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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today that he wept with relief when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, announced a 1978 revelation that the priesthood would no longer be denied to persons of African descent. Romney’s eyes appeared to fill with tears as he discussed the emotional subject during a high-stakes appearance that he handled with no major blunders. “I was anxious to see a change in my church,” said the Republican presidential candidate, appearing for the full hour just two weeks ahead of the crucial Iowa caucuses. “I can...

HH: Joined now by the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, my colleague on the Salem Radio Network airwaves, and on their editorial board, Dr. Albert Mohler. Al, good to have you back, thanks for joining us.  AM: Hugh, it’s always great to be with you.  HH: Your reaction, Al, to the announcement yesterday first of Dean Robert Taylor of Bob Jones University, and then to Chancellor of Bob Jones University, Bob Jones III’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. Were you surprised? AM: Well, I was surprised only perhaps in the timing, but in all, no, I’m really not surprised. I think this...

A top official at Bob Jones University, the Evangelical Christian school with a history of anti-Mormon rhetoric, plans to throw his weight behind Mormon presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Robert R. Taylor, dean of the university’s college of arts and sciences, said he believes the former Massachusetts governor is the only Republican candidate who both stands a chance of winning the White House and will reliably implement the anti-abortion, antigay marriage, pro-gun agenda of Christian conservatives.[...] This afternoon, Bob Jones III, chancellor of the university, told the Greenville News that he, too, is endorsing Romney. “This is all about beating Hillary...

As recently as 2000, Bob Jones III wrote an open letter that referred to both Catholicism and Mormonism as “cults which call themselves Christian.” And yet, seven years later, a top official at the conservative, fundamentalist Bob Jones University is throwing his political support to Mormon presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Robert R. Taylor, dean of the university’s college of arts and sciences, said he believes the former Massachusetts governor is the only Republican candidate who both stands a chance of winning the White House and will reliably implement the anti-abortion, antigay marriage, pro-gun agenda of Christian conservatives. “The fact that...

Dr. Bob Jones III pulled a small silver camera from his jacket pocket and asked someone to take a picture of him, presidential candidate Duncan Hunter and retired Air Force hero Chuck Yeager together. For Hunter, it was a visual endorsement from one of South Carolina's most influential religious and political leaders. For Jones, it was one step closer to making a decision on which he way he may lean in the 2008 presidential campaign. He likes what Hunter, a California congressman, as well as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee stand for. He doesn't like U.S. Sen. John McCain of...

A team of homosexual activists whose goal is to "dialogue" with Christian colleges about changing their beliefs regarding the "gay" lifestyle is coming to Bob Jones University, but campus officials already have made plans to, very politely, disinvite them from campus. The "Soulforce Equality Riders" several weeks ago launched teams in two buses with directions to head to several dozen Christian colleges and "address discriminatory" policies on those campuses. However, officials at Bob Jones University, a leader in Christian education as well as publishing and ministry, say there's no point in meeting with the group, scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

For a taste of the old South, you can attend a Civil War battle re-enactment. Or you can visit Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C. This fundamentalist school - catchphrase: "Brains are no substitute for God" - forbade interracial dating among its students until 2000. The place is easy to mock, and people often do. The Bob Jones rulebook bans all the things that other students think make college fun: booze, cigarettes, fornication. Mark Lopez, one of the 4,200 smartly dressed and unfailingly polite students at Bob Jones, says he applied there because he wanted to study "conservative Christian music":...

Republican Sen. John McCain says he would consider speaking at Bob Jones University, a school he criticized during the 2000 presidential campaign for its ban on interracial dating and anti-Catholic views. "I can't remember when I've turned down a speaking invitation. I think I'd have to look at it," McCain told The State newspaper in South Carolina. The potential 2008 presidential candidate and Arizona senator said he would have to look at Bob Jones University's latest policy statements. "I understand they have made considerable progress," he said. In 2000, McCain assailed the Christian fundamentalist school for its policies and rival...

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts suggested a conservative Ronald Reagan supporter "go soak his head" after he criticized the White House for avoiding his fight with the IRS, new documents show. Roberts also pushed the Reagan administration to get its conservative policies enacted so future presidents could not readily abrogate them, according to the papers. And he showed displeasure with the federal judiciary, saying the Justice Department needs to get legal solutions "less dependent on the fiat of unelected jurists." The documents were revealed Monday as the National Archives released more of Roberts' working papers from his time as a...

GREENVILLE - Bob Jones University announced Thursday that the school's president for the past 34 years, Bob Jones III, will retire in May. The school said Jones will step down during the annual commencement exercises on May 7. He will be replaced by his son, Stephen Jones, who is currently the vice president for administration. (Snip) Stephen Jones will be the fourth president in the 78-year history of the school. Jones' great-grandfather founded the school, which moved to Greenville from Tennessee in 1947. President George W. Bush was criticized for speaking at the school as a candidate in 2000 because...

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Bob Jones III said Thursday he will retire as president of the Christian university that bears his name, ending a 34-year reign during which the school grabbed headlines because of its racial policies and fundamentalist views. Jones' son will take over as president of the school in May. The 65-year-old Jones, whose grandfather founded Bob Jones University 78 years ago, said it was time for someone younger and "closer to the present generation" to take over. "I've seen too many institutions -- churches, Christian ministries -- suffer when somebody stays too long," he said. "And...

Dear Mr. President: The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations! In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly. Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals...

Democrats' new steppingstoneSouth Carolina becomes key for party's hopefuls, who debated there Saturday. COLUMBIA, S.C. – To a Democrat running for president, South Carolina is a daunting place. After all, no Democrat has carried the state in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter. The state party is in questionable shape, after last year's elections gave Republicans control of the legislature, 5 of 8 congressional seats, and the governorship. And South Carolina is still mired in controversy over the confederate flag: The NAACP is calling for an economic boycott while the flag keeps waving at the State House. So it may...

If it weren't for the landslide, there would have been a mud fight. That was the conclusion of Republican attorneys who flew into California from all over the country on Election Day, ready to defend against a flood of long-anticipated Democratic lawsuits. Armed with briefs and cell phones, the volunteer legal army camped out near courthouses and government offices across the state. In America's most liberal judicial circuit, they figured, it couldn't be too hard to find a judge willing to overrule the voters' verdict. In the end, the numbers were simply too overwhelming. Gray Davis lost the recall question...

Presidential campaigns conflicting with day jobs WASHINGTON - Two congressional Democrats running for president have missed nearly every House and Senate vote in the past two weeks, choosing the campaign trail over their day job. U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) have only cast one vote each since Congress returned from its spring recess April 28. Gephardt skipped 36 of 37 roll calls in the House. Lieberman missed 11 of 12 Senate votes. At the same time, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry skipped half the Senate votes. And Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) skipped three-quarters of the...

COLUMBIA - During last weekend's visit to South Carolina, a woman asked U.S. Sen. John Kerry if he would be willing to speak at Bob Jones University, and Kerry said he'd love to do it. It was "clearly a spontaneous but a serious answer," Kerry's spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "Is he crazy?" school spokesman Jonathan Pait asked Friday. Any politician, Republican or Democrat, "would be inviting media scrutiny" similar to what happened to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race, Pait said. Bush spoke at the private Christian fundamentalist university in February 2000 while the school still banned interracial...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has said he would speak at Bob Jones University and would "challenge the university on some of its views," according to his campaign. A school spokesman made it clear Friday that an invitation would not be forthcoming. "Is he crazy?" Jonathan Pait asked. Any politician, Republican or Democrat, "would be inviting media scrutiny" similar to what happened to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race, the spokesman said. Last weekend, as the Democrats gathered in South Carolina for the first debate, Kerry was asked if he would be willing to speak...

In 2000, while stumping for Al Gore, John Kerry quipped, "The definition of compassionate conservative is Bob Jones III forgiving John Rocker." At that point in the campaign, of course, Bush was struggling to overcome a media firestorm that had erupted after he spoke at Bob Jones University, a virulently anti-Catholic and anti-gay school that then had a ban on interracial dating. Bush, who declined to challenge any of the college's policies during his appearance, made his pilgrimage to the university en route to winning the crucial South Carolina primary. To Democrats, BJU has been a symbol for Republican intolerance...

The Muslim public-relations group CAIR—Council on American Islamic Relations—has a tough sell in post-9/11 America. But if its goal is simply to promote Islam as a "religion of peace" and to distance American Muslims from terrorism, why can't CAIR begin with a simple acknowledgment that the terrorist threat to America is real? Instead, CAIR's modus operandi has been to attack Christianity with the same, simplistic broad brush it claims is tarring Islam. After 20 years of teaching a World Religions course at Conservative Theological Seminary in Jacksonville, Fla., Rev. Gene Youngblood thought it was time to take his lessons to...

<p>Many of Trent Lott's defenders have been saying he's not a racist.</p> <p>Of course he's a racist -- if by "racist" you mean someone who believes the government should act differently toward each individual citizen based on that citizen's skin color.</p>

The CNN anchor this morning was "interviewing" Bill Schneider about the Trent Lott statements. The anchor stated this calls the Republican effort to reach out to minorities into question AND went on to state that Bush "badly handled" both the Bob Jones University and South Carolina confederate flag issues during the 2000 election. The anchor then said we can only wonder how the 2002 election results would have been different if Lott's remarks had come BEFORE November 5th! Bill Schneider readily agreed.So it is established fact on CNN that Bush handled those two issues "badly" in 2000? And apparently the...

Language constantly changes. For instance, if you have ever seen a copy of the 1611 King James translation, you know that the English of that translation is completely incomprehensible to today's English reader. We preach and teach from the King James translation here at Bob Jones University, but it is the translation of 1769. Between 1611 and 1769, English changed drastically. It continues to change. Words take on new meanings and associations. Until the late 1940s, the strongest Bible believing Christians distinguished themselves from religious liberals by the term "Evangelicals." When the strongest Evangelical group of the day, the National...