GREENVILLE, S.C., Feb. 23  The most controversial stop on the campaign trail is creating problems for George W. Bush. Bob Jones University is a small school with just over 5,000 students. Over the years prominent politicians, including Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle and Bob Dole, have visited it. But when George W. Bush made his pilgrimage to the campus, he paid a big penalty.

IT COULD be any Small College, USA, complete with sculpted lawns and serious students. But this religious school in Greenville, S.C., finds itself in the middle of a national political firestorm. Bob Jones University, which once in promotional literature called itself the worlds most unusual university, may in fact be. Ask Wayne Mouritzen, an ordained minister, who was once embraced as a loyal graduate, but who says he can no longer feel the schools Christian love. There was a terrible sense of betrayal, he said. The betrayal came, he says, when he was banned two years ago from campus  once his homosexuality was discovered. Evangelist Bob Jones founded the school 73 years ago, for whites only. Today, many say his grandson, Bob Jones III, runs it as if it were still 1927, with only one policy change  other races are now welcomed at its campus, but no interracial dating or marriage is permitted and no homosexuals. The school, which charges a flat $10,000 a year for full board and tuition, lost its federal tax exempt status 16 years ago because it would not change its interracial policy. And in what many see as the epitome of religious intolerance, the schools leaders have described Catholics as members of a cult and the pope as a dangerous leader. It was here, against this backdrop, that George W. Bush came in search of votes, after he lost the New Hampshire primary. We who stand on conservative principles  have got compassion at heart for the people who live here in this county, he said. Although Bush said nothing to endorse the schools philosophy, his very presence here created an uproar thats now going into its third week, with Bush on the defensive. Tuesday night he told NBC News: I reject any labeling of me because I went to a university. I dont like that kind of talk. Bob Jones III had tough talk for the controversy. The American public who buys anything that the national media says ought to have its head examined, he said. Because these are evil people doing an evil thing to this nation. School officials blame the media for stirring the controversy and also charge GOP rival John McCain with spreading lies about Bushs visit.

I believe he had a bomb dropped on him, from outside, because it was not an issue until this election cycle, said the schools communication director Jonathan Pait. Someone turned it into an issue. Pait defends the schools biblical teachings and its policies on race: Why cant American people have an alternative where they can send their children and go to sleep at night, put their head down and not worry.? But the schools detractors say that Bob Jones teaches hate in a very sophisticated way. Mouritzen said Bob Jones threatened him with arrest if he returned to the campus. I think he despises me because Im different, he said. Despite the national political controversy, the school says it will never change its fundamentalist ways. Fred Francis covers national news for NBC News.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), February 28, 2000

Answers

...and your purpose for posting this?

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), February 28, 2000.

ROME, Feb. 28  So much is made in the media these days about Pope John Pauls ill health and his mortality that a greater story is often left untold: the enormous fortitude of a 79-year-old man who refuses to allow age or sickness to thwart his ambitions. Returning from Egypt to Rome Sunday with the pontiff, I could only marvel at his determination to spend every last bit of his energy pursuing his dream: reuniting the disparate, bickering faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

IN A FEW MONTHS, John Paul II will be 80 years old. And its true, he is in poor health. He suffers from Parkinsons disease, a neurological disorder in which movement becomes more and more difficult. Add to that six operations, including one to remove an assassins bullet, and he is a man in permanent pain. But these facts are not new news; they are constants in his daily life. What is more impressive is this popes extraordinary willpower. Repeatedly in recent years, he has forced his reluctant body to go out into the world in pursuit of religious unity. John Paul is trying very hard in the time he has left to finish a job he started when he became pope  to bring monotheistic religions together. As Pontifex Maximus, Latin for Maximum Bridge-Keeper, the pope is trying to build bridges not just between Catholics and other Christian denominations, but also to Muslims and Jews. MILLENNIAL DREAM To celebrate the 2000th birthday of Jesus, the pope has scheduled a personal pilgrimage to the holy sites in the Middle East. He has said he wants to retrace the steps of three major figures: Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

The Egyptian visit, which found him at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where tradition holds that Moses received the Ten Commandments, was only the beginning. Next month, the pope travels to Israel and the Palestinian territories. And he has pushed, so far unsuccessfully, to be able to visit the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, who is viewed as the father of monotheism by Christians, Muslims and Jews. Ur lies in what is now Iraq, and the Vatican literally spent years preparing the ground for the visit. But criticism of the idea from the United States and Britain, and the difficulty of dealing with the Iraqi regime, caused the trip to be cancelled late last year. Instead, John Paul made a symbolic visit to Abrahams Ur with readings at his weekly Wednesday general audience last week.

John Paul was more successful in Egypt. Venturing into the desert, the pope prayed at the site where Moses is said to have ascended Mt. Sinai. He visited the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine there, which still contains a bush many hold to be the same one which burned for Moses. The Orthodox church split with Rome nearly 1,000 years ago, but the monks were very gracious with the old pontiff, giving him a tour of the rust colored stone complex. John Paul prayed on his knees for 10 minutes in front of the bush. A small crowd waited in the olive garden in front of the monastery for the pope and the monks to do a Liturgy of the Word, readings and a homily from the pope. The monks gave the pope several gifts, their archbishop hugged and kissed John Paul, but when it came time for the Catholic prayers, the Orthodox monks all left the stage, later explaining it ran counter to their beliefs to participate with the pope. Typically, though, John Paul went beyond his personal pilgrimage while in Egypt. The pope took the occasion to preach religious tolerance to Egypts Muslims and its Coptic Christian minority. Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypts population and recent clashes between the groups have led to a rise in tension. The Copts, who dont recognize the Vaticans authority, trace their community back to St. Mark the Evangelist whom they believe preached in Egypt. But the popes appeals to both the Coptic and Muslim communities raised hopes among some that a new dialogue could start between the two rival groups. Muslim leaders were particularly keen to thank the pope for the support the Vatican has lent to Palestinian national aspirations over the years. That, of course, makes the next stop in his holy pilgrimage particularly touchy. John Paul will travel to Israel and the Palestinian administered territories beginning on March 20, and hardly a day will pass when politics does not intervene in his plans. Already, Israeli rabbis have demanded he cancel plans for a Saturday visit to Nazareth, where Jesus was raised. Such a visit, the rabbis contend, would require a huge number of Israeli security forces to break the Jewish Sabbath. Nazareth is only the tip of the iceberg, though. Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus, is now administered by the Palestinian Authority. The Jordan River, where John the Baptist is said to have baptized Jesus, is now the Jordanian border. And, of course, Jerusalem, site of the death and resurrection of Jesus, not to mention the most sacred city of Judaism and home to many of the most sacred sites in Islam, remains the hottest of all hot topics. It is not overstatement to say the pope will be shuffling through a political and religious minefield.

In Israel, which only won recognition from the Vatican six years ago, the pope has never been popular. Anger at the Vatican centers today on Romes agreement to support Palestinian statehood and the churchs position that Jerusalem should be an international city. John Pauls desire to go to East Jerusalem, the Arab section which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, is particularly sensitive. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would like to make East Jerusalem the capital of his Palestinian state. Israeli officials have taken pains to stress that the pope is welcomed in Israel. Some at the Vatican, however, wonder just how welcome. The tenor of Israeli press coverage recently suggests everyone might be a lot happier if he didnt come at all. But the pope has his mind set on going there. And as he has shown again and again, once he makes up his mind, the body eventually follows. NBCs Stephen Weeke is based in Rome.

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), February 28, 2000.

...and this?

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), February 28, 2000.

Inside Vern's head: [ ]

-- Charles Underwood Farley (chuck@u.farley), February 29, 2000.

Ignore them, Vern. It is most definitely on topic for political if not religious reasons. The religious/political climate of the middle east against the backdrop of one of the world's most revered religious figures is most definitely of interest to forum regulars here.

Thanks for the post.

-- exforumregular (exforumregular@lurking.com), February 29, 2000.

Oh~

And the Bob Jones University information is supplemental to a previous posting in which questions were raised as to apostasy and the church and religion in general...The question arose as to whether BJU allowed inter-racial dating and this is the answer to the question that was rumored about....forum regulars were having difficulties ascertaining whether the rumore were true or not.

Again, thanks Vern...good detective work.

-- exforumregular (exforumregular@lurker.com), February 29, 2000.

Hows this for a well-rounded education: half at Bob Jones U and half at UC Berkeley. The question is: in what order?

-- Ra (tion@l.1), February 29, 2000.

The concept that Catholicism is a cult and that the Pope is a devil is the founding precept of Protestantism, whose role is to PROTEST the Roman Catholic Church. In recent decades, the syrup of Ecumenism has been poured over the diferences.

Patrick J. Buchanan was trained by the Jesuits at Georgetown to fight for the Catholic faith, and he is a religious Chauvinist. Just as he graduated, it seems as the mainstream Protestant churches and the Catholics 'kissed and made up'.

His pugnaciousness has found an outlet in various Catholic- Jewish disputes primarily because the ongoing Portestant-Catholic battle has become so muted.

Back to the Thirty Years War!

-- Z (Z@Z.Z), February 29, 2000.