What in the World!

BIBLICAL SEPARATION by The Bob Jones University Bible Faculty The concept of biblical separation must be emphasized today because of conditions in christendom and the widespread violation of scriptural teaching on this doctrine. While it has always been necessary for God's people to keep themselves separate from evil, many ignore the principle of separation entirely. Others go to the opposite extreme and separate unnecessarily over minor points of interpretation and custom. Distinction must be made between personal separation and ecclesiastical separation. Both have positive as well as negative aspects. The Christian who practices personal separation demonstrates in his conduct and attitude a strict obedience to God and His Word. On the negative side, he refuses to look and act like the world; he has no desire for the world; he avoids individuals who are evil in conduct, false in teaching, and unspiritual in life-style. Ecclesiastical separation involves, positively, identification with groups faithful to the truth of God's Word. Negatively, it is the refusal to be identified with any teacher, church, denomination, or other religious organization that does not hold to and contend for those fundamentals of the Faith concerning the Bible, Christ, and salvation. Separation is not optional but absolutely necessary when circumstances demand it. Christians must observe this separation in obedience to the Word of God. The Bible contains many Old Testament examples as well as New Testament warnings and commands concerning separation which the Christian cannot ignore without being disobedient to God and His revealed Word. Separation will be discussed under three divisions: separation from the world, separation from false teachers, and separation from disobedient brethren. It is important to keep in mind that these categories often overlap and cannot always be strictly compartmentalized. False teaching occurs both in the church and in the world. Sinful practices of the unsaved sometimes enter the church.

Emphasis mine.

Separation is absolutely necessary but circumstantial? What does that even mean? Let's put actual biblical commands and general social norms in there and see if they make sense.

Protecting children from harm is absolutely necessary when circumstances demand it.

Washing hands is absolutely necessary when circumstances demand it.

Yielding the right of way is absolutely necessary when circumstances demand it.

Elise Lewis, BJU Class of '25, has a whole YouTube channel showcasing life at BJU. Notice how she hedges about the rules.

Can you imagine receiving an anonymous letter like this? Maybe you have. Maybe you have written something like this.

I've eliminated any specifics so that the form of the letter is more plain. What is the narrative here? How does the writer frame the receiver?

Stop Stop Stop Stop Dear __, We deeply admire you and your family. You are doing a wonderful job at BJU and on the __. I am close to you, but can't say this to your faces. I want you to ponder and not be embarrassed. I and others are troubled by something you are doing -- or not doing to be more exact. I am afraid it will affect [sic] your ministries and your lives if you continue to let bitterness dwell in your hearts and show so clearly in your lives. You need to forgive and forget and let go. As a Christian we are commanded that. You know that, but as humans it is a hard thing to do. You need to stop spreading things about another Christian to others. It looks bad sounds bad and is bad. It is above you to do this and is not causing so much hard to another as it is to you and reflects badly on you. Not a bad word has come from one you speak so much against, why? Can you say that? (Character assination [sic] is horrible.) You are even pulling others -- (church members/ __ members) into this. You are an example!!! __ members look up to you. Where does it stop? Prayerfully with you. Pray and let go. What are you trying to do? Ruin someone or you? Remember in Esther who built the gallows to harm someone? -- But who got hurt (died) in the end? Which character are you? Please mend this hurt in your heart, then show it publically [sic] so that others may see your true Christian spirit and disapate [sic] what you now show. Let others see Christ through you! Watching, waiting with love and prayers. Your Concerned Friends

How does the writer use Scripture? Where does the theme of "let go" really appear in the Bible? Maybe Ephesians 4:31? Maybe Matthew 6? Does that even fit?

And Esther? The writer presumes that the receiver is Haman -- a powerful and murderous character. I know the receiver of the letter, and they were neither powerful nor murderous.

But the Bible here is just a weapon -- a tool for the writer to use against the receiver of the letter.

And notice what the writer wants as a resolution to the issue: the writer wants proof. They want public and visible proof that will satisfy their own judgment. They don't want peace or justice or kindness. They want evidence.

So what does this letter actually do? The take-away is clear. The receiver can only do one thing:

Shut up.

Bob Jones University was very proud of this Greenville News obituary from January 1968.

Oh gosh. You know where this is going.

I rode some time ago on a plane with a man. I tried to witness to him of Christ, and I found out two things about him. He was a Seventh-day Adventist. And he was an organizer for one of the labor unions. Being a Seventh-day Adventist, of course, he believed in worshipping on Saturday. Being an organizer for the labor union, of course, he believed in a five-day labor week. He was trying to sell me. And I said, "well, why do you believe that men should only work five days a week?" "Well," he said, "Doctor, it's quite simple. A man needs one day with his family, so we can work around the house, putting up screens and mowing grass. It won't be a day of ease, I assure you. If he has a wife like some of us, he'll be working at home." Well, that's all right. That's honest labor. A hard boss, but honest labor. He said, "I don't think man ought to have to work on Sunday because many Christians believe you should worship on Sunday." And then he said, "Of course, I know you shouldn't work on Saturday because that's the Lord's day and God says we shouldn't work on the Sabbath." He didn't know I was a preacher, so I acted real ignorant of the Word of God and I said, "What does it say?" He says, "The Bible says, 'remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.'" I said, "Is that all it says?" He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You didn't finish the verse. 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor.'"

You just conceded that laboring at home fixing screens and such was "honest labor." And then you're bellowing on an airplane?

More fur coat in the Snack.

I figured out who this is: Doris Hindale from Chicago.

BJU Alumni remember Kenny Baldwin in the Fall of 1997. Are you one of those?

He was very vocal during chapel with "Amens" and all. It eventually came to a halt because admin tracked him down. He left shortly after. He said he came under the assumption that BJU was doing everything it could to reach Black America and that turned out to not be true.

And from his participation in "preaching contests":

I recall him being a bit of a showboat, in a way designed to play to the judges.

Catholics have their fundamentalism too.

And then comes the name-calling, when Bob sounds like his most Trumpian.

But there's one man among the legislative councils of America who interferes constantly in the field of diplomacy and always to our destruction. That man is either a villain or a fool. He's either a traitorous rascal or a complete imbecile. I'm speaking of that man from the Middle West, Mr. Full Dull [J. William Fulbright]. He is a perfect example of diplomacy in its pride, falling for the lies of those who would destroy, and who entrap us in a net of words.

James William Fulbright, served as Arkansas's Senator from 1945-1974. He was a Rhodes scholar and President of U of Arkansas in 1939. He locked horns with Joseph McCarthy, so that explains Bob's antipathy. McCarthy called him "Senator Halfbright."

These types think they are so cute.

Glenn and Becky Kerr met at BJU while he was a grad student in the School of Music back in the 1970s. They have lived honorably and peacefully. Their daughter Rachel attended 3 semesters at BJU too, even traveling to Peru with one of BJU's mission teams.

Now Rachel is serving two 20-45 year concurrent sentences in a Michigan state prison for the second-degree murder of two of her newborn children. She and her husband Joshua Piland believed that God would heal and then resurrect their children if they just prayed enough.

The story is heartbreaking, and Glenn and Becky and their other children did everything they could to save the two babies that were killed as well as rescuing the other children that Rachel and Joshua have neglected.

The best long-form version of the story is here at Atavist Magazine. If court documents are more your thing, you can choose this version.

Here's the weather that week, btw:

At the centre of the action was the role played by senior member of staff William McGrath, who became known as the 'Beast of Kincora’. McGrath was jailed in 1981 for abusing boys as part of a paedophile ring operated within the care facilities. The former housemaster, who died in the early 1990s, also held a leading position in the far-right loyalist movement Tara. Lawyers for Mr Hoy claimed the authorities enabled him to target vulnerable young victims so that more information about the grouping could be obtained. The alleged liability went as far as actively obstructing RUC officers from investigating and pursuing McGrath specifically due to his role as an MI5 agent, it was contended. Claims for negligence and misfeasance in public office were advanced as part of wider actions against the PSNI, Home Office and Department of Health.

In case you need to catch up, it was BJU's bestie Ian Paisley who was at the center of this abuse back when it was first reported.

Back in 1973 a full-time missionary in Paisley's church, Valerie Shaw, approached Paisley with horrific news. A senior administrator at the Kincora orphanage in Belfast and a close ally of Paisley named William McGrath was abusing boys at the home. Paisley ignored Shaw and refused to investigate. In January 1980 the Kincora scandal broke amid allegations, later proven of massive abuse of children at the home. Paisley knew the ringleader McGrath very well and McGrath had accompanied him to many meetings. He denied Shaw had told him about McGrath years earlier, but under pressure later admitted he had been told of her suspicions. This is the man who now proposes to attack the pope on the same issue. The words kettle and black and hypocrite come to mind