Nathan "Nate" Phelps: "He used his fists. He used his knees and he used ... the handle of a mattock. ... If they want to call that discipline, that's fine. But I call it abuse"

[Louise Dan] Actually, Jim, Phelps attended BJU (and that is not an urban myth). So, like it or not, I think he is a part of the fundamentalist milieu.

I think that is going too far. Attending a school does not make one part of their belief structure or agenda. There were kids who went to the same college I attended who came in under the radar and were lost, or JWs, or immoral (as in fornicators and substance abusers). That isn’t the fault of the school (some revealed themselves and were dealt with), and attending a Christian college doesn’t make one a Christian or a Fundie any more than sleeping in the garage makes me a car.

But if I did sleep in the garage, I’d want to be a Saab.

I think Louise was clear and fair in her phrasing of “part of the fundamentalist milieu.”

Fundies very frequently use college-attended to determine whether someone is an “us” or a “them.” It’s a natural by-product of the ways fundies practice separation. While Phelps now takes some positions anathema to most IFB leadership, it is worth noting that at one time he was close enough to the BJU belief system to apply and be accepted there. Perhaps he was already a crackpot when he attended BJC, but there was something in the Fundamentalism-as-BJC-practiced-it that drew him to the school.