Dr. Michael Schmidt challenges Dr. Stephen Jones , President of prestigious of Bob Jones University to a public debate
August 31st, 2009 | 
Author: “Dr. Stephen Jones, President of prestigious Bob Jones University.
I would like to have the honor of debating you in a public debate.
The topic for debate is:
” Jazz Music, is it unbiblical?”
Respectfully,
Dr. Michael Schmidt
President
Trumpet of the Lord Ministries 501(c)3″
http://www.bju.edu/welcome/who-we-are/administration/president.php
Posted in Uncategorized
Dr. Jones:
Thank you for your quick reply.
As a kid I always admired Bob Jones University. I regret not attending. BJU has a wonderful music department, one of the finest that there is. I was a member of Killian Hill Baptist Church where Dr. Wood was my pastor. I was led to Christ by Curtis himself. I was somewhat of a misfit as a church teen with long golden tote blond hair, a professional skateboarder and band nerd. Nevertheless, I have very fond memories. The highlight was when Dr. Wood paid for my sister and I to attend the Wilds. Geraldene and Ricky were there that week, I was a lucky kid.
I was mentored as a trumpet player by your very own BJU graduate Hartley Cruver (Who is 77 and lives in Greenville). I chose to study from Rev. Cruver instead of attending Eastman. My father, who was led to Christ by Dr. Bob Wood (who preached his funeral), worked his entire lifetime for Kodak.
Jazz Music is not a small issue to me and the Trumpet of the Lord Ministry. We use Christian jazz as a tool to witness to and reach people for Christ. Not all jazz musicians are drunks that play in brothels. Today jazz music is more likely to be played at a high school or college than in a bar. Last weekend we ministered at Heritage Park in Dalton, GA where we raised money for the homeless.
I commend you as you continue to move out of legalism and into true genuine biblical Christianity. I hope that you will one day realize that jazz music is no more or less biblical than classical music, and that you and your professors do not have any solid biblical ground for your anti jazz stance. Jazz music is was created by America’s African Americans.
Jerry was very pleased with the way that I am using Christian jazz music
to reach out to lost people. Why aren’t you pleased as well?
It breaks my heart that your students are forbidden to listen to my new CD ‘TULSA”. It is not rock music. So far only one song even has drums on it.
I have worked very hard over the last 30 years to push the envelope bringing the trumpet to where it has never been before. Not because I dislike classical or traditional Christian music, but rather because this is what God has called me to do. I wanted to be a Sr. Pastor. Jerry was right, he once told me that God had called me first to be a trumpet player. When he said that to me, he made me angry. Over the years I have realized that Jerry was right about my calling. The Bible speaks of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. My music is spiritual songs, where I play in the spirit. The Selah is not just a pause, it is a pause for spontaneous musical interludes. Selah is a musical notation, like a G clef sign.
I am not trying to preach to you about what a great Christian I am. If you want to see an outstanding Christian just take a look at Shirley Canaday, or her parents. I only ask you to please lift the ban on all forms of jazz music. Times have changed, when BJU’s anti jazz rule was instated African Americans were forbidden to become BJU students, and Christian jazz music was not yet invented.
I remain ready to debate you. I can secure a national cable TV audience, but I remain certain that you do not want to enter into a debate that you can not win, respectfully.
Stephen you are doing an excellent job as President of BJU, and I think you are doing the finest job since its founder retired. Please pardon my English as I have to leave to go pick up high school band kids.
Regards,
Michael
God bless you , I wish you well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpPehptG3yw&feature=related
Stephen please watch. This music is a legitimate art form , as much as Shakespeare, etc..
One can clearly see why Bob Jones University once banned jazz music with its African American origins. It is now time for BJU to lift its racist ban of all jazz music.
Dr. Michael Schmidt – Trumpet of the Lord
According to Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American composer and classical and jazz trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis:
Jazz is something Negroes invented, and it said the most
profound things — not only about us and the way we look
at things, but about what modern democratic life is really
about. It is the nobility of the race put into sound …
jazz has all the elements, from the spare and penetrating
to the complex and enveloping. It is the hardest music to
play that I know of, and it is the highest rendition of
individual emotion in the history of Western music.
- wordiq.com
Was Bob Jones University rule that students are forbidden to play or listen to all forms of jazz music racial motivated?
From WIKI:
“Although BJU admitted Asians and other minorities from its inception, it refused to enroll black students until 1971, eight years after the University of South Carolina and Clemson University had been integrated by court order. From 1971 to 1975, BJU admitted only married blacks, although the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had already determined in 1970 that “private schools with racially discriminatory admissions policies” were not entitled to federal tax exemption. Late in 1971, BJU filed suit to prevent the IRS from taking its tax exemption, but in 1974, in Bob Jones University v. Simon, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the University did not have standing to sue until the IRS actually assessed taxes. Four months later, on May 29, 1975, the University Board of Trustees authorized a change in policy to admit “students of any race,” a move that occurred shortly before the announcement of the Supreme Court decision in Runyon v. McCrary (427 U.S. 160 [1976]), which prohibited racial exclusion in private schools.[95]
In May 1975, as it prepared to allow unmarried blacks to enroll, BJU adopted more detailed rules prohibiting interracial dating and marriage—threatening expulsion for any student who dated or married inter racially, who advocated interracial marriage, who was “affiliated with any group or organization which holds as one of its goals or advocates interracial marriage,” or “who espouse, promote, or encourage others to violate the University’s dating rules and regulations.”
”
As of 2009 it is alleged that Bob Jones University’s student body population is allegedly estimated less than 4 % African American, yet America is approximately 13 % African American, and as of 2005 South Carolina is 29.68% African American.