BJU Made the News Again ... in an unlikely place

[aefting]

Whatever happened in the late 70's, it must have been resolved by the time I got to school there in the fall of 1982. I regularly attended Southside during my four years there. It was in the late 80's when Southside broke from BJU and fundamentalism. Somewhere I have the tape from the message that Walt Handford gave explaining their decision.

Andy

 

[LarryN]

Originally posted by aefting:
Whatever happened in the late 70's, it must have been resolved by the time I got to school there in the fall of 1982. I regularly attended Southside during my four years there. It was in the late 80's when Southside broke from BJU and fundamentalism. Somewhere I have the tape from the message that Walt Handford gave explaining their decision.

Andy

Andy,

I'm not familiar with the situation. When you say that Southside "broke from...fundamentalism", are you saying they denied one or more of the actual fundamentals of the faith (e.g. inerrancy of Scripture, Virgin birth, etc.), or are you saying they fell out of fellowship with BJU's interpretation of what constitutes fundamentalism? Please be specific.

Thanks,

Larry

 

[aefting]

This whole issue represents some of the main problems I have with the "separation issue." Folks can make doctrine out of anything and BJIII did at the time. If you don't follow our interpretation of this doctrine the we'll break fellowship.

I have no doubt that this is true to some extent. The appropriate application of Biblical separation is sometimes had to discern. The difficulty of discernment or evidence of past abuse, however, does not negate the responsibility of obedient Christians to practice it. Some would say that BJU has over corrected in trying to right past mistakes in this area.

Andy

 

[aefting]

I'm not familiar with the situation. When you say that Southside "broke from...fundamentalism", are you saying they denied one or more of the actual fundamentals of the faith (e.g. inerrancy of Scripture, Virgin birth, etc.), or are you saying they fell out of fellowship with BJU's interpretation of what constitutes fundamentalism? Please be specific.

Fundamentalism has never been soley about believing the fundamentals of the faith -- all orthodox Christians believe the fundamentals. What identifies fundamentalism is the issue of separation. Handford decided that his church was not going to practice separation. He specifically said he would bring in New Evangelicals to speak if that would "help" his congregation. That's not fundamentalism.

Andy

 

[Pastor Larry]

Sorry, 2atlow8, but I think your memory might be failing you here. I believe Dr. Henson taught SS at Southside until the very end in the late 80s. He may have resigned as a deacon but I know for a fact that it was not required that faculty members and students leave Southside at that time. There were a great number of faculty members involved in the ministry at Southside in many areas including music until that time. There were students attending Southside all through the 80s.

One of the main problems with the interracial couple joining is that the couple apparently came down different aisles, as if they were hiding the fact that they were married. I have checked with a couple of sources at Bob Jones who do not recall BJIII ever saying anything about that in chapel. They did verify for me that SS was not put off limits until much much later than that.

The break at Southside with fundamentalism came over philosophy of ministry, which was first manifested in their musical choices. SS was put off limits in the late 80s after they sponsored a Steve Green concert that prominently featured the song "Let the Walls Come Down," a song that encouraged the breakdown of doctrinal barriers for the sake of unity (something that is an anti-fundamentalist as you can get). BJIII played the entire song in chapel, and explained that he played the entire song so that no one would think he was taking it out of context. That is one of the few chapel messages that was never available on cassette tape because of the copyright issues. In the chapel service, Dr. Bob explained that he had met with Handford on several occasions over a long period of time and tried to reach an accord about it, but Handford resisted. At that point, he said that students and faculty would no longer be allowed to attend while maintaining their association with Bob Jones. That was, I believe, 1989 or 1990. At one point, I did have a tape of the message recorded from the radio program "Chapel Hour" that played on the radio in the Greenville area every night. The radio program announced that tapes would not be available.

The separation did not have to do with following a particular interpretation of the Scriptures. It dealt with Southside's willingness to tolerate association with doctrinal deviancy on the the matter of doctrinal integrity and scriptural obedience. The direction of SS in that last 15 years has verified this. Interestingly enough, many people note the the leftward movement at Southside happened soon after John R. Rice died. Handford's wife was Rice's daughter. There are some people who have suggested that Handford was unwilling to make those moves so long as Rice was alive. Once Rice was dead, then things started to change.

 

[aefting]

In the chapel service, Dr. Bob explained that he had met with Handford on several occasions over a long period of time and tried to reach an accord about it, but Handford resisted. At that point, he said that students and faculty would no longer be allowed to attend while maintaining their association with Bob Jones.

I have a transcript of the Steve Green chapel service of March 18, 1992. Dr. Bob may have explained why Southside was off limits in another message, but it doesn't appear in the transcript that I have. Here is what he does say towards the end of the message:

There are some leaders in a chruch that used to be a fundamental church here in Greenville that are sponsoring this thing. They are making it very difficult for their fellow churches in Greenville who want nothing to do with it. I appreciate these churches that are going on record against it. We certainly are going on record against it. And we will not be participating. And we love you too much to do otherwise.

Andy

 

[Pastor Larry]

I didn't realize it was that late. I was thinking it was more around 89 or 90 but now that you mention that date, that makes sense. It may not have been mentioned in chapel. It was mentioned in faculty meeting and I believe that was the time it was mentioned. Since I haven't heard the tape in a while and have no idea where it is, the exact dates and verbiage are a little fuzzy, but I am almost positive that SS being off limits happened at the same time as the Steve Green thing.

 

[2atlow8]

They must have reached some agreement after I graduated and then changed back to SS being off limits. Funny thing about all of this is that I have "very close ties" to people who currently work at BJU (and have for 30 years) and people who currently attend Southside (for 20 years). I've seen and heard the whole issue play out since the 70's.