I wonder if the election of Barack Obama has anything to do with the American Medical Association and now Bob Jones University apologizing for its long standing racists policies and the consequences of poor health and education that we see today. What is it about skin color that makes some people think that a man is less human and less a child of God? What is it about skin color that justifies mistreatment. Its tragic how some so called Christians and preachers of the bible intentionally misinterpret Gods word to justify their actions or inactions that lead their flock astray.
By JEFFREY COLLINS – 14 hours ago COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Bob Jones University has apologized for racist policies including a one-time ban on interracial dating that wasn't lifted until nine years ago and its unwillingness to admit black students until 1971.
The private fundamentalist Christian school that was founded in 1927 said its rules on race were shaped by culture instead of the Bible, according to a statement posted Thursday on the university's Web site.
The university in northwestern South Carolina, with about 5,000 students, didn't begin admitting black students until nearly 20 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling found public segregated schools were unconstitutional.
The interracial dating ban was lifted in March 2000, not long after the policy became an issue in the Republican presidential primary that year. Then-candidate George W. Bush was criticized when he spoke at the school during one of his first campaign stops in the state after losing in New Hampshire.
Bob Jones University President Stephen Jones decided to issue the apology because the school still receives questions about its views on race.
The leader of the South Carolina NAACP said the civil rights group welcomed the statement.
"It's unfortunate it took them this long — particularly a religious, faith-based institution — to realize that we all are human beings and the rights of all people should be respected and honored," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Randolph said that when Jones became president three years ago, he asked the civil rights leader not to hold the decisions made under his father and grandfather against him. Jones is the great-grandson of the school founder, Bob Jones. He took over for his father, also named Bob Jones, in 2005.
Re: the comment at the end of the video. Please make the just distinction between "scholarships" and "scholarship funds." The two scholarship funds serve multiple students each (as most scholarship funds tend to do--that's what a scholarship fund is). The wording is not that there are merely two scholarshipS given to only two students of 5000. The statement about 4/100ths of the student population is ridiculous.
Posted by: joy mccarnan | November 22, 2008 at 10:32 AM