257: How Bob Jones University Treats Survivors | Erin Burchwell

Preacher Boys Podcast

Eric Skwarczynski

Documentary, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, True Crime, Christianity

4.6 • 701 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2023

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erin Burchwell is a Columbus, Ohio-based florist, designer and illustrator. She grew up as a faculty kid on the campus of Bob Jones University, an extremely conservative Christian college known for its strict rules and controversial beliefs. In 2014, Erin interviewed with GRACE, an independent ombudsman who reviewed the University’s mishandling of sexual assault reports. She and others chose to break their anonymity in the report when the school fired the GRACE team.

Erin manages her own floral business specializing in events, décor and commissioned murals. Some of her work was recently featured online by Architectural Digest this year. She has illustrated three children’s picture books about Ohio and enjoys visiting schools and teaching students about publishing.

Erin’s commitments extend well beyond her business. She is a dedicated volunteer teacher and fundraiser for many organizations including nursing homes, women’s prisons, after-school programs, and children’s museums. She lives with her husband, Jason, her daughter Gracie, and two dogs, Fred and Mose.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Trigger warning. This podcast contains descriptions of various abusive situations. Listener discretion is advised.
0:09.2	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.
0:20.4	The testimony shared on this podcast are told from the personal experience and perspective
0:25.0	of the survivors. Not all legal outcomes are known or final. Any suspect is presumed innocent
0:31.7	until proven guilty in the court of law. Now, here is your host, Eric Squarsinski. In 2013, Bob Jones University hired Grace,
0:42.3	which stands for a godly response to abuse in Christian environments. And what Grace does is they
0:47.2	come in and they evaluate different organizations to look for any mishandling of sexual abuse.
0:52.8	This made a lot of ways because the biggest question
0:54.8	on everybody's mind was, why on earth would Bob Jones University, which already had rumors swirling
1:00.4	all over the college, allow themselves to be investigated by a organization that's not going
1:06.1	to let any stone be unturned? What happened later on was a little bit expected. Bob Jones University ended up in
1:12.1	2014 canceling the grace report. They fired the grace investigators and they decided not to let any of the
1:20.0	information that was found come forward. This did not sit well with different survivors, including
1:25.3	the guest on today's show, Aaron Birchwell.
1:28.9	Aaron made the difficult decision to come forward after the Grace report was canceled and share
1:33.2	her name publicly and let people know what Bob Jones was actually doing.
1:38.4	Yesterday, the university fired Grace, saying it was concerned about the direction this investigation
1:43.4	was taking. When the decision to terminate direction this investigation was taking.
1:45.0	When the decision to terminate the investigation was first announced, social media exploded.
1:50.0	One person wrote, shame on you, BJU, on the university's Facebook page.
1:55.0	Another person wrote, How Dare You?
1:57.0	A lot of us just felt like this was too good to be true. The strongest reactions were from
	...

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