The Colored Christians – “Is Segregation Scriptural?”

Now, I know what you’re going to say –

“Please – not this again! BJU has already apologized for being bigots so, let it be, Ekta!”

I know, I know. They apologized – yadda, yadda –

But that’s not my point here.

My point is – we cannot forget just how wrong some of these so-called Spiritual Giants, Biblical Experts and Men of God were (and are) about their positions. Bob Jones, Sr. is just one example.

Today, turn on any radio or TV and you’ll hear and see Wise Men of God, Biblical Experts spouting off about how they know the Mind of God. They know how to save America and the World. They know what the future holds.

Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. was like that. He was absolutely convinced that “separate, but equal” was straight from the mind of God.

The following paragraphs were taken from a thirty-two (32) page booklet sold in the Bob Jones University Campus Bookstore during the 1960’s till the very early 1970’s. The “Segregation” booklet was removed from the Campus Bookstore when, in 1972-73, the University changed its policy on admitting people of color. (For quite sometime after 1973, the booklet was still made available (upon request) to pastors and churches.)

To support the Biblical basis for Bob Jones University’s stand on Biblical racial segregation, Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., the founder of Bob Jones University, delivered this chapel message in April of 1960. The “Segregation” booklet is a transcript of that sermon:

“Now, we folks at Bob Jones University believe that whatever the Bible says is so; and we believe it says certain fundamental things that all Bible-believing Christians accept; but when the Bible speaks clearly about any subject, that settles it. Men do not always agree, because some are dumb-some people are spiritually dumb; but when the Bible is clear, there is not any reason why everybody should not accept it.” (p. 1) (all page numbers are booklet page numbers)

“Now, notice-this is an important verse- the twenty-sixth verse of the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, ‘And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth…” But do not stop there, “…and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.’ Now, what does that say? That God Almighty fixed the bounds of their habitations. That is as clear as anything that was ever said.” (p. 6)

“Now, what is the matter? 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.” (p. 10)

“I want you folks to listen-you white and you colored folks. Do not let these satanic propagandists fool you. This agitation is not of God. It is of the devil. Do not let people slander God Almighty. God made it plain. God meant for Christian people to treat each other right. … Yes, Paul said, ‘God…hath made of one blood all nations of men…’ All men, to whatever race they may belong, have immortal souls; but all men have mortal bodies, and God fixed the boundaries of the races of the world. Let me repeat that it is no accident that most of the Chinese live in China. It is not an accident that most Japanese live in Japan; and the Africans should have been left in Africa, and the Gospel should have been taken to them as God command His people to do.” (pp. 13 – 14)

“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.

The trouble today is a satanic agitation striking back at God’s established order. That is what is making trouble for us.” (p. 15)

“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.” (p. 22)

“A Christian relationship does not mean a marriage relationship. You can be a Christian and have fellowship with people that you would not marry and that God does not want you to marry and that if you should marry you would be marrying outside the will of God. Why can’t you see that? Why can’t good, solid, substantial people who do not have any hatred and do not have any bitterness see that? Let’s approach this thing in a Christian way. Let’s make the battle a Christian battle. Do not let people run over you by coming along and talking about the Universal Brotherhood of man. There is not Universal Fatherhood of God and Universal Brotherhood of man. There is not a word about that in the Bible.” (p. 28)

Dr. Jones closed with prayer:

“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.” (p. 32)

At Bob Jones University, Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. (who died in 1968) is still venerated on “Founder’s Day” (October 30) with a banquet and a special service honoring his contribution to Christian Fundamentalism, religious broadcasting  & film making (BJU’s film department, Unusual Films, was the idea of Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.) and higher Christian Education. I seriously doubt if Dr. Jones’ segregationist past is mentioned…

…even though ol’ Dr. Bob, Sr. believed segregation was straight from the Mind and Heart of God – and “when the Bible speaks clearly about any subject, that settles it.”

 

[Any emphasis (italics or bold) is strictly my own and did not appear in the original text. Thanks to former BJU student Harry McCall for not giving me permission to use his blog as a source. (Probably would've been polite to ask.)  We’re all on the same team, right Harry? ~ Ekta]