A Hurting Dog Barks

Romans 14:9-12, “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

I have been a grateful born-again Christian since age 13. I am now 53. Unfortunately, BJU has a long history of abuse, including expelling a female student who claimed she was raped by a male student (see web search). Kindly said, the institution and their alumni have a history of racism, bigotry and cult control over anyone who doesn't dot their i's and cross their t's as they do. I am a Fundamentalist Bible-believing Christian myself, but the Scriptures teach that without love nothing else matters (I Corinthians 13:1-3). BJU has a woeful lack of love for people.

I have lived on the island of Guam since 2004. There's a big independent Baptist church down the street from me—Harvest Baptist Church (founded in 1975). They are all Bob Jones University graduates. In 2014 the pastors kicked me out of their church, merely because I am King James Bible only in my beliefs, and I sometimes kindly shared my views with adult people I sat next to in church. This is America, not communist North Korea. There is a cult mentality of control at BJU. Even as a 47 year old man (at the time in 2014), I was not allowed to share my differing opinions with people at Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. I would never try to intentionally influence or contradict what the pastors preach from their own church pulpit, but what I share with people in private conversations is not their business nor right to control. I was just being myself.

I was confronted by the pastors and accused of causing "divisiveness" and "confusion." Sadly, the pastors were glad to see me go. I wept much as I left with a broken heart. I had just lost my church family, where I had attended and grown to love them for one year. But I was lonely and hurting to have a church family, with nowhere else to go. So in 2017, I begged Senior Pastor, Marty Herron, three times to please let me return. I apologized and poured out my heart. He cruelly refused. I think the problem is that as human beings, we tend to prioritize everything over caring for and loving each other. That is the defining quality that is supposed to separate Christians from the world, love. Faith and love.

I also shared my humble emails with two of their associate pastors, pleading for a second chance. I promised to keep my opinions to myself. I mentioned to them that I am a graduate of Hyles-Anderson College (1985-1993), and I humbly pleaded for an opportunity to serve Jesus in the church voluntarily for free, even if just to gladly clean toilets. Pastor Herron coldly said to: "Go elsewhere." He spelled my name as "david" (with a lowercase d in disrespect). When I kindly emailed him back, he totally ignored me and refused to respond anymore. 

I only mentioned these things because nearly the entire Bob Jones' camp have the same horrible type of bad attitude. BJU has a prevalent terrible "Us Four And No More" attitude, which is cult-like. If you are not an accepted part of their clique, you are ostracized as a nobody. I believe that everybody matters to God, and people should to us too as believers. They are religious phonies. Harvest Baptist Church on Guam has ostracized me since 2014. They are all BJU alumni. All of my neighbours across the street attend Harvest or work on staff (about 20 people total). They all shun me away.

It has discouraged me often over the years since 2014, being shunned, ostracized and given dirty looks by a so-called "church" that behaves more like a religious cult. All I ever humbly requested was to attend church services. They cruelly refused. Once BJU leaders write you off, so does the group that follow them. That is cult behavior, not Bible Christianity. There is nothing Christlike about the shameful attitudes and behavior of many of those from Bob Jones University. I say this with love, a humble heart, and compassion for the other hurting people who have also commented. A hurting dog barks!