Editing Bob Jones University (section)

====Republican Party ties====
[[File:Ron Strom.jpg|thumb|[[Ronald Reagan]] and [[Strom Thurmond]] both played influential roles in the political life of BJU.]]

From nearly the inception of Bob Jones College, a majority of students and faculty were from the [[Northern United States#Historical term|northern United States]], where there was a larger ratio of Republicans to Democrats than in [[Southern United States|the South]] (which was [[Solid South|solidly]] Democratic). Therefore, almost from its founding year, BJU had a larger portion of Republicans than the surrounding community.<ref>Turner, 246; Interviews of Mary Gaston Stollenwerck Jones by Margaret Beall Tice, (September–October 1973), University Archives, Mack Library, BJU. Bob Jones Sr. had held many evangelistic campaigns in the North before founding the college, and he correctly guessed that a new college in Florida would be more attractive to northerners than a new college in his home state of Alabama.</ref> After South Carolina Senator [[Strom Thurmond]] switched his allegiance to the Republican Party in 1964, BJU faculty members became increasingly influential in the new state Republican party. BJU alumni were elected to local political and party offices. In 1976, candidates supported by BJU faculty and alumni captured the local Republican party with unfortunate short-term political consequences, but by 1980 the [[Christian right|religious right]] and the [[country club Republican|"country club" Republicans]] had joined forces.<ref>Alan Ehrenhalt, ''The United States of Ambition: Politicians, Power and the Pursuit of Office'' (New York: Random House, 1991), 98–99. "With its factions bitterly opposed to each other, the Republican party lost virtually all its state legislative seats in Greenville County, even as Gerard Ford was carrying the county against Jimmy Carter by more than 3,000 votes." (98)</ref> From then on, most Republican candidates for local and statewide offices sought the endorsement of Bob Jones III and greeted faculty/staff voters at the University Dining Common.<ref>"As late as 1978 the state representative for most of the Bob Jones precincts was Sylvia Dreyfus, a liberal Jewish Democrat. That does not happen anymore. These days, when elections are held in the districts that surround the university, anybody who does not have a Bob Jones connection does not have a realistic chance." Ehrenhalt, 99.</ref>

National Republicans soon followed. [[Ronald Reagan]] spoke at the school in 1980, although the Joneses supported his opponent, [[John Connally]], in the South Carolina primary.<ref>"GOP debaters politick in state," ''Greenville News'', February 29, 1980. Reagan said he was "surprised" by Jones's endorsement of Connally.</ref> Later, Bob Jones III denounced Reagan as "a traitor to God's people" for choosing [[George H. W. Bush]]—whom Jones called a "devil"—as his vice president. Even later, Jones III shook Bush's hand and thanked him for being a good president.<ref name=wapo>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050402413.html|title=Taking the Bob Out of Bob Jones U.|first=Peter|last=Carlson|date=May 5, 2005|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> In the 1990s, other Republicans such as [[Dan Quayle]], [[Pat Buchanan]], [[Phil Gramm]], [[Bob Dole]], and [[Alan Keyes]] also spoke at BJU.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|page=248}}</ref> Democrats were rarely invited to speak at the university, in part because they took political and social positions (especially support for [[abortion rights]]) opposed by the [[Christian right|Religious Right]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|pages=246–248}}. As Bob Jones Jr. wrote in his memoirs, "While the lecture platform of Bob Jones University will never be open to dishonest Liberals like [[Ted Kennedy]], conservative politicians and honorable statesmen have been speaking from that platform for many years." {{cite book|author=Jones Jr., Bob|title=Cornbread and Caviar|publisher=BJU Press|year=1985|page=197}}</ref>