#Lonnie Polson

[wutbju]

Professor Lonnie Polson posted his comments to the BJU Board of Trustees Executive Committee yesterday.

Now, Lonnie is logical and strategic. I don't think I worked with anyone in the BJU Speech dept who more clearly demonstrated the gift of administration as the Apostle Paul describes it. He's a problem-solver through and through.

So when Lonnie gives advice, honestly? You should listen. Just sayin'. And he told the Executive Committee:

I'm writing to petition the executive committee of the board to name Dr. Gary Weier (or another current administrator or senior faculty member) as interim president. It's been an incredibly stressful year for the BJU family. What the faculty and students need most is a season of stability and healing. My fear is that naming an interim from outside the current leadership would be counterproductive to meeting that need. I believe also that naming a current administrator or senior faculty member as interim would send a reassuring message to those who are considering attending BJU. We have so many potential applicants who have not yet "pulled the trigger" on full application because they're taking a wait-and-see approach. I can't blame them. We could do much to communicate stability and viability to our constituency by appointing a known entity from within the current leadership as the face of the school. Frankly, the primary existential threat to the university is low enrollment. Naming a current administrator or senior faculty member as interim would also allow the board adequate time to recruit and vet a new president without having to onboard a temporary one. I do not presume to speak for the entire faculty, but I'm convinced nearly all of us would give similar input. Thanks for listening.

The big takeaways here are, it seems to me:

The BJU students and employees are exhausted.

Applicants for the Class of 2027 are hesitant.

Low enrollment is imminent and would kill BJU.

A temporary/interim needs to be an internal hire.

Gary Weier would be the best choice.

Lonnie's right, of course. I can't say that loudly enough. When Lonnie gives advice, you should listen.

Will they?

[wutbju]

So how's Steve Pettit doing since he's left BJU?

Sunday, November 26, 2023 Pettit and his team were at the once-banned across the street, White Oak Baptist.

Pastor Lonnie Polson gave Pettit all the credit for the school now being accepted (again) into the BJU fold (10:10):

[Steve Pettit was] previously the president of Bob Jones University…. Flourished under his ministry there…. We at White Oak are especially indebted to Dr. Pettit because through his initiative we have a vibrant relationship between this church and Bob Jones University. And it's been a mutual blessing.

The group sang the scripturally-deficient pop song "Mary, Did You Know?" with the ol' country excuse, "We are not that practiced on it" (39:55).

Classy.

But this part of Pettit's introductions are just weird (28:03):

And then playing bass here is Mr. Luke Bomar. And Luke is here from Greenville, South Carolina. Luke graduated from high school (BJA Class of 2023) back in May. I asked him, I said, "What are you going to do this Fall. He says, "Well, I want to go to BJU to study double bass." I said, "You don't need to go to BJU." I said, "You need to go to PU. That's called Pettit University. And uh you'll learn in one year playing the bass with us what no other double bass player's going to learn. And that is you get to learn how to play in a group especially because the bass is so important."

Yes, that's your former university president right there: thinking he's giving a baccalaureate degree by just hanging around his amateur self.

[wutbju]

Here's another odd happening in BJU-land.

BJU admissions counselor and brother to current Dean-of-Men is the current pastor of "Christ the Redeemer" on 118 Mason Street in Greenville. He seems to argue that being an admissions counselor [at BJU] is a feature not a bug.

It's a SBC church officially. This is hilariously new trend in BJU-Land. Lonnie Polson pastors White Oak Baptist (SBC). It wasn't that long ago that BJU was pretending to be completely aghast at any attempt at "fellowship" with the SBC. But we are in strange times.

This church is weirder for BJU-land.

The word "Baptist" does not appear anywhere in the church name, but they are so very Baptist (of course). They use the ancient Chi Rho symbol as their logo.

And they play liturgical with their "ordinary time" nomenclature.

There's one other odd thing.

[wutbju]

When Andrew Pledger and I were talking on his podcast, Surviving BJU: A Christian Cult, he mentioned a sermon he heard from a BJU ministerial student that told his nursing home resident audience that Satan lived in them.

I was kind of shocked that this heresy is still getting repeated at BJU.

I found that statement in Jim Berg's heretical Changed into His Image. The exact statement on page 36 is:

There can be little doubt that God sees our independent spirit--the very thing that the world considers a virtue--as the root problem of man. Our heart says, 'I will make life work my own way!' It raises a clenched fist toward the heavens and asserts, 'I will do it my way!' . . . Here then is the defiance of our flesh. . . . This fleshly nature is perpetually at war with God. It will not be subject. It will not be ruled. It is no wonder, then, that when we begin to submit to the Spirit of God as He works in our lives that our flesh rises up and resists that work of God. We possess within us a clone of Satan's own nature, and it violently opposes God

That's anti-Scriptural. Look for it. It's not there. It's actually a variation on the Bulgarian heresy, a kind of Manichean yin-yang.

It's anti-Gospel.

I first discovered this in 2005 and posted this on my old Xanga blog. Jim Berg heard about it, and he was not pleased. So we met at the Atlanta Bread Company in Cherrydale. I told him this statement was not Scriptural. He claimed it was just "literary flourish." He pretended to write down what I was saying. He ignored it all, of course.

When I brought this up again with Stephen Jones and Gary Weier in July 2007, Stephen said something like, "Oh, I never really paid attention when I was reading that. I just ignored it." Lonnie Polson told me the same thing.

Nobody pays attention, you see. Nobody. That's how heresy gets repeated over and over and over so that even Andrew Pledger -- some 17 years after the fact -- is traumatized by the same heresy from a ministerial student.

I compiled all the heresies from Jim Berg in a post in 2008, and I summarized it all as follows:

The redeemed are inhabited both by Satan's clone and God's Spirit, and these bitter enemies are at war inside us. "The world" joins the battle and attacks us with a sort of biochemical warfare where even casual and unprotected contact puts us at risk. Spiritual "surgical gloves" are necessary to protect our spiritual lives. Adding to the crisis, even in childhood the flesh/sin is a cancer eating away at our souls so that we need spiritual chemotherapy very early if God will use us at all. And if all goes well--if the clone gets resisted, the gloves are regularly used, and the chemotherapy works--ideally, we'll become God's submissive pet.

That is not at all what the Bible teaches. That is not the Good News!

What does the Bible actually say? See Romans 8. Paul says that the battle was over at the cross, and we're just cleaning up the damage now. We're through and through God's children, not His pets! He doesn't withhold His love waiting for us to act like we should. No father would! He loves us first just because He's chosen to.

THAT is Good News. BJU preaches the opposite.

[wutbju]

Will compromise work?

That's the question.

Clearly this is a melding of the factions that now make up Bob Jones University: academic (Gary knows the ins-and-outs of SACSCOC accreditation), ordained minister and student life (Benson), and old-school fundamentalist Baptist (McAllister signed the FBFI letter, after all).

While BJU likes to say that Alan Benson was a "diversity hire" (a laughable, BJU-esque conclusion), his role as BJU's post-Berg-and-post-Newton "Dean of Students" means he's been at the forefront of BJU's "standard" changes.

The kids like Benson. He doesn't have an evangelist's ego charm, but he's been in the pulpit for Chapel (more on that later). He's known.

Weier and Benson fulfill what Lonnie Polson was arguing. This is stable. The Board listened. Frankly, I'm surprised they did, but they did!

And now for Bruce McAllister. He was the Vintage Dedicatee in 2014. He "transitioned" his ministry office to Nathan Crockett in 2013. But in 2020, he's still listed as a member of the Administration in charge of "pastoral relations."

So he's been a BJU top diplomat to pastors. But he hasn't spoken at BJU since March 2015. He hasn't been listed in the catalogs as an administrator since 2017.

The conclusion of the matter is this: BJU had to pull someone from retirement in order to find a person with enough connections to the Original BJU™ to satisfy the FBFI crowd and who would be compliant with BJU.

McAllister is a nice enough guy. He's bland. He obeys. He complies. He's a compromise.

Will this compromise work? Time will tell.

[wutbju]

I wrote about Ted Mercer back in 2012 -- eleven years ago.

He was the 1951 Vintage dedicatee. Over the years that's always a tell. If they dedicate a Vintage to you, you'll be on the way out. It's a love bomb. Watch for them to dedicate the 2023 Vintage to Steve Pettit.

The first time I heard about Mercer was ~1993 when I was listening to my first graduate audition in the Division of Speech. A young man from Bryan College was applying for a graduate assistantship. And one of the senior, hoary-headed members of our faculty said to us all (something like), “Are we sure we should let him in? He is, after all, from Bryan.” Her words were pregnant with a mysterious and sinister meaning.

That was Dottie Harris.

Now I was the youngest faculty member in this group. And . . . I’m a little bit clueless as I’ve said before. So, in typical fashion, I just asked earnestly, “What do you mean? What’s wrong with Bryan?” Another less-junior-than-I colleague -- it was Lonnie Polson -- nodded and agreed, “Yeah, I’d like to know too! I have no idea.” And the senior member just sighed and shook her head, disappointed with these children these days about how they know nothing of the past. . . . I think. I don’t know why she was sighing. But I never heard the details that day.

Mercer graduated from BJU in 1943 -- president of the Senior Class. Immediately BJC made him the Dean of Men, and soon after he was the "Assistant to the President" through 1953.

But then it all fell apart. Something happened to piss off Bob Sr. so badly that he raged at Mercer -- raged so loudly that it's still in Dan Turner's official history. To explain his side, Mercer sent this “Statement Concerning my Dismissal from Bob Jones University” to BJU Board of Trustees after his firing on June 15, 1953.

If you’ve ever found yourself on the other side of a BJU administrator’s desk feeling the ax hovering above your neck, the statement reads eerily prophetic.

The litany of accusations against him are mostly familiar. We’ve all been called the same whether in front of or behind our backs — “avowed enemy of the school,” unfaithful, inefficient, deceitful, “one of the greatest crooks in the history of the school,” demon-possessed, “the devil.” Mercer euphemizes the most intense accusation of homosexuality under the term “my moral character” — an accusation that still lingers.

You’ll want to look at the list of BJU Board Members near the end. It’s at the very least intriguing. There’s Homer Rodeheaver and Jack Wyrtzen. There’s Mordecai Ham and Ernest Reveal. And you see some familiar fathers there. Look. There’s Ted Mercer’s dad, Jim. And John MacArthur, Sr. (father of the John MacArthur, Jr.). and William Piper (father of John Piper).

BJU apparently was undergoing an enormous faculty turnover in the 1952-53 school year — a movement that would only continue into the years to come. Mercer includes one letter of resignation in the end of his pamphlet from Karl E. Keefer. We who have been associated with BJU since 1952 don’t know Dr. Keefer. We do know his replacement very well — a 24-year-old Dwight Gustafson.

Then there's an additional statement to the Alumni. Read it. Notice Mercer’s description of faculty salaries and treatment, the Joneses’ attitude toward accreditation, their capricious and egocentric rule, their tendency for hyperbole, and their habit of playing good-cop-bad-cop with the younger Jones vs. the elder Jones.

Just change the dates and the people or the suffix on the end of the administrator’s name.

Nothing has changed at BJU.

If you're surprised at the John Lewis & Bob Jones III behavior, you haven't been paying attention. This is really old news.

[wutbju]

Friend of the Archive, Mark Ward, Jr., is gushing over Jim Berg's "now classic" Changed Into His Image, now freshly published with the ESV verses with Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing.

Shameful. The whole thing is shameful. It's a terrible, heretical book and the opposite of "reformed" in every way. The GRACE Report documented the trauma this book and Berg has caused. Why oh why would anybody amplify it?

And when I was objecting to this book in 2005-2007, no one on campus had actually read it. Lonnie Polson, Gary Weier, and Stephen Jones all said to be directly that they couldn't get through it.

Shameful.

[wutbju]

This archivist and her husband lived at 14 Seminar Drive back campus from 1992 to 1996. On one side of us were the Ralph Cloughs. On the other side were the Jeff Stegalls. Our house had been the sun room for the Stegall’s house (they were attached), and both together had been over where the Dining Common now is when BJU bought the property.

Lots of people had lived in this house before us. Gary and Rebecca Weier were before us. Lonnie and Margaret Polson before them. And long before them were the Lou and Coretta Grass.

It was a cheerful little house. Those windows made the whole house cheerful. But it was painfully small. And if you were hiding out during Bible Conference or some other required event, you had to be VERY sneaky.

[wutbju]

After the “campus speaker” concern, we get to the next most obvious complaint:

We have deep concerns about the church attendance policies for students and faculty members that allow students to attend SBC churches and churches that are attractional in worship style.

Is anybody surprised that this group of FUNDAMENTALIST Baptists who have graduated from BJU does not like that BJU employees are pastoring and attending Southern Baptist churches?

I mean, come on, BJU folks. Lonnie Polson and Jeff Stegall are at White Oak. That’s just a few yards from the front gate. Did you think that after 100 years of Bob Jones Sr. and Jr. and III railing about anything not-BJU that people would just drop it?

The term “attractional in worship style” is odd and could be a fundamentalist trademark. Steve Pettit talked about it in a BJU Faculty Meeting in 2019:

He stated that he wanted the students to learn “how to identify a church that is committed to a biblical doxological approach to worship in contrast to an attractional model with a whole different motivation.”

Whatever that means.

[wutbju]

So Bob Jones University finally listed their acceptable churches for students and employees. Yesterday Steve Pettit explained the new regulations in Chapel. We’ll get to what he said later. It’s pretty typical.

WutBJU first published this list nearly three years ago. But with much attention and falderal and praise for how WONDERFUL BJU is, they expanded its list by ...

... nearly 6%!

Way to broaden your horizons, BJU! All that attention. All that press. All those selfies. For seven more churches? 

And you didn’t even curate your old list to eliminate the closed churches? There are as many added churches as closed churches. 

So here’s the list that BJU was so proud of. Sixteen of the churches are KJV-only. Three are PCA and three are SBC. White Oak Baptist in on the list -- Bill Piper’s old church. Guess who’s pastoring that one? Oh, we’ll talk about that later. 

Agnew Road Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Anchor Baptist Church (Seneca)❌ 👨‍🦳

Berean Baptist Church (Fountain Inn)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Bessie Road Baptist Church (Piedmont)🔍👨‍🦳

Beth Haven Baptist Church (Simpsonville)👌👴🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Bethany Baptist Church (Brevard, NC)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Bethany Bible Church (Hendersonville, NC)👌👴🎓 👨‍🦳

Bethel Calvary Baptist Church (Taylors)👌 📖 👨‍🦳

Bible Baptist Church (Simpsonville)📖 👨‍🦳

Bible Baptist Church (Travelers Rest)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Calvary Baptist Church (Belton)🔍👨‍🦳

Calvary Baptist Church (Greer)👌 👨‍🦳

Calvary Baptist Church (Landrum)🔍👨‍🦳

Calvary Baptist Church (Liberty)🔍👨‍🦳

Calvary Baptist Church (Simpsonville)👌 👴🎓 💒😎👨‍🦳

Camp Creek Baptist Church (Central)🔍👨‍🦳

Choice Hills Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 📖 👨‍🦳

Cleveland Park Bible Church (Spartanburg)👌 👴🎓 👨‍🦳

Colonial Hills Baptist Church (Taylors)👌 🎓 💒👨‍🦳

Community Baptist Church (Greer)👌 🎓 💒👨‍🦳

Community Bible Church of Holly Springs👌 👴🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Cornerstone Baptist Church (Alden, NC)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Cornerstone Baptist Church (Greenville)👌👴 🎓💒👨‍🦳

Easley Bible Methodist Church (Easley)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

East Georgia Road Baptist Church (Simpsonville)📖 👨‍🦳

Emmanuel Baptist Church (Greer) 📖 👶

Emmanuel Bible Church (Greenville)👴🎓😎👨‍🦳

Evangelical Bible Church (Greer)❌ 👨‍🦳

Faith Baptist Church (Boiling Springs)❌ 👨‍🦳

Faith Baptist Church (Easley)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Faith Baptist Church (Reidville)👌 🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Faith Baptist Church (Simpsonville)👌 📖 🎓 👨‍🦳

Faith Baptist Church (Taylors)👌 🎓 💒👨‍🦳

Faith Free Presbyterian Church (Greenville)👌 💒👨‍🦳

Fellowship Baptist Church (Anderson)📖 👨‍🦳

Fellowship Baptist Church (Duncan)📖 👨‍🦳

Fellowship Baptist Church (Fountain Inn)🔍👨‍🦳

Fellowship Baptist Church (Taylors)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Fellowship Baptist Church (Simpsonville)🔍

Fellowship Presbyterian Church (Greer) 👶🌷

First Baptist Church (Conestee)👌 📖 👨‍🦳

First Baptist Church (Prosperity)❌👨‍🦳

First Freewill Baptist (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

Foreign Students Fellowship (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

Foundation Baptist Church (Easley)❌👨‍🦳

Freedom Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 📖 👨‍🦳

Gateway Baptist Church (Travelers Rest)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Gethsemane  Baptist Church (Greenville)📖 🎓 👨‍🦳

Gideon Baptist Church (Easley)📖 👨‍🦳

Good News Baptist Church (Spartanburg)❌ 👨‍🦳

Gospel Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (Dacula, GA)🔍👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (East Flat Rock)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (Landrum)📖 👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (Liberty)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (Pelzer)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (Starr)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Grace Baptist Church (Taylors) 🎓👶

Grace Baptist Fellowship (Greenville)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Grace Bible Church (Greenville)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Grace Bible Church (Moore)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Grace Community Bible Church (Simpsonville)🎓 👨‍🦳

Greenville Christian Fellowship (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

Greenville First Korean Baptist Church🔍👨‍🦳

Grigg’s Memorial Baptist Church (Greenville)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Hampton Park Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 👴🎓 💒😎👨‍🦳

Harmony Baptist Church (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

Harvest Baptist Church (Rock Hill)🎓 👨‍🦳

Heritage Baptist Church (Fountain Inn)👌 👨‍🦳

Heritage Bible Church (Greer)👌 👴🎓 💒😎👨‍🦳

Hope Baptist Church (Anderson)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Hope Baptist Church (Greenville)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Hope [Independent] Presbyterian Church (Greenville)👌 🎓 😎 👨‍🦳

Iglesia Bautista Calvario de Greer (Greer)👌 👨‍🦳

Iglesia Bautista de Ia Fe (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

Iglesia Bautista de Ia Gracia (East Flat Rock, NC)🔍👨‍🦳

Iglesia Bautista Fundamental  Tabernaculo (Greenville)🎓 👨‍🦳

Iglesia Biblica Evangelica (Greer)🔍👨‍🦳

Independent  Bible Church (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

Korean Free Presbyterian Church (Taylors)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Korean Grace Church of Greenville🔍👨‍🦳

Landmark Baptist Church (Easley)👌 👨‍🦳

Maranatha Baptist Church (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

Maranatha Baptist Church (Landrum) 📖 👨‍🦳

Midway Bible Church (Pelzer)👌 👴🎓 👨‍🦳

Morningside Baptist Church (Greenville)👌🎓 💒😎👨‍🦳

Mount Calvary Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 👴🎓 👨‍🦳

New Life Baptist Church (Spartanburg)❌ 👨‍🦳

Northside Baptist Church (Greenville)🎓 👨‍🦳

Oakwood Baptist Church (Anderson)🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Overbrook Gospel Chapel (Greenville)👌 🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Palmetto Baptist Church (Easley)👌 👴🎓 👨‍🦳

Paramount Park Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

Parkwood Baptist Church (Greenville) 📖 👨‍🦳

Rock Springs Baptist Church (Easley) 👶🌻

Roper Mountain Baptist Church (Greenville) 👶🌻

Second Presbyterian Church (Greenville)👶 🌷

Sonpoint Baptist Fellowship (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

South Pointe Baptist Church (Anderson)🔍👨‍🦳

Suber Road Baptist Church (Greer)👌 👴 🎓 💒😎👨‍🦳

Summit View Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

Tabernacle Baptist Church (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

Temple Baptist Church (Anderson)🔍👨‍🦳

Temple Baptist Church (Asheville, NC)🎓 👨‍🦳

Tri City Baptist Church (Easley)🔍👨‍🦳

Trinity Baptist Church (Easley)🔍👨‍🦳

Trinity Baptist Church (Gaffney)👴🎓 👨‍🦳

Trinity Bible Church (Greer)👌👴 🎓 💒👨‍🦳

Unity Baptist Church (Greenville)👌 👨‍🦳

University Baptist Church (Clemson)👴🎓 😎👨‍🦳

Victory Baptist Church (Easley)🔍👨‍🦳

Victory Baptist Church (Simpsonville)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

Victory Baptist Church (Walhalla)🎓 👨‍🦳

Victory Baptist Church (Woodruff)🔍👨‍🦳

Westgate Baptist Church (Spartanburg)👌 🎓 👨‍🦳

White Horse Heights Baptist Church (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

White Oak Baptist Church (Greenville) 🎓👴👶😎🌻

Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church (Simpsonville)🎓 👶 🌷

Wrenn Memorial Baptist Church (Greenville)🎓 👨‍🦳

Zion Hill Baptist Church (Greenville)🔍👨‍🦳

Key:

❌ Closed

🔍 Little-to-no information available on the pastoral staff or distinctives.

👌 BJU listed church previously on public list

👴 BJU employees on staff

🎓 BJU alumni on staff

😎 BJU alumni who do not admit their alma mater on their church bio.

📖 KJV Only

💒 BJU Megachurch

👨‍🦳Previously listed

👶 New Listing

🌷Denominational Member of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA)

🌻Denominational Member of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)

[wutbju]

Andy Petersen is the spouse of current Bob Jones University faculty member, Valarie Petersen. In discussing a 20-year-old document as proof of Bob Jones University’s treatment of alumni on WutBJU’s Facebook feed, Mr. Petersen could only attack this archivist personally, stating what she can and can’t cover in her scholarship.

When pressed for an actual counter argument, the BJU faculty spouse turned foul:

F’ing out the administration about your preference for the new chair in the Fine Arts Building has nothing to do with being a woman.

This archivist has no clue what he’s talking about. Does he mean a literal chair that it’s in the building? I never said one word about any chair. The chairs are fine. 

Or does he mean DeWitt Jones? Or Lonnie Polson? I appreciate and admire both gentlemen. What is Andy talking about? He admits that he just “overheard” it at BJU and is floored that I dare to delete an unproven rumor that maligns my character. He challenges me to “intellectual honesty” by foregrounding his unfounded gossip.

The foul language and the personal attack got his comment deleted, so then he claims he was attacked personally. Yes, asking Mr. Petersen to drop the ad hominem fallacy is an ad hominem attack. 

Isn’t that cute? A woman tells a BJU man to not attack personally, and he claims to be attacked personally. A woman deletes a BJU’s man unsubstantiated gossip and he accuses her of intellectual dishonesty.

This is how it goes with Bob Jones University gentlemen. Every time. Projection and snowflake-caliber privilege. 

This is Bob Jones University. 

[wutbju]

Seriously true. 

For all the faculty cuts -- and we still don’t know all who was cut -- there are 57 employees who are facing an increase in just the number of classes they are teaching. This is not comparing load/hours or class levels. Just comparing the total number of preps from a year ago to today, these 57 faculty members are probably safe. Notice any patterns?

Wentworth, Renae (Arts and Science)

Rowe, Karen (English Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

McNeely, Brent (English Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Hargis, Grace (English Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Gainous, Julie (English Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Galloway, Rhonda (English Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Apelian, Dawn (English Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Gothard, Sarah (Mathematical Sciences in Arts and Science)

McGee, Travis (Mathematical Sciences in Arts and Science)

Summerlin, Debbie (Mathematical Sciences in Arts and Science)

Leach, Ying (Modern Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Loach, Rob (Modern Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Patterson, Miriam (Modern Language and Literature in Arts and Science)

Schell, Melanie (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

Glasco, Derrick (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

Hicks, Amy (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

Gothard, Nick (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

Lee, Robert (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

Hill, Bob (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

McGary, Patrick (Natural Science in Arts and Science)

Fellenger, Jodie (Nursing in Arts and Science)

Jones, Nancy (Nursing in Arts and Science)

Lamb, Mary (Nursing in Arts and Science)

Lanpher, Megan (Nursing in Arts and Science)

Wilkie, Mike (Social Science in Arts and Science)

Holley, Randy (Management in Business)

Saldivar, Samuel (Bible in Education)

West, Jeremy (Bible in Education)

Jaeggli, Randy (Graduate Studies in Education)

Casillas, Ken (Graduate Studies in Education)

Britton, Vickie (Health, Exercise & Sport Science in Education)

McCormick, Jesse (Health, Exercise & Sport Science in Education)

Chen, Stephen (Health, Exercise & Sport Science in Education)

Hamrick, Anna (Teacher Education in Education)

Reed, Marlene (Teacher Education in Education)

Hancox, Heather (Teacher Education in Education)

Whited, Julie (Teacher Education in Education)

West, Amanda (Art and Design in Fine Arts and Communication)

Johnson, Mark (Art and Design in Fine Arts and Communication)

Walter, Kelly (Arts and Science in Fine Arts and Communication)

Polson, Lonnie (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Murray, John (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Miller, Kris (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Naler, Erin (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Stegall, Jeff (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Pyle, Ron (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Nolan, Anne (Communication in Fine Arts and Communication)

Coleman, Fred (Music in Fine Arts and Communication)

Cox, Bruce (Music in Fine Arts and Communication)

Sprunger, Gina (Music in Fine Arts and Communication)

Davis, Pete (Music in Fine Arts and Communication)

Jones, Todd (Music in Fine Arts and Communication)

Cook, Brent (Bible in Religion)

Oberlin, Kevin (Bible in Religion)

Stiekes, Greg (Graduate Studies in Religion)

Patterson, Alan (Graduate Studies in Religion)

Cruice, Steven (Ministries in Religion)

[wutbju]

Of the 112 churches listed on the Bob Jones University intranet White List, 7 are closed. 

Of the remaining 105, only 79 have any substantive information listed on their websites or Facebook pages. 

Of those 79:

19% are staffed or elder-led by BJU employees. And two of those don’t make it to the BJU public list. Brad Baugham’s Emmanuel Bible and Ray St. John’s Trinity Baptist. Odd.

68% employ BJU alumni. That’s not really a surprise. Bob Jones, Inc. has acted like a denomination since before 1927.

What is a surprise is how few of those BJU alumni employed by white-listed churches admit to their alma mater. Nearly a third of the local BJU-led and BJU-white-listed churches won’t admit they attended BJU! Read these bios:

Pastor Matt [Collier] grew up in Transylvania County. After graduating from Brevard High School, he moved away from the area for 8 years to attend college and seminary before returning in 2001 to establish CampsAbroad, an international missions organization that specializes in establishing Christian camps for young people.

Pastor Paul [Whitt] grew up in Alabama, but graduated from college and seminary in South Carolina. 

Pastor Matt [Whitcomb] joined the Calvary staff in 2015 where he oversees the Music and Technology Teams. He has been ministering as a Music Pastor since 2004, and has served in various capacities as a choral conductor, band director, orchestra director, and private music instructor. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting. Matt and his wife Rachelle have two children and live in Simpsonville.

Lonnie [Polson] grew up in a Christian home in Indiana and trusted Christ as his Savior at the age of twelve. After graduating from high school Lonnie migrated to South Carolina to attend college and seminary. He earned an undergraduate degree in dramatic arts, master’s degrees in communication, education, and pastoral studies, and a doctorate in educational administration. Lonnie taught communication and theatre on the college level for thirty-five years before entering the pastorate at CBCHS on a full time basis in 2012. Throughout his years of collegiate ministry, Lonnie sought every opportunity to use his preaching gifts and Biblical training—preaching regularly in college chapel, preaching and teaching at his local church, serving as pulpit supply for area churches, and serving for two years as assistant pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Charlotte. In 2004 a small group of believers called Lonnie to help them plant Community Bible Church in the Holly Springs community of Spartanburg County, where Lonnie now serves full time as the pastor for preaching and teaching.

Dan [Smetana] grew up in northeastern Ohio under the influence of godly parents and a gospel-preaching church. At the age of fourteen, he recognized his need to be saved and called on the name of Jesus Christ for salvation. Dan attended college and seminary in South Carolina where he met his wife Carrie. 

Growing up in the home of an Army chaplain meant one thing – moving. Brad [Baugham] has visited or lived in every state in America (except for Alaska and North Dakota, which he is no hurry to get to) and nine foreign countries. He moved to the Upstate in the early 90s and is married to one of the best-looking girls ever. They have three children.

Mike [Gray] was born in Salt Lake City and lived most of his pre-college days about an hour north near Ogden, Utah. He studied Biology in college, going on to earn a Masters and Ph.D. in Microbiology. Since finishing his Ph.D. in 1978, Mike has taught a variety of biological science courses. He is passionate about teaching and learning and directs a summer program in teaching excellence for college teachers.

Doug Payne and his wife, Elaine, both trusted Christ to save them when they were young adults and have enjoyed serving the Lord together for many years. Following Doug’s undergraduate ministerial training and the completion of a graduate degree, he was ordained to the ministry.

Mike Thomas was saved at the age of fourteen and later surrendered to God’s calling him to preach in full-time ministry. He earned his undergraduate degree in Bible and his seminary degree in Pastoral Studies in 2001. 

Serving as the Pastor for Teaching, Andrew [Franseen] preaches, provides direction for the elders, staff and church, and works alongside the other elders in discipling the congregation. Prior to taking his role at Grace, Andrew served as a pastoral assistant at Hampton Park Baptist Church. This experience, combined with his degrees in both Bible and Theology, has helped Andrew to know God better and to make God known, especially by highlighting the glory of God seen in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Mitch [Miller] started preaching at Griggs from time to time while he was in college. For two years he helped lead his fellow students in serving the church and reaching the neighborhood. In 2015, after receiving his B.A. in Bible Evangelism and spending 5 years in youth ministry, he was welcomed back as the senior pastor. 

Chris [Barney] grew up in Waterford, Michigan, where he trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at the age of 11. Shortly after, Chris sensed the Lord’s leading in his life to pursue pastoral work. Chris pursued theological training, eventually earning a Ph.D. in New Testament interpretation. 

Dan [Brooks] serves as Heritage’s preaching pastor. He is husband to Kristen, father to Luke, Kate, Hailey, and Seth, and adopted son of God the Father. A resident of Taylors, Dan is also a sometimes hiker and outdoor adventurer and has been a pastoral staff member at Heritage Bible Church since 1992.

While working through degrees in Humanities and Speech, Abe [Stratton] attended Heritage for four years. God used the preaching of His Word and the joyful worship of His people to knit his heart to this church community. In the winter of 2006, Abe completed his graduate degree and married his best friend, Liz.

Pastor Wade Kuhlewind Jr. was born in a small-town area in southwestern Pennsylvania. Growing up as the son of a pastor, he was introduced to conservative evangelical Christianity from the very beginning. From setting up tables for a funeral meal to teaching junior church, he was involved in many of the details of church ministry. Sitting through thousands of sermons and Sunday school classes further provided him with an extensive knowledge of Bible stories and a basic understanding of Bible doctrines.

Spiritually, however, he wavered between times of assurance and doubt concerning the certainty of God’s saving work in his life. Sometimes, he would frequently call out to God for salvation just in case his previous prayers did not work. Though he had attended a Christian school from K5 through 12th grade and had enrolled in a Christian college to study for the pastorate, his struggles with salvation and doubt had not disappeared. 

Pastor [Josh] Crockett is serving in his 12th year as a shepherd first at Grace Baptist Church in Anderson, Indiana and now at Morningside. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in communication and business in 2001. The next year he and Karie were married in her hometown of Raleigh, NC.

Pastor Crockett taught communication for three years while earning a master's degree in Counseling and a Master of Divinity.

Steven [Huffman] had the privilege of growing up in Georgia in a pastor’s home, and came to Christ at an early age. While attending Morningside as a student, he met Ranya Carrier (Morningside’s music pastor’s daughter), and his interest in her led him to join Morningside in 1992. He taught the college Sunday School class while he was working on a master’s degree. When he finished the degree in 1993, he married Ranya and was ordained to Gospel ministry.

Jim Wetterlund came to Suber Road as youth pastor in 2008 and served in that role until fall 2014, when he was named interim pastor and then shortly appointed senior pastor in May 2015. Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in Bible, a master’s degree in pastoral studies and a master of divinity degree.

As our pastor, Brent [Cook] is committed to leading University Baptist Church by faithfully teaching God's Word through expository preaching. His desire is to equip believers and to see the gospel proclaimed clearly through our ministry. Brent and his wife Anne have two children. 

WutBJU mentioned last week that the Bob Jones University Ministerial Class enrollment is plummeting. Not only can’t BJU get future-pastors to enroll, local pastors who have graduated from BJU won’t even admit that they attended! In fact, they sound like downright liars when they don’t. Pastor So-n-So “graduated from college and seminary in South Carolina”? That’s it? Awhile ago, WutBJU’s Facebook page was the site of controversy around naming Bob Jones University as the institution protecting a seminarian who had abused a 10yo girl. The survivor stated that:

A mission team from Greenville, South Carolina flew over to my home, Zambia, and one of the young men on that team, a college student known for his faith, integrity, and leadership, sexually abused me.

“A mission team from Greenville, South Carolina” with a “college student” was sent to a Gospel Fellowship Association missionary’s family, but no one dare name the school, “Bob Jones University.” That was going too far.

Whether a negative connection or a positive assertion of fact, Bob Jones University is the school Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.

[wutbju]

Most alumni remember Lonnie Polson as a Bob Jones University speech teacher, either from Speech 101 or Acting or Group Communication. I personally found him thoughtful and introverted as well as truly gifted in administration, despite events in 2006-2007. 

Lonnie left Bob Jones University in 2012 after serving as the Division of Communication Chair for six years. Ryan Meers took his place as the Chair in 2012.

Ryan has left Bob Jones University altogether, and he clearly hasn’t updated his LinkedIn to reflect that. He has been jointly working at Jim Wiginton’s Broad Insights with infamous Joseph Bartosch and Community Baptist’s former pastor David Pennington. 

Meers is moving to Lincoln, Nebraska to plant a church. He’s getting out of Dodge, that’s for sure. BJU has already scrubbed him from their faculty listing (archive copy). That always stings. 

So Lonnie returns. Chatter is that EVP Gary Weier wanted ABD Erin Naler as Chair. The problem with both candidates is that it does nothing for BJU’s accreditation. Lonnie’s doctorate is an EdD from BJU, and Erin’s isn’t complete. 

Clearly, Dean Darren Lawson has burned every possible bridge -- even among qualified current employees -- that the pool of applicants is just that small. We all warned them.

Strange happenings at ol’ BJU.