For BJU folks

FOXNews.com - Hannity & Colmes

I didn't catch the show, but I hear that BJU got a mention on the Hannity and Colmes show on the 26th. Here is part of the transcript:

HANNITY: And another page tonight from the HANNITY AND COLMES notebook.

Although he is retiring, South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings, well, he is still making news. Both candidates to replace Hollings in South Carolina were asked yesterday about the senator's recent comment calling the leadership of Bob Jones University, quote, jackasses.

Now, Republican Jim DeMint, he said the comments were a, quote, terrible thing, while Democrat Inez Tenenbaum said that she wasn't familiar with the remarks.

Nothing new here.

Here you go. This is another story about Karen Armstrong. I'm reading through some of her work and hope to at some point share some thoughts on it. This particular piece is a little easier to swallow. However, it also raises other issues.

First, she says, "When you attack a fundamentalist movement it becomes more extreme, which has implications for us today." I have to ask here. How has Fundamentalism become more extreme? Fundamentalism has remained pretty consistent (if anything becoming less separated). Perhaps they simply seem more extreme because they have remained consistent while the cultures around them have changed.

She goes further and gives us a little more insight into her statement, "Membership in al-Qaida has greatly increased, I've been told, since the beginning of the Iraq war," she said. "When people feel their backs are to the wall they will, sadly, lash out violently." Ahhhhh, now we see what she means. If this is the case, then PLEASE stop lumping al-Quida with Fundamentalism (Christian fundamentalism). She has no proof whatsoever that Fundamentalism has "lash[ed] out violently."

Second, in this article, she is given credit for the idea that "for modernity to take hold, two essential ingredients are needed: independence (social, political, religious and intellectual) and innovation." Let's see, does Fundamentalism stand against social, political, religious and intellectual independence? Nope. They certainly stand for the right to participate but that comes with the obvious understanding that our rights depend on the rights of others. Then innovation - I can tell you beyond a doubt that Fundamentalists are NOT against innovation. She invokes the name of Bob Jones University, so I will use BJU as an example. There are any number of innovations on the campus. Not the least of these is BJU's distance learning system. The University is a leader in the use of this technology to provide education to over 35,000 people each day (and the number grows).

The bottom line is that people like Armstrong sit in their ivory towers and draw their conclusions without seeing how those people they claim to experts on actually live.

Finally, my BJU friends, you may have happened across The Moderate Independent piece with the same tired old charge against Bush, "Bush went to the racist and segregationist Bob Jones University in South Carolina; then he said he shouldn't have." Yes. We know that even at the time he came to BJU the school was not segregated - and for that matter rascist (though segregation is an objective measurable thing while rascism is subjective). Note, here, and the thing that bothers me is that the article insinuates that BJU is CURRENTLY racist and segregated.

Proof please.