When Bob Jones III recently questioned whether President Obama is a Christian, it was a reminder not only that the fundamentalist leader is controversial but also how little the political world has heard from the man and the rock-ribbed Christian school that bears his name.

The relative silence emanating from Bob Jones University is all the more remarkable given the intensity of the Republican primary in South Carolina, and the power that the religious right here holds.

In many ways, the school is still recovering from the 2000 campaign, when George W. Bush spoke without mentioning the school’s ban on interracial dating. Bush got hammered for the lapse (as well as staying mum on the school’s view of Catholicism as a “cult”) and apologized.

The university has since dropped the interracial dating ban, but no candidates visited the campus during the 2008 primary — a sea change for a university that has been a must-stop venue for every Republican since Ronald Reagan.

So far this year, the closest any candidate has come is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose wife Anita made a low-key lunchtime visit to nursing students in mid-October.

Since the 2000 controversy “a lot of candidates have shied away from us,” university spokesman Brian Scoles said during a recent tour of the 210-acre campus. “It’s just the perception that remains.”

Bob Jones III acknowledged in a Nov. 12 interview with the National Journal that he hasn’t endorsed any candidate, in part because it “might actually hurt” whomever Jones backed.

But there’s another, perhaps more consequential reason for the school’s muted political voice: a subtle but steady shift in its approach to the world.

It started in 2005, when the mantle of university president passed to Stephen Jones, Bob Jones III’s son and the first person not named Bob Jones to lead school since its founding in 1927.

The youngest Jones quickly distanced himself from the political legacy of his predecessors. “There were things said back then that I wouldn’t say today,” Stephen Jones said in 2005.

In 2008, he told a local newspaper, “I don’t think I have a political bone in my body.” That same year, Stephen Jones had the university apologize for banning interracial dating.

“We conformed to the culture rather than providing a clear Christian counterpoint to it,” the statement says of the “segregationist ethic” that had prevailed. “In so doing, we failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry.”

The transformation is evident in other ways, too.

Long gone are the towering hedges and chain link fences that once kept the world out and the students in. Now a modern-looking sign welcomes visitors to the tidy, well-groomed campus.

Most faculty now live off campus and the students look much like they do everywhere. More than a few male students sported hipster porkpie hats on a recent visit, and while knee-length dresses are still required of young women in class, they can now wear pants at other times.

“We’re not this strange society in the northwest corner of Greenville County,” says Andy Rouse, 21, a senior. “There will always be stereotypes. That’s the way the world works. But you will be judged by your actions.”

There is a campus-wide Wi-Fi access, though a filter keeps out pornography. Drinking is still banned, as is rock-and-roll (and contemporary Christian music). Male-female boundaries are enforced through a careful system of chaperoned dating, but men and women mingle easily in the student center and across campus.

“Human nature is what it is. We know stuff goes on,” Scoles said. “But we have an agreement with parents that we’re going to keep that stuff to a minimum. How would it be for a Christian college to send a girl home pregnant? Or a boy home who is hooked on drugs or alcohol?”

The university is also dipping a toe in the waters of intercollegiate athletics, something that founder Bob Jones Sr. considered a dangerous dalliance with modernity. The university is starting slowly, fielding teams at the high school it operates while its college students have an annual cross-town soccer match with Furman University.

BJU leaders are also weighing alternatives to the “fundamentalist” label that has proudly defined the school (and a wide swath of the Bible Belt) since the 1920s.

“Basically, we’ve decided that we can’t use that term,” said Carl Abrams, a BJU history professor and a longtime member of the faculty. “The term has been hijacked and it takes you 30 minutes to explain it. So you need something else.”

There has been no resolution to the discussions, but just the prospect of a shift

has been enough to make other fundamentalists spew all manner of criticism, with conservative bloggers blasting the “landslide of liberalism” at the school, among the more printable epithets.

BJU has always been something of an outlier in fundamentalist Christianity. — a liberal arts university dedicated to sending well-rounded, Bible-believing graduates out into the world.

Today, 3,700 students from all 50 states and overseas study everything from economics to philosophy, business to nursing, and even science, though BJU’s commitment to “young earth creationism” raises eyebrows outside the school.

The Fine Arts program remains a distinctive feature. Music and drama are the lifeblood of the curriculum as students perform Shakespeare and other theatrical productions, and the university puts on a major opera every year. An art museum on campus features Renaissance and Baroque religious paintings in a collection that is one of the best in the country.

Political dynamics have also changed. In South Carolina, where every past BJU president enjoyed playing a kingmaker role, the GOP establishment now overshadows outspoken individuals like Bob Jones III.

“The relative importance of the BJU crowd in the GOP is declining,” said James L. Guth, a political scientist at Furman. “And many of the early BJU Republican figures have died, left politics or moderated.”

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Guth said a number of BJU graduates still wind up in Republican politics, but like the rest of the religious right, that faction has not been able to coalesce around a single candidate in recent elections.

Many have just been turned off.

“Politics is a dirty game. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m up to it,” said Rouse, who is considering post-graduate studies in political theory Yale University or the University of North Carolina.

Gary M. Weier, executive vice president for academic affairs and the university official who is considered closest to Stephen Jones, also noted that George W. Bush’s presidency was something of a disappointment to many of his conservative Christian backers.

“There had been a tendency among conservative Christians to think that the way to shape the culture was through political power,” Weier said. “I think conservative Christians bought into some of that on the political level, blurring distinctions between Christians and the Republican Party. It was easy to do.”

BJU recently announced that Weier and another school official would share responsibility for running the university as Stephen Jones suffers from complications from a severe ear infection that has left him nearly incapacitated.

The landscape of conservative Christianity has also shifted. There are more Christian colleges than ever, and schools like Patrick Henry College, the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, and Pat Robertson’s Regent University are more focused on training future political operatives and placing them in positions of power than Bob Jones ever was.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

School officials insist that BJU’s beliefs and mission have not changed; it’s just the focus is more than ever on a “biblically-based liberal arts education” for students, as Weier pus it, be they aspiring housewives or pastors.

Whether these changes will be broad enough to attract the GOP candidates in 2012 is an open question. But the larger question is whether BJU — and the wider Christian fundamentalist movement_ can continue to transform while maintaining their identity.

“That is one of the main challenges,” Weier said. “There can be a perception that if you can change one thing, you can change anything. That’s not our approach.”

Pope Benedict XVI expressed regrets last Friday, during a visit to a Spanish monastery, over the “amnesia” that prevails about God, on the second day of his visit to the country.

The pope, who will be in Spain until Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, was greeted by hundreds of nuns who waved flags and cheered as he spoke at the 16^th-century El Escorial monastery.

At the UNESCO world heritage site Benedict said, “This is all the more important today when we see a certain eclipse of God taking place, a kind of amnesia which albeit not an outright rejection of Christianity is nonetheless a denial of the treasure of our faith, a denial that could lead to the loss of our deepest identity,” the AP reported.

As pope, it has been a priority for Benedict to seek to revive Christianity, particularly in previously, staunchly Catholic Spain, where he has already made three papal visits.

The pope’s speech was also significant because El Escorial was the seat of power of King Philip II in 1559 when Spain was an international force bent on defending Catholicism from the Reformation and Protestantism.

Benedict also met withSpain’s royal family earlier in the morning. He is scheduled to have lunch with youth volunteers, talk to university educators, meet the prime minister and head the Way of the Cross, which re-enacts the crucifixion and death of Jesus.

Economic recession

The day before, upon the pope’s arrival, Benedict encouraged the youth to stay faithful amid Spain’s economic recession. He also said the government must consider the common good and protect the least fortunate when forming economic policy.

Benedict slammed economic structures that prioritize profits over people saying, “The economy cannot be measured by the maximum profit but by the common good. The economy cannot function only with mercantile self-regulation but needs an ethical reason in order to work for man,” Reuters reported.

Protests

The pope said this even as elements have protested the pontiff’s visit. On Wednesday night, prior to the arrival of the pope, 5,000 rallied in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Plaza. Eleven people were injured and eight were arrested in clashes with pilgrims and the police.

On Thursday, only 200 congregated at the Plaza. Four demonstrators experienced light injuries in a skirmish with police. No arrests were made. Meanwhile, thousands of pilgrims were at Plaza Cibeles, waving flags and cheering as the pontiff arrived.

The pilgrims came from 190 participating countries. Just before Benedict arrived, he met with Madrid’s mayor, who gave him the keys to the city.

There was a much smaller crowd of demonstrators on Friday, but the gathering also ended in a clash with police with more injured and some detentions.

Economic recession

Spain has an unemployment rate of some 21 percent, or one out of five unemployed, and its economy is in recession. People are upset about the anti-austerity measures of the government, and angry at the $72 million cost for World Youth Day.

A young protest movement, Los Indignados, was joined in by lesbian and gay organizations, secularists and even Catholic priests to protest the cost of the pontiff’s visit.

The church says it is shouldering part of the cost, with the remainder coming from participants and donors.

In his speech, Benedict expressed support for the youth and sympathized with their unpredictable future in terms of employment. At the same time, he spoke out against consumerism, hedonism and those who “create their own gods, believe they need no roots or foundations … letting themselves be led by the whim of each moment,” Reuters reported.

Former President Jimmy Carter successfully secured the release of Christian activist Aijalon Mahli Gomes from North Korea, and the two are heading back to the U.S. at press time.

The Carter Center, in a statement said, “At the request of President Carter, and for humanitarian purposes, Mr. Gomes was granted amnesty by the chairman of the National Defense Commission, Kim Jong-Il,” CNN said.

Although it is not clear why he entered North Korea illegally, Gomes, an English teacher in Seoul, joined rallies for the release of Robert Park, (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/08/carter-will-leave-for-n-korea-to-intercede-for-jailed-u-s-christian-13494) whom he met in an overnight prayer meeting at Every Nation Church of Korea, Christianity Today said.

Pastor Simon Suh stated that some church members are defectors from the North. It is possible that both Park and Gomes (who went to North Korea shortly after the former’s release) were moved by the passionate prayers of these defectors. Suh added that neither he nor the church encourage members to go to North Korea, Christianity Today said.

Park, who is now in Arizona, illegally entered North Korea on December 25, 2009 to draw attention to the human rights violations and persecution of Christians in North Korea. He was released by the Pyongyang after six weeks, Christianity Today said.

North Korea’s government-controlled media issued this “statement” from Park: “I trespassed on the border due to my wrong understandings of the DPRK caused by the false propaganda made by the West to tarnish its image. I would not have committed such a crime if I had known that the DPRK respects the rights of all people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life,” AolNews said.

Park said he had not spoken to media out of concern for Gomes. He had also been in and out of hospitals since his February release. He had planned a July 16 suicide demonstration to draw media attention to Gomes, “but God stopped it through the intervention of a friend,” Christianity Today said.

Politics Behind Humanitarian Mission

Carter, whose visit to North Korea was purely humanitarian, was greeted by Kim Gye Gwan, North Korea’s chief negotiator during the stalled, previous-held, six-party nuclear talks. While Carter was in North Korea, the envoys of both North and South Korea during the same nuclear talks, namely Wu Dawei (North Korea) and Wi Sung-lac (South Korea) met in Seoul, CNN said.

There is speculation regarding the health of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il, 68, who had a stroke two years ago. Some believe that he may in due time announce that his son, Kim Jong Eun will succeed him, CNN said.

North Korea will hold its third Workers Party Congress next month, which some anticipate to herald a significant political development. The last time a Congress was held was in 1966 when North Korea started its cultural revolution, CNN said.

A source from South Korea’s presidential office said they had received reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il crossed the border into China by train last Wednesday at midnight. The source said, “We assume that Kim is aboard the train, and (we) are trying to find out his destination and the purpose of his visit,” CNN said.

The visit was not confirmed by North Korea and questions submitted to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the visit received no response. North Korea’s embassy in Beijing stated that they did not have any information regarding the visit, CNN said.

Some experts think the visit may be economically motivated due to sanctions on North Korea after several missile launches, nuclear tests and the recent sinking of a South Korean warship, CNN said.

It is not known whether Carter met with Kim. However, some speculate that Pyongyang and/or Beijing wish to resume denuclearization talks, which is why Carter was met by Kim Gye Gwan and is the reason for the meeting of the North and South Korean envoys in Seoul, CNN said.

China has been displeased by U.S. and South Korean naval exercises held in the eastern Pacific after the sinking of South Korea’s warship. China may want to resume nuclear talks to contain any escalation of the military exercises, and to prevent a strengthening of the current alliance of the U.S., Korea and Japan, CNN said.

South Korea on the other hand is bound to seek an apology for the sinking of their vessel Cheonan, and would want a clear indication that denuclearization commitments would be met should resumption of talks be proposed, CNN said.

Former President Jimmy Carter will leave for North Korea to intercede for the release of a U.S. Christian man who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor for illegally crossing the border from China.

Carter hopes to bring home Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 30, later this week. Gomes, who is from Mattapan, Boston, was working as an English teacher in South Korea. He was arrested by North Korean soldiers last February, the Christian Science Monitor said.

In April when Gomes received his prison sentence, he tried to commit suicide shortly after, the Christian Science Monitor said. Gomes was also fined $700,000, CBN News said. Although it is not known why he entered North Korea, he had joined rallies in Seoul in the past to support Robert Park, a fellow Christian, the Boston Globe said.

Park had entered North Korea from China in order to bring public attention to the human rights violations that are being committed in the North. He was expelled from the country after some 40 days, the Boston Globe said.

Annie Sarrow of Mattapan, who is Gomes’s grandmother expressed worry but said, “We’re very hopeful. I’m just thanking God for what I’ve seen on the news (about Carter’s visit).’’ Sarrow said Gomes is, “a good kid, good person, who loves people,’’ the Boston Globe said.

Analysts say Carter’s mission may reap diplomatic gains for North Korea after tensions rose last March when the North was blamed for the torpedoing a South Korean warship killing 46 sailors, the Boston Globe said.

Last week the U.S. State Department tried to obtain Gomes release with no success, but a senior official of the department said North Korea promised to free Gomes if Carter came, CBN News said.

The former president’s visit may, one analyst said, open doors to the resumption of talks about the country’s nuclear weapons program. Kim Yong Hyun of Dongguk University, Seoul said, “This signals US willingness to become more flexible in its policy on North Korea…Carter’s symbolic importance in North Korea as the person who met the founder also means North Korea will offer much more than releasing Gomes,’’ the Boston Globe said.

However other experts disagree saying, “Carter’s trip should not be seen as a change in US policy toward Pyongyang and will likely not yield any breakthrough in what most see as a diplomatic stalemate between the two sides,” the Christian Science Monitor said, quoting the journal Foreign Policy.

Sixteen years ago Carter successfully defused the first Korean nuclear crisis when he met with North Korea’s Kim Il-sung who died a month later, and was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il, the Christian Science Monitor said.

The meeting led to the 1994 Geneva agreement for North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program in exchange for substantial aid. In 2002 North Korea was found to be producing warheads with enriched uranium at their core, the Christian Science Monitor said.

Carter will stay overnight in Pyongyang but it is not known if he will meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il. Nonetheless, Carter’s visit will register propaganda capital among its people. Ha Tae-keung of North Korea Open Radio said, “One of the reasons for North Korea to receive Carter is …the North Korean people…can interpret this as the Obama administration giving in to the North Korean regime,” the Christian Science Monitor said.

Kentucky’s Creation Museum responded recently to an article featured in an online publication that was based on research conducted by a sociology professor in preparation for a book.

The article, published by Live Science,  suggested that the Creation Museum can be a painful reminder of discrimination and isolation by religious fundamentalists.

Answers in Genesis, the body behind the Creation Museum, said the article posed a number of outright inaccuracies and contextual errors, giving an extremely false impression of the museum.  The article was based on a study by Bernadette Barton, a sociology professor at Morehead State University in Kentucky.

Barton’s research methodology is the ethnography, which is essentially a narrative. It does not aim to be impartial but instead focuses on the researcher’s personal reactions and reflections to observation, according to Live Science.

Barton based her study on three visits to the Creation Museum where she attended lectures, observed guests at the museum and brought a group of her students there, then noted down their feelings and observations about the visit.

Of her motive in doing the study Barton said, “I went there seeking to understand how people adhere to [a] set of beliefs that can, in my opinion, have sometimes destructive consequences,” Live Science reported.

Points of argument

Answers in Genesis responded to the following points that were presented in the Live Science article:

1. The museum’s description as fundamentalist.

The Creation Museum felt they are not “fundamentalist” which today has come to carry derisive connotations of extremism. The Creation Museum’s depiction of how God created humans is believed by almost half of all Americans, rendering this one of many mainstream areas of agreement.

2. The museum can be uncomfortable for non-fundamentalist visitors.

The Creation Museum presents its worldview in a respectful way. They noted that there are many institutions with different beliefs and forms of thought including secular museums and media outlets that deride Christians or present a humanist viewpoint, which can make creationist students feel uncomfortable. They also acknowledge the Last Adam theater challenges people to accept the claims of Christ, but this is done lovingly and not aggressively.

3. The museum’s primary message is to proclaim the truth of a young earth.

The Creation Museum upholds the authority of the entire Bible, rather than isolates the belief in a young earth. This is shown through their “walk through history” as depicted in the Bible. Dr. Jason Lisle, director of the museum’s planetarium, clearly said the museum was made to show visitors that the Bible is true, beginning with Genesis.

4. “Graffiti Alley” shows that when men abandon Young Earth creationism the consequences include abortion, divorce, gay marriage and murder.

A visual on answersingenesis.org clearly states, “Scripture abandoned in Culture: Leads to relative morality, hopelessness and meaninglessness.”

5. Warning signs in the museum were nerve-wracking including those that said guests could be asked to leave any time, and museum staff can send the group off if they are not honest about their “purpose of [the] visit.”

The signs, answersingenesis.org said were posted in 2009 in response to continuous threats from atheist bloggers. Also, museums often show such signs and some even inspect the bags of guests.

6. People non-adherent to fundamentalism felt pressured to hide their beliefs for fear of being snubbed or judged.

Answers in Genesis said they sincerely wish for skeptics to visit and have hosted many agnostic and atheist groups. The museum is evangelistic at heart and so welcomes nonbelievers. They see themselves as a way to attract nonbelievers who might otherwise not want to go to a Christian church, so they can be exposed to the gospel.

7. The article’s subhead “Compulsory Christianity.”

Answersingenesis.org noted that guests come to the museum out of choice, and are not forced to read all exhibits nor watch all videos. Even detractors of the museum have described it as “family-friendly” and “cordial.”

The LiveScience article also mentioned that a guard and his guard dog circled around one student twice who wore leggings and a long shirt. The Examiner said without independent corroboration there is no need to respond except to say that K-9 dogs only attack at the urging of their handler.

A Ukrainian Orthodox church was damaged by a bomb blast recently that killed a nun and wounded eight others.

The blast occurred at the Intercession Church in the city of Zaporоzhyе, southern Ukraine. The bombing occurred on the country’s celebration of its conversion to Christianity in 988 A.D., BBC News said.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill came to the country for an eight-day visit to mark the event. This caused a stir among some nationalists. Kirill also heads the biggest branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox church. Some Ukraine clergy, however, have chosen to be independent of Moscow, the BBC said.

The blast occurred on the second to last day of Kirill’s visit. However, no official word has been issued regarding motive, the Associated Press said.

An 80-year-old nun, Sister Lyudmila from the Holy Protection of the Virgin church was fatally injured and died later in the hospital, the Global Times said. The nun’s church falls under the Ukranian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, BBC said.

Five of those injured were hospitalized, Interfax said. Some of the church’s windows and floor were also damaged by the blast. The police and security continue to explore the area of the blast, the Global Times said.

The church that was bombed is located beside a marketplace. According to the Global Times, a small bag was seen near the entrance, but no one paid heed, a church priest said. An investigation of the damaged site revealed a homemade explosive with the equivalent off 500 g of TNT, the BBC said.

Pope Benedict XVI called the church of Cyprus a “bridge between east and west” recently and pushed for reconciliation and peace in that country.

The Pope is in Cyprus for a three-day visit to address the Christian presence in the Middle East, and to release the working document for an October meeting of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to the Middle East, CatholicCulture.org reported.

However in a meeting, Cypriot president Demetris Christofias told Benedict, “It is …disturbing that for 36 years our cultural and religious heritage in the occupied areas is being destroyed,”  referring to the portion of the island that falls under Turkish control, Reuters reported.

St. Paul and St. Barnabas preached in this Mediterranean island 2,000 years ago.

However, it has been split between its Greek and Turkish populations since 1974, when Turkey invaded its north after a brief Greek-inspired coup, Reuters said.

Benedict is only visiting the south of the island, which is run by Cyprus’ internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government.

He is staying at a Franciscan monastery in the buffer zone, no-man’s-land splitting Cyprus east to west and patrolled by United Nations troops, Reuters said.

Although the pope has largely skirted the issue of Cyprus’ division and says his visit is not political, he did frequently talk about reconciliation and peace, CatholicCulture.org said.

At an ecumenical service in the church of Agia Kiriaki Chrysopolitissa, Benedict, in a nod to archbishop Chrysostomos, who strongly supports ecumenical ventures, said CatholicCulture.org.

Benedict also called for “… a society distinguished by respect for the rights of all, including the inalienable rights to freedom of conscience and freedom of worship,” Reuters reported.

Turkey is currently in a bid to join the EU, where Greek Cypriots represent the island in the bloc and have the power to veto Turkish entry. Cyprus’ Greek Cypriots are predominantly Greek Orthodox, Reuters says.

The Cypriot government and church have repeatedly highlighted the “systematic desecration of churches in northern Cyprus,” saying that more than 500 churches and monuments have been destroyed since 1974, Reuters said.

Turkish Cypriot authorities acknowledged some damage but claim in turn that Muslim places of worship are being desecrated in the south.

They also said they were trying to restore and maintain churches, Reuters said.

On a visit to a museum Benedict was shown priceless mosaics from the 6th century that were hacked off the walls of a church in northern Cyprus, then sold on the black market.

The Cypriot Church won them back in a court battle in the United States, Reuters said.

Chrysostomos said Turkey is carrying out “a plan of national destruction” in the north.  He said Turkish forces have “turned the Orthodox Christians of Cyprus out of their ancestral homes,” CatholicCulture.org said.

During Chrysostomos’ meeting with Benedict, Muslim calls for prayer from a mosque could clearly be heard in the medieval capital of northern Nicosia, which is also divided, Reuters reported.

Atheist leaders  Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens want Pope Benedict XVI to be arrested when he visits the UK in September for “crimes against humanity,” Christian Today reported.

Dawkins and Hitchens charges come amid reports that the pope had signed a letter in 1985 when he was known as Cardinal Ratzinger on behalf of priest Stephen Kiesle who was charged with sexually abusing boys under his watch in California.

The Vatican denies they tried to stonewall Kiesle’s defrocking and say that they are victims of a hate campaign generated by their unpopular stance on several issues including birth control and same sex marriage.  They maintain that sexual abuse by priests is limited and not as rampant as some media reports maintain.

Richard Dawkins. Atheist leaders such as Dawkins want Pope Benedict XVI to be arrested during his upcoming visit to Britain

Dawkins cited as precedent the arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when he visited Britain in 1998.  Last year a British judge issued an arrest warrant for Israeli politician Tzipi Livni upon the urgings of pro-Palestinian activists, causing Livni to cancel her UK visit.

Human rights lawyers note that the Vatican is not a recognized by international law as a state, nor is it recognized by the UN.  For this reason, the pontiff’ does not merit diplomatic immunity.  However, the Vatican enjoys diplomatic relations with some 179 countries.

Pope Benedict will visit London, Glasgow and Coventry on September 16 and 19 to beatify 19^th century theologian Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Historically, the only pope who was arrested was Pope Pius VII by Napoleon Bonaparte, who held the pontiff prisoner for six years for excommunicating Bonaparte.