Independent Fundamentalist Baptists (IFB) - Camille Lewis & Bob Jones University | Ep. 2057
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 270 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we continue our series of non-Mormon stories with Camille Lewis. Raised as an Independent Fundamental Baptist, Camille attended and later taught at Bob Jones University—an Evangelical college in Greenville, NC, known for its strict rules and staunch conservatism. The university also has a troubling history of discrimination, including once forbidding interracial dating. While serving as a professor at BJU, Camille was reprimanded for refusing to allow the school’s daycare to physically discipline her children, and was ultimately asked to resign.
Join us as we explore the teachings of Evangelicalism, the legacy of Bob Jones University and its founders, and where Camille stands in her faith today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can you imagine being forced to resign from your church-based university for being unwilling to let them hit your children? |
| 0:08.6 | Hi, everyone. Welcome to Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host, John DeLyn. It is August 5th, 2025. I'm here with Margie. Hey, Margie. |
| 0:16.2 | Hi. And we are interviewing Camille Lewis. |
| 0:21.5 | Hi, Camille. |
| 0:22.1 | Hi. |
| 0:25.0 | And Camille is so fascinating. |
| 0:30.7 | She is currently an assistant professor in communication studies at Furman University in Greenville, |
| 0:31.4 | South Carolina. But she was raised a independent fundamental Baptist, and eventually she ended up attending and working for |
| 0:42.1 | the Bob Jones University, which I would say, if you think BYU is intense, Bob Jones University |
| 0:49.9 | might even, Bob Jones University might even be more intense than Liberty University. Is that? Oh, yeah. |
| 0:54.2 | See? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. See? |
| 0:54.5 | Oh, yeah. |
| 0:55.1 | Oh, yeah. |
| 0:55.7 | And yeah. |
| 0:56.5 | So this is going to be a two-part Mormon stories. |
| 0:59.9 | It's following in our tradition of interviewing people who were raised in other high-demand |
| 1:05.8 | religions or cults. |
| 1:07.1 | In this case, we're focusing on, again, independent fundamental Baptists, but it's going to be |
| 1:13.6 | about the history of independent fundamental Baptist slash evangelicals slash Bob Jones University, |
| 1:20.2 | and we're not going to be comprehensive, but we're going to give you a flavor for that faith |
| 1:24.8 | tradition. That's going to be kind of part one of this interview. |
| 1:28.8 | And then part two is going to be Camille's upbringing in that tradition |
... |
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