Big news in fundamentalist-land. Bob Jones University has a new president and his surname is not “Jones.”
And he did not even attend Bob Jones as an undergraduate (although he does an M.A. from the institution and is a current board member).
His name is Stephen D. Pettit and you can learn more about him here.
The announcement:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IEaKCgbQEc]Notice that the candidates had to meet BJU standards on these issues:
- Evangelism (I assume they are for it)
- Fundamentalism (I assume they are for it)
- Biblical Separation (I assume they are for it)
- The Charismatic Movement (I assume they are against it)
- Reformed Theology and the New Calvinism (I think they are against it)
- KJV-Onlyism (I assume they are for it)
- Contemporary Christian Music (I assume they are against it)
- Philosophy of Christian Higher Education From a Biblical Perspective (I assume they are for it)
Right on all accounts except for the KJV; they are “against” it. (-:
In '90s the Bible faculty at BJ had a knock down drag out with the KJV-only folks, especially those at Pennsacola Christian College. BJU allowed their students to use whatever Bible translation they preferred and used non-Textus Receptus manuscript collections in seminary Greek classes.
Thanks, Paul.
I thought Jackson said “evangelism” as well, but a friend just pointed out to me that it's likely he meant to say “evangelicalism” rather than “evangelism.” Otherwise, referencing “broad” and “conservative” wouldn't make much sense; it's not the right jargon for evangelism in those circles. In which case, a yay for “evangelism” turns into a “nay” for evangelicalism. We might have found one of the handful of things that BJU and DG Hart would agree on. (-;
That makes perfect sense, Paul. I have a question for you–to what extent do BJU faculty have to toe the line on these doctrines?
In public and in class they have to give at least lip service to all approved positions.
In private they tolerate a bit more latitude–you could attend a KJV-only church or be a John Piper fanboy–but if you mentioned your private opinions in class and it caused embarrassment to the administration, your days will not be long upon the land.