Segregation: Right up there with the Gospel

-  First words of the sermon, "Is Segregation Scriptural." 

The answer to that question is, of course, "Yes. As Scriptural as the Gospel itself."

Of Networks & Verbal Perfection

A. THE NETWORK:
"I know what is going on over there in Japan. I have the contacts that make me know what is going on."

B. HIS WORD IS PERFECT:
"I have been preaching for sxity-one years, and I have never in my life been trapped by anything I have ever said. I have always been able to face what I have said, because I have always had an element of caution in it."

 - Letter to Dr. Gerald Johnsons

[Trapped by what he said? As far as the posthumously discovered letters from the offices of Strom Thurmond, the ones in which he says, "Please discard when you're done reading..." those are a different matter altogether.]

More Satan

To be perfectly frank with you, I am sure the opposition on the part of the education committee is the University is satanic. It is opposition to our Christian testimony and to this progressive school that is standing when others are failing and is showing up the failures of these other schools. There is no basis whatsoever for their attitude.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1949

Purge

Often a rumor goes around that we expel lots of students and...this year we have lived up to that rumor.

Bob Jones, Jr. to the BJU Board of Trustees, 1965

Uncivility

Dr. Jones went on to say that he had explained to some of the members of the Board previously that BJU refused to sign the statement of compliance to the civil rights law, and he went on to say that by signing this statement we would not only have been agreeing to integrate but, most important of all, would also be in fact turning the reins of the property and the policies of the school over to the Government.

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, 1965

Don't Tell

I want to be free to write you what I have in mind, and be sure to have your secretary tear up any of my letters that have confidential matters in them after you have read them.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1949

Praying to a White god

Our heavenly Father, bless our country. We thank Thee for our ancestors. We thank Thee for the good, Christian people -- white and black. We thank Thee for the ties that have bound these Christian white people and Christian colored people together throughout the years, and we thank Thee that white people who had a little more money helped them build their churches and stood by them and when they got sick, they helped them. No nation has ever prospered or been blessed like the colored people in the South. Help these colored Christians not to get swept away by all the propaganda that is being put out now. Help us to see this thing and to understand God’s established order and to be one in Christ and to understand that God has fixed the boundaries of the nations so we would not have trouble and misunderstanding. Keep us by Thy power and use us for Thy glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Bob Jones, Sr., "Is Segregation Scriptural?"

A Little Short

If we happen to be a little short in the field of Ph.D.'s, we may be a little strong in the energy of the M.A.'s.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Ellison Smith, Division of Teacher Certification, DOE, South Carolina, 1952

Cabal

P. P. S I have an impression that what they are trying to do is to find some member of the Board that will ask for a meeting of the Board to investigate the setup at Bob Jones University. They know they can't have a meeting and that there is nothing to investigate, but they want to create the impression that there is something wrong. I do not think there is anybody on our regular Board they could get to do it, but I think on our Co-operating Board they might find one. I know one they are working on. But, of course, the Co-operating Board has no legal vote; and if a mebmer of the Co-operating Board asks for it, we will know what to say. They are trying to spring something just before school opens. I am pretty sure of that, but I do not think there is anything they can do.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1953

Presbyterians

Those old-time, Psalm-singing Presbyterians when they are really brought up right have real iron in their character. My dealings with them throughout American have been very happy.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1952

America is Salvation

Now, you colored people listen to me. If you had not been bought over here and if your grandparents in slavery days had not heard that great preaching, you might not even be a Christian, You might be over there in the jungles of Africa today, unsaved. But you are here in America where you have your own schools and your own churches and your own liberties and your own rights, with certain restrictions that God Almighty put about you - restrictions that are in line with the Word of God.

Bob Jones, Sr., "Is Segregation Scriptural?"

The Right Stuff

[Bob Jones University] has since the first year of its history depended to a very great extent upon its loyal Christian students to sell the unusual educational advantages and Christian training opportunities of the institution to the right kind of young people.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Board of Trustees, 1950

Nobody likes me!

We have had a feeling ever since we have been in Greenville that there has been a little secret, under-cover, unfriendly attitude toward this institution on the part of some people connected with the University of South Carolina.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1949

Under your Hat

P.S. I am sure I do not need to remind you that this financial report is confidential and is not intended for release.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1951

Pay no attention

We are glad to tell you that we have had very little trouble in comparison with the difficulties some orthodox Christian institutions are having. We meet and settle all problems as they develop on campus. By this means, we avoid trouble by having trouble. If we should keep one disloyal member in our organization or did not enforce the rule against griping on the part of the students, the devil would take over Bob Jones University, as he has taken over many schools in America that were founded on the solid rock of the Gospel and the Word of God, and institutions that in days gone by were evangelistic and aggressively orthodox.

Bob Jones, Sr. to BJU Board of Trustees, 1953

How Embarrassing!

If, however, an amendment is added to the position taken by the State University and states in the letter President Smith wrote me, embarrassing situations will be developed for Bob Jones University and a feeling will be created in the minds of Christian leaders in many parts of the world that under all the circumstances our State University did not wish to give Bob Jones University the co-operation an institution of this kind needs and deserves.

Bob Jones, Sr. to U of South Carolina, Dean, 1949

Shhhh

P. S. . . . Please either destroy or return the mimeographed copies of the letters I am sending you.

Bob Jones, Sr. to BJU Board of Trustees, 1953

Was it . . . SATAN?

This is the third satanic attack in the history of Bob Jones University, and we have won every time. The Lord is going to take care of us. We do not know more than five students that we feel that Mercer is taking away from us, and we know of a number who are coming because of what happened. If we had given him one more year to build his organization, he would have taken five hundred, and he probably would have wrecked the administration here.

Bob Jones, Sr. to BJU Board of Trustees, 1953

Melting Pot

If we would just listen to the Word of God and not try to overthrow God’s established order, we would not have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the lines between the nations. That was not God’s purpose for this nation. When someone goes to overthrowing His established order and goes around preaching pious sermons about it, that makes me sick -- for a man to stand up and preach pious sermons in this country and talk about rubbing out the line between the races -- I say it makes me sick.

Bob Jones, Sr., "Is Segregation Scriptural?"

Bloody Fight

You are the Governor of the State, and you are on the Board of the University of South Carolina. I do not want to do anything that will embarrass you, as you are our friend and we are your friend; but, Governor, we are not going to have this Christian institution dealt with like the University [of South Carolina] is dealing with it without fighting a real battle in South Carolina. It will be a bloody battle when it starts, too.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1949

Fire the Prez?

The President of this University is employed with the understanding he will run the school according to the by-laws and charter, or he is automatically discharged.

Bob Jones, Sr. to BJU Board of Trustees, 1953

Christian Liberty

Personal liberty! Liberty to damn men's souls, liberty to ruin homes, liberty to commit slow suicide--personal liberty!

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Slavery is Freedom

There is an effort today to disturb the established order. Wait a minute. Listen, I am talking straight to you. White folks and colored forks, you listen to me. You cannot run over God’s plan and God’s established order without having trouble. God never meant to have one race. It was not His purpose at all. God has a purpose for each race. God Almighty may have overruled and permitted the slaves to come over to America so that the colored people could be the great missionaries to the Africans. They could have been. The white people in America would have helped pay their way over there. By the hundreds and hundreds they could have gone back to Africa and got the Africans converted after the slavery days were over.

Bob Jones, Sr., "Is Segregation Scriptural?"

Pasta Bar? Or Health Insurance?

We are obligated under our financial system to take care of them [our retired faculty] as long as they live.

Bob Jones, Jr. to Board of Trustees, 1965

Monopoly Money

When you get one of these old colonels or money bags they are usually worn out in the service of the devil and are of little value to God.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Crawfordsville

The devil is not in hell. He is in Crawfordsville.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

If you disagree. . . .

Now, I want to tell you that no underworld character, no bootlegger, no whiskey-boss--nobody--has ever lied about me like Mr. Mercer in his releases.

Bob Jones, Sr. to BJU Board of Trustees, 1953

Whorehouse

Some of you say a whore-house is a necessity. Are you willing to furnish a daughter to help run it?

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Blushing

The suggestion you made [to resign from the BJU Board of Trustees] puts us in a little embarrassing position. I gives us the feeling that if you remain on the Board, you are remaining to keep from embarrassing us; and I cannot feel happy about that. My son and I have never met any mand that appealed to us more than you have appealed to us.

Bob Jones, Sr., to SC Governor Strom Thurmond, 1953

What is Bible Conference Really About?

I have had fifty years in propaganda. I know how to do that one job and do it so it counts.

Bob Jones, Sr. to Governor Strom Thurmond, 1948

Off Color Blood

Since Bob Jones University is a red-blooded American institution and there is nobody in this organization, either in the student body or faculty, that is off color among communistic lines or any other line, we are in position to render a service. Remember, we have missionaries in all parts of the world, and please remember that we offer here about fourteen foreign langauges, and we are in position to give the messages ofAmericanism and religion in the languages to which the people are accustomed to listening.

Bob Jones, Sr., to SC Governor Strom Thurmond, 1953

Short-Wave Politics

[We want] to get a short wave station here at Bob Jones University so we can give old-time Americanism and old-time religion on short wave to the ends of the earth.

Bob Jones, Sr., to SC Governor Strom Thurmond, 1953

Dutch Blitz

You who want the dance and the theatre and the cards to kill time know nothing of the fellowship of God.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Criticism

Whenever you hear criticism and fault finding you know the devil is around and God is doing something. We will have a great victory in this town, thank God. It is harder every year to have a revival.

Bob Jones, Sr., Warsaw, Indiana, 1913

Kryptonite

I am afraid of sin. Often when in a meeting like this I think of how awful it would be if I should fall. Oh! I'm afraid of sin.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Dance

The man who says he is not tempted in a dance, has no evil thoughts is one of three things: He is more than a man, less than a man or else he is an infamous liar.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Whores

One crooked, impenitent society woman can do more to damn your girls than any whore in town.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Swell Club

Watch out for the man who belongs to the swell club and wears fine clothes. Your boy will want to be like him.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Life Insurance

If anything happens to me, I want you to keep standing by Bob and the University

Bob Jones, Sr., to SC Governor Strom Thurmond, 1953

Streets of Hell

No drunkard ever staggered down the street but some one was responsible for his downfall. Every drunkard in this country is sent to hell by the voters and they will curse you in eternity.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Mother-Daughter Hell

There are mothers here tonight who will be met in hell by their own daughters whom they sent there.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915

Hell

There has to be a hell in every nature of things. Let us live wisely that we may escape it.

Bob Jones, Sr., Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1915