for this<\/em>\nholiday or numerous others. So I want to put it in that context, but I also\nwant to be honest with you about the past\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, I\u2019m a South Carolina boy. Um, I\u2019m proud I\u2019m a South\nCarolina boy. I\u2019m thankful for it, but that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m proud of\neverything that South Carolina has always been. There were wrongs in our past,\njust as there were in the Northern colonies and Northern states prior, and in\nBritain prior to coming to the US. And I\u2019m sure I\u2019m going to get a couple of\nletters from folks who tell me I\u2019m really not a Southern boy after this. I can\nusually count on about two of those. But I want to say this: there are things\nin the University\u2019s past that I wish were not, just as there are things in\nSouth Carolina\u2019s past that I wish were not. There were things over which I had\nno control, was not around, but things that do exist. And I wish that it had\nbeen different. And though I read a secular author who said that it is unfair\nto judge the motives of people in the past based on the knowledge that we have\ntoday because there is such a thing as progressive understanding, when it comes\nto the matter of race, in that instance we could have understood. We have the\nlight in scripture. We should have understood. But instead of seeing what\nScripture said and championing that contrary<\/em> to society, we allowed\nsociety\u2019s lenses to set our view of Scripture and then of application instead\nof the opposite, which is what our burden is for all of you: that the\nscriptures set our lenses of how we view things around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we s\u2026, we began in 1971, was the first year that we\naccepted African-American students. That was about five years behind other\ninstitutions, both public and private, but it should have been before those\nsecular institutions. And then, until fourteen years ago, in 2000 we maintained\na \u201cno interracial dating policy.\u201d Now that policy existed here before we even\naccepted African-American students, so I want you to understand that policy\ndidn\u2019t come because it was aimed at African-American students. It actually was\nan incident between a Caucasian student and an Asian student, and that both\nfamilies came to the University and said \u201cwe want something against this\nbecause we don\u2019t agree in inter-mixing races.\u201d That\u2019s how it began, but again,\nit shouldn\u2019t have been and it lasted too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came to this role in 2005. In 2008, collaborated with\nDr. Hankins. I was on my way to Zambia. We conversed about the need for a\nstatement that went further than any statement we had made previously. And he\ntook our discussion, put it in print, and then I did some work on it from\nZambia. It\u2019s still there, on our\u2026 if you go to the BJU website and you look at,\nyou search for \u201crace statement,\u201d it\u2019s there, still posted. And it says that we\nwere wrong in our slowness to accept African-American students and in\nmaintaining the Africa\u2026. the, the \u201cno interracial dating\u201d policy as long as we\ndid. That we were not the representatives of Jesus Christ that we should have\nbeen to the world around us. That we conformed to society instead of being\nanti-society, a sub-culture of Christians, like we are called to be. And in\nmisrepresenting Christ we also hurt others: previous generations of students,\nand others who didn\u2019t come as students because of policies that we had held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I want faculty\/staff to have the freedom to discuss\nthese things with you. Again, I\u2019m not defending anything. I\u2019m saying I wish it\nhadn\u2019t been. I\u2019m just laying it out to you. This\u2026 These things did exist. But I\ndon\u2019t want it to be something that we, you know, feel we have to quarantine and\nsay that it never happened. It did, unfortunately. But, what I want to come\nback to, after addressing it and saying that, yes, it did exist though it\nshouldn\u2019t have existed; I want us to come back to the fact of what our\ngeneration can and should do. Because there is something, there are things we\ncan do about it. The past we can\u2019t change. We can say we\u2019re sorry for, ask\nforgiveness for. But the present we can make choices about. And here I want you\nto hear our heart as an administration about the present and the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity is God\u2019s idea. When you look at creation, when\nyou look at individual species and you, you get down to that level, the species\nlevel, those, those creatures that can mate and have offspring \u2013 according, the\nscriptural word would be \u201ckind,\u201d \u201ceach reproducing after its own kind\u201d \u2013 even\namong, within a species there is incredible diversity. And that\u2019s God\u2019s idea.\nAnd it\u2019s His idea, Paul [sic] reveals in Acts 17, for the purpose of causing\npeople to seek after God. But, in Christ, the divisions of the nations and the\nraces and the tongues, when we come to Christ, those divisions disappear and we\nare made one. Before Christ, that was foreign. Let me just share these verses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titus 3: 3-8 \u201cFor we ourselves were also sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, (and listen to these words) hateful, and hating one another. (That\u2019s the common state of the unsaved and the nations and the races in the unsaved view).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour\ntoward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but\naccording to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and\nrenewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ\nour Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs\naccording to the hope of eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And \u201cheirs\u201d there is altogether one family made heirs.\nAnd Colossians 3: 11 makes it clear that in the church, in Christ \u201cthere is\nneither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian,\nbond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.\u201d And the beauty of God\u2019s creation\nand variety and diversity is magnified even more in the unity that should be\nfound to a higher degree than it is found anywhere else in our world, in the\nChurch among the people of God. And my burden for the University is that we\nincreasingly, that our complexion as a University, that we increasingly look\nlike the nation around us. Now there\u2019s some challenges to that, because in most\nof our churches, if we\u2019re honest most of our churches don\u2019t look like the\ncomplexity of the communities in which they\u2019re grounded and founded. And so,\nthose churches that send students to the University, I would hope that they would\nhave a gospel outreach that would bring in from all nations and kindreds and\ntongues and races, but in the meantime as the Lord is working in those places\nand in those churches, we also have initiatives, initiatives that are\nspecifically aimed at helping minority students come through financial aid\nthat\u2019s available to them; at finding minority students outside of those\nchurches, in other places finding \u201cright fit\u201d students, believers that this is\nthe right fit for them, but who may not be in many of the churches, other\nchurches that send students to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I want you to look around you. Alright. Just take a\nlook around. What God has done here is a miracle. For those of us born in the\nUS, coming from Christian schools, we probably take it for granted. But to have\nmen and women from different nations, from different races, unified in Christ,\nthis is a miracle. And it is a testimony to the gospel; a testimony that should\nbe our distinctive before a lost world, that the lost world looks at us and says\n\u201csee how they love one another.\u201d And that\u2019s our burden. And we have been\nproactive in making changes to try to avoid things that aren\u2019t even problems\nyet, but could be perceived as being Rachelly, racially motivated or result in\nsomething that could be racially divisive. And we are intolerant of anything\nthat would divide us as a University family or make any students feel second\nclass. That is wrong and it is not tolerated. Jesus unites us in this place.\nAnd in fact when we stand and we sing like we did as Dr. Janson led us today,\nit is just a foretaste of the day that we will stand before the throne from\nevery kindred and tongue and race and nation and we will worship and give\npraise to the Lamb who has brought us to our God and Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Savior. One God. One Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I want you to understand that that\u2019s who we are as\nBob Jones University. That\u2019s what we believe. And that, by God\u2019s grace, is what\nwe are committed to live out today and in all the days to come.\n\nDr. Short.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Want to apologize to Mr. Daulton for making a liar out of him. Dr. Short<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[107,422,994,993,706],"class_list":["post-5296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-remember","category-speak","tag-bob-jones-university","tag-klandamentalism","tag-mlkday","tag-mlkday2014","tag-stephen-jones"],"yoast_head":"\nPresident Stephen Jones' Statement, MLK Day, 2014 - A Time To Laugh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2014\/01\/20\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Camille Lewis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/01\\\/20\\\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/01\\\/20\\\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Camille Lewis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e93a8c9ec8fb8b926471114158437f82\"},\"headline\":\"President Stephen Jones’ Statement, MLK Day, 2014\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-21T01:43:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-09T13:48:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/01\\\/20\\\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1832,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e93a8c9ec8fb8b926471114158437f82\"},\"keywords\":[\"Bob Jones University\",\"Klandamentalism\",\"MLKDay\",\"MLKDay2014\",\"Stephen Jones\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Remember\",\"Speak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/01\\\/20\\\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/01\\\/20\\\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.drslewis.org\\\/camille\\\/2014\\\/01\\\/20\\\/president-stephen-jones-statement-mlk-day-2014\\\/\",\"name\":\"President Stephen Jones' Statement, MLK Day, 2014 - 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