SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville News
Lyn Riddle, lnriddle@greenvillenews.com March 10, 2015
Bob Jones University President Steve Pettit said Tuesday that the weeks since school leaders were criticized for the way they counseled victims of sexual abuse have not been easy on anyone.
“It has been particularly difficult on a few,” he told students during a chapel service in which he spent 16 minutes responding to a yearlong investigation by Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment.
He did not name those he was talking about, but the two most harshly criticized by the GRACE report were Bob Jones III, the chancellor and grandson of the founder, and Jim Berg, who handled most of the counseling during almost 30 years as dean of students.
GRACE found that students who reported abuse were blamed for bringing it on themselves and that proper authorities had not been notified. The organization said Jones, as the president from 1971 until 2005, and Berg, who stepped down as dean in 2010, were primarily responsible.
The report recommended that Jones be disciplined and that Berg be banned from both counseling and teaching counseling and that the school no longer use or sell his books or DVDs.
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