Compare And Contrast Bob Jones University Vs United States

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Alexander Cholokyan
Professor Kendal
Theology
3/10/14

Bob Jones University vs United States The Bible is an important book that describes stories between God and the people. Within the Bible contains many stories that contain many teachings and laws that justify the action of mankind. In the case between Bob Jones and the United States, the Bible was used to justify racial inequality that was in place at this private university. The university argued that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should give back the university the tax break that was taken away from them. Their reason lied within the First
Amendment, which guaranteed freedom of religion. IRS took back the tax break because Bob
Jones University had laws that emplaced racial inequality in …show more content…

Their main presupposition is that the Bible is 100% accurate. As a fundamentalist they looked at the Bible as a list of facts that humans must follow.
Using the Genesis chapter they defended their laws of racial inequality that they had in place.
These laws were based on the Bible’s description dating back to Noah and his three sons. The
University believed that humans are the descendants of Japheth, Ham, and Shem. The university used the story where Noah gets raped by Ham when he is drunk which is followed up by Noah cursing Ham’s son Canaan to be the lowest of slaves to Japheth and Shem
(Genesis 9) to defend this rule. In Genesis 10, the genealogy of the three sons and what areas they populated are depicted. Ham’s descendants populated Northern Africa and Canaan (Genesis
10). Bob Jones University uses the interpretation of Goldsboro which states that "Orientals and
Negroes are Hamitic, Hebrews are Shemitic, and Caucasians are Japhethitic” (FindLaw). Under this interpretation the university denied admission to anyone involved in interracial relationship because they believed that Ham’s descendants should not be in a relationship with Sham’s or Japheth’s