Most Catholics are aware that some Protestants still carry a deep-seated animus against their religion, and if ever there were any doubt, the Bob Jones University controversy removed them all.
It was the patriarch himself, Rev. Bob Jones, who commented in 1928 on the prospect of seeing a Catholic, Al Smith, in the White House. “I’d rather see a nigger as President” is how he put it. His son, Bob Jones II, was just like his father, calling the Catholic Church “the Mother of Harlots” and a “satanic counterfeit.”
Bob Jones III is another loyal son; it was he who decided to post “the Mother of Harlots” comment, and others like them, on the Bob Jones University website in 2000. Moreover, Jones decided in February to speak directly to this issue: “If there are those who wish to charge us with being anti-Catholicism [sic], we plead guilty.”
Oh, yes, Jones hastens to add that “we love the practicing Catholic.” There’s a catch, though. Jones and his followers are praying that the practicing Catholic “leave the false system that has enslaved his soul.” Otherwise, we’ll all go to hell.
This takes on special significance when we remember that on March 3, Bob Jones III announced that the school was dropping its ban on interracial dating. What this shows is that the university is more passionate about its anti-Catholicism than it’s racism. We don’t expect this will change anytime soon.
