Postcard from South Carolina

Okay, it doesn't look much like the Palmetto state, but I've just driven back to Columbia from the Bob Jones University (ordinary name, craa-zzzy students) and it seemed, somehow, appropriate.

Where else but a Christian fundamentalist university can you meet an normal-looking 18-year old girl who says she would not vote for Hillary Clinton because the God teaches us that men should rule over women?

Now, don't get smart, I'm sure there are other places. Iran is one that springs to mind. But where else can you meet LOTS  of normal-looking teenagers who, in my secular eyes, have the most extraordinary views (yes, Iran again, I suppose).

The Bob Jones students were really nice, laughing at my slightly deranged, certainly inappropriate, jokes about the quantities of booze, fags (that's English for "cigarettes") or other sinful behaviour I indulged in at university. And they were hugely articulate in the way that all Americans are (is that to do with the "sharing" they do in elementary school?)

But then one of them says: "I'm backing Huckabee because he stands for 'No Gays'." What - none at all? "No, they're only doing it for attention."

These presumbably heterosexual students are not allowed to hold hands, let alone kiss each other, at Bob Jones university - unless they are engaged. And with the best and most open minded will in the world, as someone who had a three-year-old daughter when I got married, this is jaw-droppingly strange. America sometimes seems a very foreign place.

I'm sure BJU is an extreme example of the Christian conservative voters who will comprise 50%-plus of the Republican primary turnout on January 19.

But I've been here in South Carolina long enough to know that Mike Huckabee is not the only one pandering to them. Bob Jones III himself has endorsed Mitt Romney, while Fred Thompson - remember him? - has been pandering away here for most of the past fortnight.

He has justified ignoring New Hampshire and Michigan by pointing out how he has kept his limbs warms in the South while "they're up there fighting blizzards", adding: "Now, who's the most qualified to be president, with judgment like that?"

Thompson thinks he is going to pull off a little miracle by winning here, not least because it is his turn after Huckabee in Iowa, John McCain in New Hampshire and Romney in Michigan.

I was pondering the nature of mircales in a post Bob Jones visit sort-of-way over a large drink when the barman pointed out that it was snowing here, for the first time in five years (or "ten years", as he said later).

Maybe Thompson should have kept his mouth shut about the blizzards. South Carolina's miracle quota may just have been used up.

Comments

[Dominic Stockford]

I think that the writer is not as open-minded as he thinks he is.

[Lisa]

This reporter seems to think religious minded people are all idiots, so why BOTHER hanging out w/them & writing your take on them?

[Ophelia]

He wasn't implying that all religious-minded individuals were idiots, he was just commenting on the fact that some of the views commonly held by fundamentalist extremists are, as the 'extremist' part of the phrase implies, pretty extreme, and in the eyes of many, quite alien and seemingly a bit daft as well.

[matt]

Finally, somebody who tells the truth abut my fellow southern americans. He really hit the nail on the head regarding the bible belt in america.

[William Mears]

The great sadness of the media's secular liberal writers, and their claim to respect all view points and inclusive and open nature, is that, in fact, they respect nothing that isn't as secular and liberal as they are, and it constantly shows.

[Sahil]

How 'open-minded' can you be about people who think that homosexuals are 'doing it for the attention' or that it is Gods will is for men to rule over women? Lets call a spade a spade..

[Jeremy White]

How open-mined can you expect a person to be in regards to a group of people who aren't open-minded at all. If fundamentalist Christians were open-minded about things such as homosexual lifestyles then maybe they would deserve the respect of another open-minded individual.

[Greg Mallory]

Bob Jones is on the extreme of all christian thought...although, I hesitate to call them Christian, because that implies that they are following the teaching of Christ. The God I serve doesn't discriminate on race (they do not allow inter-racial dating), desparage women (look at Proverbs 31), and hate people that are living in sin (homosexuals). They may be "born again" and saved from hell, but they are gonna smell like smoke when they get to heaven.