*Warning to current Bob Jones University students and employees: This episode contains music with beats on 2 and 4, so you are not allowed to listen. But you should. We won't tell.

A little longer episode than normal, but I just had to get all the stories into this one from Nate Nakao. Nate is the co-creator and co-host of the Full Mutuality Podcast, and his story of surviving Bob Jones University, or BJU (pause for teenage giggling)...will blow your mind. If life at APU, Biola, or Vanguard seems horrible, there are no words to describe life at BJU. With a draconian demerit system in place to monitor and police student behavior, they're basically hunting for reasons to expel students as sinners or, dare I say, reprobates. In a place where a single drink of alcohol or viewing of a PG movie results in immediate expulsion, the notion of any kind of life that values art and connection to the world is simply not possible. But Nate pushed back, even as he fought to remain at BJU, and came out feeling certain that this kind of christianity was not for him, or anyone who had any sense of self. 

Sadly, Nate would go on to join the megachurch world, including Hillsong, which you can learn about on the Full Mutuality Podcast, but this episode is just about BJU. And it's a lot. Happily, Nate is now a self-actualized person. He and his partner Gail have started the podcast collective Dauntless Media, which you're tuning into now, and he is doing the work to undo the damage done by evangelical culture. A happy ending after BJU. 

Chapel Probation is part of the Dauntless Media Collective

Music by Scott Okamoto and Hauskatt (Jen Lee) aka Jenyi, and Shin Kawasaki and Wingo Shackleford

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