"World's Most Unusual"

Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C. calls itself "the world's most unusual university," and this year's commencement exercises showed some good reasons. Instead of being preserved in bronze or marble, the university's namesake-founder, the Rev. Bob Jones Sr., 68, chairman of the board of trustees, marched in the academic procession. There was no senior or junior prom, since Bob Jones's 3,000 men & women students do not dance. Instead, the outstanding social events of graduation week were a student sermon contest and a presentation of King Lear, with President Bob Jones Jr., 40, the founder's son, in the title role. At a gathering of strictly nonsmoking (and teetotaling) alumni,* it took a while to light the candles on the anniversary cake because nobody was carrying matches.

In its 25 years, Bob Jones University has demonstrated that it is possible to take the enthusiasm of a religious revival, transfer it to a campus, and sustain it without missing a beat. The school was founded in 1927 when Bob Jones Sr., a veteran evangelist, decided that the "sawdust aisle" of the camp meeting was really just the beginning of a Christian education. With $25,000 in contributions and savings, he set up a college designed to be "uncompromisingly orthodox and definitely and spiritually evangelistic . . . to witness for and win people to the Lord Jesus Christ." He had 88 students.

Now the cream-colored brick buildings of Bob Jones University's new $10 million campus dominate Greenville (pop. 58,161). They include an art museum, a Radio-City-like auditorium, a $100,000 radio station, WMUU, and one of the best-equipped movie & television studios between New York and Hollywood. Students may major in biology, business administration or cinema, get graduate degrees in fine arts. None of this modernity, however, implies a compromise with religion. Says Bob Jones Sr.: "They say we have laid down the red carpet on the sawdust aisle. What of it? You'll still find Jesus on the sawdust aisle."

Firmly Fundamentalist. Bob Jones Sr. is a Methodist; his son Bob Jr., who found modern Methodists "too liberal," was ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance. They keep their school interdenominational, however, welcome students and faculty members who subscribe to a firmly fundamentalist creed. "Religiously," says Bob Jr., "our testimony is: whatever the Bible says is true."

The zeal of Jones Father & Son spreads to most of their students. All classes begin with prayers. Students argue about Bible texts as other collegians talk about sport, politics and sex. At Sunday worship and the weekday chapel services, students steep themselves in "the oldtime religion"--the intimate spiritual question, the gospel hymn, the inspirational prayer.

The world's most unusual university also emphasizes such activities as music, art and the theater. "Art without Bohemianism" is a Bob Jones slogan. Last year the university marketed a 100-minute film version of Macbeth in full color, with Bob Jr., as usual, in the title role. Before the action, the star explains to the audience Shakespeare's "gospel message," i.e., Macbeth came to grief because "he did not know and love Christ."

Right Side Up. Some 1,200 students, whom Bob Sr. fondly calls his "Preacher Boys," are studying for the ministry. On school weekends and during the summers, they pour off the campus to bring converts to the sawdust aisle. At churches where they assist, they often make pastors uneasy with their fervent preaching.

Last week the Preacher Boys were heading off campus again for their summer missions. Each man must preach one sermon a week; every day he must find a new spiritual "contact," ask him how he stands with Christ.

At commencement exercises before they left, President Bob Jones Jr. summed up their school's philosophy: "Bob Jones University students have never followed the trends of the day. Twenty years ago, they were not swallowing goldfish, and this spring there were no lingerie raids on our girls' dormitories . . . We do not send out graduates to turn the world upside down. The world is already upside down. We are sending you out with the message of the Gospel, which can turn men right side up."

* Most famous Bob Jones alumnus: Evangelist Billy Graham.

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