Wow. I am new to the Greenville area and my first exposure to BJU was reading a news story about how they expelled a student immediately after she reported she was raped, because she had been drinking. (As a Christian and a sexual assault survivor myself, I was and still am appalled by the university's lack of compassion.) I have subsequently encountered a few people affiliated with BJU and it has been interesting. Nice people but at least one with a very "us versus the world" view). I think "unusual" is a good descriptor for this particular university. Thanks for all the insight into it!
I wonder if another frame for this story is a generational split that, as with other things at BJU, lags the rest of the culture a bit. There are *a lot* of new, young-ish faculty at BJU in the last few years. Many of them have fairly deep BJU roots <raises hand>, but many don't. I wonder if some of the old guard is resenting the fact that the younger ones (and even some of the not-so-young-anymore) are no longer willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and aren't buying so much of the us-versus-the-world narrative. The campus definitely has a different feel today than it did 20 years ago, much less 40 years ago. (It no longer feels quite so unusual.) Thus, the conflicts are, in part, a sub-culturally-distinctive version of the much broader trends away from a kind of mid-century social consensus.
Wow. I am new to the Greenville area and my first exposure to BJU was reading a news story about how they expelled a student immediately after she reported she was raped, because she had been drinking. (As a Christian and a sexual assault survivor myself, I was and still am appalled by the university's lack of compassion.) I have subsequently encountered a few people affiliated with BJU and it has been interesting. Nice people but at least one with a very "us versus the world" view). I think "unusual" is a good descriptor for this particular university. Thanks for all the insight into it!
I wonder if another frame for this story is a generational split that, as with other things at BJU, lags the rest of the culture a bit. There are *a lot* of new, young-ish faculty at BJU in the last few years. Many of them have fairly deep BJU roots <raises hand>, but many don't. I wonder if some of the old guard is resenting the fact that the younger ones (and even some of the not-so-young-anymore) are no longer willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and aren't buying so much of the us-versus-the-world narrative. The campus definitely has a different feel today than it did 20 years ago, much less 40 years ago. (It no longer feels quite so unusual.) Thus, the conflicts are, in part, a sub-culturally-distinctive version of the much broader trends away from a kind of mid-century social consensus.
I think that’s right, and as evidence we could point to the rather astonishing faculty letter signed by what looked to be all the academic deans.
Thanks, this is a terrific and fascinating essay.
Thanks for the kind words!
Well written; thank you.
Micah Wright
Thanks!