When Christopher Peterman set up a Facebook Page asking his Christian university to "do right", the school promised that they would not retaliate against him. The page had been set up to push the BJU to end it's relationship with Charles Phelps, a preacher who is a rape apologist.
With only days before he was set to graduate, Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina expelled him, leaving him without a degree. The university says that the student was expelled for watching the TV show "Glee". Tune in every Saturday Live at 9am est
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What a bunch of Christo-Nazi pigs.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth? To those who worried: I made it home okay.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait when people start publishing the whole story and not this load of crap. Seriously, not as many people are believing this hogwash as you might think. Even people with no ties to the university smell something fishy.
ReplyDeleteI'm a personal friend of Chris and his family. I've been privy to everything, including all the recordings. There is nothing fishy except the way he was treated by the arrogant jerks who run BJU and think they answer to no one.
DeleteEverything is documented. Chris had the counsel of many former BJU students and alumni ever since the Do Right BJU campaign. If you want to gear your suspicions toward anyone, gear them toward the Admins of BJU. (DJ Forrester-Roberts)
Has anyone called the cops on the guy yet? I'm sure an extra visit on campus from some real cops (as opposed to BoJo 5-0) could make things interesting.
ReplyDeleteGreat show! I wanna know more about these threats, if you can PM me. DJ Forrester-Roberts
ReplyDeleteI listened to the pod cast and Chris stated that watching TV is not against the rules. Here's a c/p from the university handbook...
ReplyDelete"Students are not to watch television via the Internet on their cell phones or computers."
Even if you don't agree with this rule...he signed the agreement to abide by it. So he broke this rule. Like it or not, you break a rule, you pay the consequences. Granted, it's not the most horrible thing anyone could do but let's make sure he's telling the truth.
Can I clarify something about the Phelps incident? Ernie Willis was convicted of raping Tina Anderson--Chuck Phelps was the pastor who forced her to apologize to the church for getting pregnant and told her she was lucky she didn't live in Old Testament times, showing her a verse in Deuteronomy that talks about stoning a rape victim. He sent her out of state immediately after, keeping her with another church/cult family until she gave birth. Ernie Willis wasn't put on trial until fifteen years later. At the time of the trial, Phelps was elected to the board at BJU. He also had been involved in teaching pastoral ethics there (yeah, the man who covered up a rape in his church and who blamed the victim was set to teach pastoral ethics this semester) Chris Peterman then started the protest, and well, you covered what happened.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to make sure it was absolutely clear that Phelps wasn't convicted of rape, but he covered up a rape in his church. Willis was actually the rapist. It came across somewhat confusing in the way that it was said on the show. Thanks!
You are absolutley correct and Chuck Phelps also knowingly lied to his own church and tried to make the confession night audiance assume that Ernest Willis just had an afair with another woman, more his age, somwhere out there and that Tina Anderson probably just got pregant by some kid in the area.
DeleteThis allowed a known convicted rapist that confessed this fact to Chuck Phelps, to run around the Church without anyone knowing he was a rapist and who knows how many other little girls or boys this creep raped?
Bob Jones and his supporters that purposley over look these continuos criminal acts and or at least huge un Christ like behavior, need to realize that we, the majority, have lost our pride in your school, your leadership and the things you say you stand for we also see a lie.
Thank God Christopher helped bring all of this into light. Thank God for people like Christopher Peterman who have the truth and love it more than themselves. SHAME ON BJU - SHAME, SHAME SHAME!!!
Students cannot watch TV *while on University campus*, but Chris was off campus at Starbucks. The special committee convened to judge Chris' spirituality and whether he would graduate even agreed; there is no rule prohibiting watching TV off campus. After all, the GAs, faculty, and staff all do so with impunity. However, the still gave him 50 demerits anyway because they decided arbitrarily that the content of Glee was "morally reprehensible." Hogwash, of course.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this verse in Deuteronomy about stoning a rape victim?
ReplyDeleteDeuteronomy 22:24
Delete"Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you."
Even though she was raped in a car and again in her home when she was home alone, Phelps used that verse to suggest that she was responsible for the rape and that she would have been stoned in Bible times.
The most sobering reality in the world today...is that Bob Jones cares more about what a student is watching than he does about feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.
ReplyDeleteWhile not a BJU grad, I did go to a school of similar intensity where those who thought they knew how it all is spent a lot of time overseeing those who they thought had no clue. I was a church pastor for 26 years and then outgrew it realizing that I was not told or taught in my youth I wished I had known to make decisions about religion and belief. As time goes on, students at BJU, or many at least, will realize how programmed and made to conform to the ideas of others even when common sense may have told them otherwise. When the outside of you matches the inside, you will be an authentic human being. Don't allow others to always set your views.
ReplyDeleteI posted yesterday on the CNN iReport article about my own experiences with BJU. Today I googled around some more and found your podcast which I enjoyed very much and I'm glad to know about your show. I look forward to hearing more of it but I think you and Chris both do yourselves a disservice when you exaggerate.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me as if Chris did not get expelled for watching Glee. He got expelled for several violations and the Glee issue put him over the top on his demerits. While that may be a stupid thing to get demerits for, it's disingenuous to imply it was that one act that got him expelled. When I was a student there, most of my demerits were for having long hair which at BJU meant that it wasn't tapered properly. (I don't think it was ever more than an inch long in the back but that's a big no-no there.) But if I had gotten a bunch of demerits for swearing or something else more serious, and then gotten a few more for "long hair" that put me over the limit, I wouldn't have been so disingenuous as to claim I was booted because my hair wasn't tapered. I would mention all the offenses. I think Chris is doing the very thing that BJU faculty and many other fundamentalists are known for doing, creating a problem then playing the victim. Any idiot would know BJU would not approve of a show like Glee so why post it on Facebook when you know the faculty is reading your Facebook? In my day we were a lot more subversive about our subversion. Sounds like he was just looking to create an issue, which is sad, because his original issue about the crazy ass preacher Phelps, was a worthy battle.
And Daisy you didn't get a death threat. You had someone with no known affiliation to BJU leave you a non-sensical message. It almost sounds like a spam-bot post. And it's completely over the top and inaccurate to claim that attending BJU makes one a racist.
Having said all that, I enjoyed your other points very much such as your comparison to the Church of Scientology. BJU is very cult like. That's the nature of any form of fundamentalism. And I'm glad Chris is raising awareness about the bizarreness of BJU. When I was a student I was sent a letter by one of the Deans saying they felt it was in their best interest for me to graduate as soon as possible so they were approving a fast track plan for me to get out sooner. When I declined they weren't happy about me being there an extra semester and it seemed as if every time I turned around they were attempting to catch me at something that they could expel me for. Several years later I was sent a letter from the president of BJU telling me I was banned from their campus as a result of writing a letter to the Greenville News they didn't care for.
So I wish Chris the best of luck, and I think one day he'll realize this was the best thing that could have happened to him. Having BJU on a resume beside your degree doesn't work out very well. He'll be much better off having his degree be from somewhere more legitimate. And I think he'll find more of his credit's transfer than he's been led to believe. There seems to be a whisper campaign on campus that BJU credits don't transfer. This belief keeps students from defecting.
And Daisy you didn't get a death threat. You had someone with no known affiliation to BJU leave you a non-sensical message.
ReplyDeleteWhat I got was a whole Facebook page dedicated to me, with 36 members (about half of them employees of BJU) titled "Do Right Daisy Deadhead" The screen shot is on my blog. The page said "We gonna find you" and "we gonna get you". When a man says that to a woman, that is an open threat. Maybe if it was addressed to some woman you cared about, your wife, mother, sister or daughter? You would realize this.
And it's completely over the top and inaccurate to claim that attending BJU makes one a racist.
This man who threatened me on the Facebook page called ME a racist (for what, not quite sure) and I simply said, I'd be careful saying that kind of thing if I attended a college founded by a kkk sympathizer, as of course, Bob Jones II was. That is VERY FAR from saying 'everyone who attends BJU is a racist' and I am unsure how you got that out of what I said.
The one question that is pending in my mind is: Is Chris a gay or straight man? We the people are wondering the truth in this matter! And For another topic on hand! We think that he should invest in a proper lawyer and take this to court!
ReplyDeleteThat is VERY FAR from saying 'everyone who attends BJU is a racist' and I am unsure how you got that out of what I said.
ReplyDeleteDaisy, at 7:15 you say, "You're racist if you attend Bob Jones." I'm not sure how else to interpret that other than to assume you mean that anyone who attends BJU is racist.
What I got was a whole Facebook page dedicated to me, with 36 members (about half of them employees of BJU) titled "Do Right Daisy Deadhead" The screen shot is on my blog.
This Umanzor kid doesn't sound like he's threatening you with violence. "We gonna get you" is just internet punk talk. On your screen shot it shows him saying, "...everyone be respectful, no hate on hate..." He's just a dumb kid from what I can tell. Who knows why he called you a racist? It appears that English is not his first language. He's probably just confused.
BTW, you've got your Bobs mixed up. Bob Sr. started the college and yes he was a KKK sympathizer as were many white Southern men in the 1920's. Bob II is the one who said the pope is the antichrist and once stated of Alexander Haig that he hoped God would "smite him hip and thigh, bone and marrow, heart and lungs." It's true that BJU didn't admit blacks for many years, but the same is true of Clemson and Furman. And BJU did have a prohibition on interracial dating until the year 2000 and until a year ago they also had a dorm named after Bibb Graves, an Exalted Cyclops in the KKK. So yes there is a racist history, but most students aren't aware of it and would be opposed to it.
Another fun fact, remember when George Bush was running against McCain in the primary? It was a BJU professor, Richard Hand, who started an e-mail campaign claiming that McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh was an illegitimate child he had "sired" with a black woman. Hand is about as nutty as they come. In one of my classes he claimed that a section from the Old Testament had a prophecy that specifically mentioned himself and warned him not to run in a local political race. Another time in a chapel message, he claimed the Gulf War was prophesied in the Bible.
So you see, there is really no need for exaggeration. There are plenty of cooky things that go on there.
Your article is incorrect where it says that "The university says that the student was expelled for watching the TV show "Glee"." The University has made no statement as to the nature of Mr. Peterman's expulsion.
ReplyDelete