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REENVILLE, S.C. — within an move that is unexpected Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian institution which had come under nationwide criticism for the ban on interracial relationship among its students, abandoned that long-held policy, its president, Bob Jones 3d stated tonight.
Mr. Jones, within an look regarding the CNN system „Larry King Live,” stated he had expected the college’s board this to end the policy afternoon.
„In reality, to date, we now have fallen the rule,” Mr. Jones stated.
In their remarks, Mr. Jones, grandson associated with college’s creator, supplied only an explanation that is brief saying your decision ended up being datingservicesonline.net/silverdaddies-review/ centered on a notion that critique within the policy had been threatening to obscure the college’s Christian objective. „We have actually a wider testimony,” he said.
Mr. Jones included: „we believed to our administration, ‚You understand, dudes, this thing is of these insignificance to us, it really is therefore significant towards the globe most importantly, the news specially, why should we now have this right right here being a barrier?’ ” then he said that the ban had damaged the trustworthiness of the college’s graduates and Protestantism that is possibly conservative as. „I do not wish to harm the church of Jesus Christ,” Mr. Jones stated.
Your decision additionally came only days after Democrats in Congress had proposed an answer that could have condemned the college for the ban as well as statements that Bob Jones leaders are making about Roman Catholicism, that have been interpreted as assaults on Catholics as a whole (an intent that the college has denied).
The announcement amounted to a turnaround that is remarkable Bob Jones, a 73-year-old organization that hews to an unapologetic adherence to classic Protestant fundamentalism. The university lost its tax exemption in 1983 after a 13-year legal fight. And also as belated as Wednesday, the college ended up being trying to give an explanation for ban on interracial relationship relating to its belief that the Bible shows that Jesus doesn’t require a unified and undifferentiated world.
„Jesus made racial distinctions as he made sex distinctions,” stated a declaration the college posted on its web page. But, the declaration added, whenever Jesus stopped people from building the Tower of Babel, a whole story told in Genesis, Jesus did therefore to avoid them from creating „one-world federal government.”
„considering this biblical account (Genesis 10 and 11),” the statement stated, „the college desires to offer Jesus the main benefit of any question and steer clear of pursuing any direction that will offer assist with the renewed efforts of guy generate a one-world community composed of one faith, one economy, one government and another competition.”
Despite its stance, the college has admitted interracial married couples.
In the remarks, Mr. Jones stated that although the concept by that the college’s previous ban ended up being based stayed essential, the ban itself was „meaningless to us.”
With its Internet declaration, the university described Catholic values as being a „false system,” but asserted it adored Catholics as people and wished to transform them.
The matter stumbled on the fore following the check out on Feb. 2 by Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, an applicant for the Republican presidential nomination. Mr. Bush’s opponents, Republicans and Democrats alike, faulted him for perhaps perhaps not using the possibility to speak out resistant to the ban that is dating the statements in the Catholic faith.
Tonight, after Mr. Jones’s statement, Mr. Bush stated: „i am heartened to know that Bob Jones University has reversed its ban on interracial relationship. It had been incorrect to start with, so in retrospect I spoke down resistant to the ban once I had been expected about any of it at a news seminar soon after my check out here. Tonight, the institution has been doing the best thing.”
The university said it did not hate Catholics, but asserted that a „wide gulf” existed between Catholic and Protestant beliefs in a paid advertisement that Bob Jones took out today in USA Today and in South Carolina newspapers.
Within the ads, the college contended it was being falsely accused in news reports as being a haven for bigotry. Alternatively, it stated that the issue that is real the debate had been the college’s constitutional directly to its spiritual freedom.