Trigger warning. This podcast contains descriptions of various abusive situations. Listener discretion is advised.

You are listening to the Preacher Boys podcast, a podcast shedding light on decades of mental, physical, and sexual abuse within the independent fundamental Baptist movement.

The testimonies shared on this podcast are told from the personal experience and perspective of the survivors.

Not all legal outcomes are known or final.

Any suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.

Now, here is your host, Eric Squarsinski. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Preacher

Boys podcast. Dr. Steve Pettett, president of Bob Jones University, the Fundamentalist College in

South Carolina, resigned on March 31st, 2023. For me, it feels like not too long ago that the

bombshell report from Grace dropped about

Bob Jones University. In 2015, after a two-year investigation, the report revealed that for 40

years, numerous cases of abuse that occurred both on and off-campus were mishandled by

BJAU leadership. Survivors claimed that in instances which took place at the college, proper authorities were not

notified and that in many cases, survivors in counseling at BJU were blamed for bringing

the abuse on themselves.

The majority of the issues seemed to be centered around Bob Jones III and former Dean of

Students, Jim Berg, who also created the toxic counseling materials

used with victims. Near the end of the investigation, May of 2014, Dr. Steve Pettettett

became president of Bob Jones University. The Greenville News reported in March 26 of 2015

that Petit began meeting with survivors saying sexual abuse is a heinous crime that requires

abusers be brought to justice. He noted that some had been helped by loving counseling,

but acknowledged that others had not. He said it was apparent that the university was too focused

on rules and not enough on people. For many, statements like these and the fact that many

...