They definitely care about their community. I was there for the 25 years in Greenville, and visited for the 75th year and being a good member of the community is high on their list. I was part of the Community Relations Council when it was first formed with projects to work in the community– festival of trees, building projects, Kudzu removal…

I don’t know that the Ron Paul thing would have much effect on the community. They have so much that they do that a lot of people already have an opinion about it.

Since they’re not a church, I really don’t have a problem with that either. I think the reason they’re keeping out of this election as an organization is due in part to Stephen Jones’ lack of desire to enter the school into the political arena, and the fact that it will draw unnecessary criticism to the school. They care deeply about the community around them, and therefore don’t want to do anything to purposefully hurt their testimony … which is why I was so surprised at the Ron Paul event. Many members of the community were present and I doubt they had a nice opinion of the university afterward.

Just my 2 cents …

Man, there are times when you shake your head at what they do. Personally, I didn’t think that they should really be coming out in favor of a candidate at all. I mean, I can see that they would want to have control over who comes in and says what– but there should be some kind of rules (somewhere there probably are).

Hopefully they’ll learn from this.

At first, I thought you were correct. But just now I took a look on Wikipedia and it says this …
“On February 2, 2000, George W. Bush, as candidate for President, spoke during school’s chapel hour.”

In light of what you said, that’s actually quite surprising that they allowed him to do that (even invited him to do so), since they never allowed it before. But there’s no doubt that the university loved GWB, so I guess if I thought about it, it wouldn’t be too surprising.

Oh well … I guess we both learned something new

I know that they will say that they have no official position in regards to the race, and Paul got a chance to talk– I give them credit for having him. For the University, it would have been tricky just having him. They didn’t prepare well– I’m not defending that. But had they given him a big microphone they may have had more trouble on their hands, especially with some of the things that he’s claimed to have said (regardless to whether he actually had said them).

I don’t doubt for a minute that there was miscommunication, but the man’s blaming the situation on the “Ron Paul campaign” was a lie. Whether or not he had made up the lie, or had simply heard it from someone else, it was untrue. It was the BJU staff that messed up, not the Paul campaign. If he was honestly mistaken, then at the very least he was very quick and cavalier in his willingness to pass the buck … which in my eyes is just as bad. Again, it is my personal belief that all or most of this was a result of policy disagreements between the university staff and Dr. Paul.

But, I’m not angry anymore. It’s over and I’m fine.

(BTW, Buchanan is pretty awesome too, so you’re luck to have gotten to hear him)

Anyway, as far as Romney or Huckabee goes, I think they would have been (excuse the pun) preaching to the choir at BJU. Paul actually had votes to gain from the appearance, but most of the students and faculty there already planned on voted for either one of them.

I’m going to write an email to BJU, and if they respond and give me decent reasons for the poor event coordination, then I’d be happy to post them here. If I am unjustly criticizing them, I would also be glad to apologize. I’m just reporting what I saw though, for now.

I was there 1994-1998 and I did get to hear Pat Buchanan and when the elections were going on in 1995 I believe that that we had some politicians (did we have Dole? I can’t remember) and Keyes. Dole got the Amphitorium and everyone was required to attend. Keyes was given the Acad Auditorium and they had people standing in the back.

Again, I can’t justify being placed in 101 (though it’s not the smallest of classrooms). I also don’t know that you can call it a lie if the person that said the thing was telling you the information that they had available. It sounds much more like a classic case of miscommunication than an all and out deception.

I don’t know how they estimate interest. I also don’t know how they plan for guests that may appear. Obviously they goofed up here. (Though I’m still not sure why Paul was granted access. One would think that Huckabee would want it given that he was preaching in other Baptist churches in the area and would seem to be a good fit– other than two of the faculty supporting Romney.)

In any case, you’re right in your criticism of their estimates, but I think the talk of lying goes over the line.