After congratulating student as Trump appointment, the Christian university has come under fire.
More than 3, 000 people with connections to the evangelical Christian entity have signed opposing alumni letters that Wheaton College sent to an graduate joining the Trump administration, which were welcome on social media.
The Illinois university posted a congratulations to student Russell Vought as an appointment to the Office of Management and Budget earlier this month, and the school created and subsequently deleted the article.
Dakota Powell, a 2023 student, told The College Fix he wonders why Wheaton officials decided to delete the article.
Even though they had no difficulty releasing a statement about the demise of George Floyd, which was wholly political, the speech was still deemed “political.” The leadership’s contradiction and “lack of backbone” is “alarming and saddening,” Powell wrote in a new email.
According to the February 7 post,” Wheaton College lauds and prays for 1998 student Russell Vought regarding his votes assurance to lead the Office of Management and Budget.”
However, the school deleted it a short time after after being flooded with feedback. Some people accused Wheaton of supporting anti-Christian policies, including Project 2025, which Vought co-authored.
Two opposing students letters immediately surfaced.
The” For Wheaton” text, which Powell signed, asserts that the university, whose distinctive students include evangelist Billy Graham and preachers Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, has allowed “unbiblical” personality politicians to be part of its education.
They believe” Wheaton has frequently capitulated to the nature of our years” by “centering” competition and improving “voices who promote heretical pedagogies, like crucial theory”.
The letter also asserts that leaders have allowed” the uncritical appropriation of LGBT terminology and identities” and” stifle]d ] those who bring conservative viewpoints”, it calls for” an end to the current DEI regime”.
As of Tuesday, roughly 1, 300 students and more than 600 people connected with the school have signed the letter.
The next students email urges the university to accept Project 2025, a liberal reform proposal Vought co-wrote. It raises concerns about proposed laws that “target marginalized communities”, including unlawful newcomers and people with disabilities, in contradiction of Christianity.
” To coincide, even directly, with a political perception that prioritizes authority over service, isolation over passion, and coercion over morality would be to leave the very center of our faith”, the letter states.
” As Wheaton students, we formally distance ourselves from Russell Vought’s function and reaffirm our devotion to the Gospel’s extreme visit to justice, mercy, and sincerity. Silence in the face of like an anti-Christian perception is complicity”, they wrote.
As of Tuesday, more than 1, 600 graduates and kids had signed it.
Less: Wheaton College removes government’s name from collection after racism report
Wheaton declined to comment on the subject.
director Joseph Moore told The Fix in an internet on Tuesday that” we are aware of the empty words, and we have no more information to share at this time.”
The atmosphere on campus is essentially the same as it was before, according to Professor Matthew Milliner for The Fix  despite the national media attention and condemnation.
” This isn’t our first dance of social media indignation. A lot of kids haven’t noticed because ( God bless them ) they aren’t on cultural media”, the art history teacher said in a new message.
When asked about the two letters, Milliner ( pictured ) responded that “healthy disagreements about how these complex issues relate the truth of Christianity are what make for such an energizing educational environment.”
One wants innovative leadership and a “test of every single faculty and staff player’s responsibility to the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant,” which he vehemently agrees, and the other wants us to formally distance ourselves from Vought and Project 2025. Instead of praising my colleague Syllabus, I prefer to continue praying for him. What some might perceive as” captain to DEI,” on the other hand, has been a century of life-changing activities with African American Christians all over the country.
Wheaton has students and faculty who are left leaning, and some student projects – such as working with migrants or going to pro-life parades – are democratic, he said.
On social media, Wheaton frequently expresses congratulations and requests prayer for famous students.
However,” when we called for prayer for Vought ( who we’re still praying for ), this was perceived as an endorsement”, Milliner said. I understand why the article was removed, based on what I saw in the post thread and the misunderstandings it caused.
Another unfortunate byproduct of the discussion, he said, is that” some seem to believe that if we don’t give find alumni invitations to speak in temple, then they’ve been properly cancelled”.
When asked about the overall purpose of a Christian college, Milliner responded that “every school has a statement of faith ( as cancel culture has made clear ).” We’re just public about ours.
I should not teach at Wheaton College if I disbelieve in the resurrection of Christ, if I come to the conclusion ( as this controversy makes unlikely ), that original sin is fiction, that God supports racism, or that the Virgin Mary was no virgin because Jesus was born like the rest of us, he said. That is not intellectual bondage. For me, that is the highest form of freedom.”
As the controversy keeps swirling, both Milliner and Powell believe Wheaton remains a stand-out in U. S. education.
A recent graduate, Powell said his professors and coaches” taught me worth ethic, excellence, and how to think, but most importantly how Jesus Christ and the Gospel interacts with my academics and how these Gospel truths go beyond me.”
Wheaton College must set the tone for Christian higher education, be the model for other institutions, and not be one that defies the will of the general public. According to Powell,” Wheaton is an institute worth fighting for.”
I do not think the information coming out of Wheaton College is representative of the entire institution, he said.
For Milliner, its exceptionalism comes, in part, through nuanced discussions about faith in the classroom.
” I just listened to a student presentation that examined the Ramayana, one of India’s greatest epic poems, in a detailed and nuanced manner.” The student, who had just finished a semester in north India, engaged in critical discussion with her own Christian faith, to which she is more than ever, he told The Fix.
” Where else does this happen? Many places would either merely celebrate the Ramayana, or merely insist it is idolatrous,” Milliner said”. The Christian middle path has been found.
MORE: Christian college deletes post congratulating alum in Trump administration
IMAGE: Stevan Sheets/flickr, Wheaton College
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