>Not that this is anything to do with the above thread, but is this Bob Jones >place for r

>Not that this is anything to do with the above thread, but is this Bob Jones
>place for real? I saw an article about it a while ago (I think in _The_Sunday_
>Times_) and I was so amazed that I didn't know how much to believe. Is the
>place really as bad as it was made out? (i.e. no unsupervised contact between
>males & females, no mixed-race 'relationships', censorship of TV etc.)
>If it is that bad, why on Earth would anyone actually *choose* to go there?
>Does anyone know if the students get Internet access? It seems to me that
>if TV is censored, access to the full horror of the net would be completely 
>out.
>Regards,

Yes, BJ is like that. the reason for its existence lies in the fears of
its alumni and other fundies. The school is surrounded by a tall fence and
shrubs on three sides, and a spiked iron fence along the front. It takes
in victims in Kindergarten, and releases them at the end of their college
career. In the '60s, barbed wire was put up and the gaurds either had or
tried to get automatic weapons (I didn't live there then, confirmations,
anyone?).

BJ is a very big money institution. When told that they would lose federal
funding if they failed to integrate, they became independent with help from
all sorts of fundie groups and rich white hypochondriac Xtians. It is
considered by many of these people as the last place they would trust their
children, without fear of contamination by inferior classes.

A large number of former coworkers and close friends of mine are BJ
graduates, and the majority of them are good people (at least on the surface). 
BJ is known for excellent academic qualities (tho' I wouldn't reccomend
taking Natural History or Astrophysics there), and some of the alumni I
know went there for those reasons (though their parents may have heaved a
sigh of relief).

BJ has the largest collection of religous art in North America, including
many masterpieces. I never managed to go see them, I tended to crank heavy
metal tunes when I drove by.

It is still a punishable offence for a white female student to be seen
socially with a black male.

I think the white purists (I'll be nice and save 'racist' for other
occasions) are just circling their wagons. Many of the students have not
lived a long and varied enough life to form their own opinions, so I'll let
them off the hook. 'Smatter-o-fact, most of the students have been so
protected they don't know the difference.

My experience with adolescent BJers is extensive, and bad. I have heard
(and witnessed) *many* incidents where BJ kids steal, drink (alot), smoke
(alot) and torment and persecute different races. I have been involved in
at least one situation where BJ kids robbed and abused a very nice girl
because she married the wrong complexion. Now I was a trouble kid in
school, so I don't need to hear ("all kids..."). Many of these kids are very
sick - the only analogy I can think of is Hitler youth. I have never seen
anything like this so embedded, organized and supported, particularily
among kids who should be old enough to tell right from wrong.

-chris blask

welcome to the 20th Century. airbags are mandatory