Wheaton College is a nondenominational evangelical Christian institution located in the Western suburbs of Chicago that maintains a special relationship with the Reverend Billy Graham (currently 97 years old). Wheaton operates the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, The Billy Graham Museum and Archives, and the Billy Graham Scholarship Program. According to a website called First Things, which has the byline “Religion and Public Life,” Wheaton “is the single best place to go to college in America” based on its “social and religious atmosphere.” When I attended North Park University (a Chicago Christian college located relatively near to Wheaton and which maintains an informal rivalry with Wheaton in sports and other endeavors) in the 1980s it was rumored that if a Wheaton student had a visitor of the opposite sex in a dorm room, the door had to remain ajar, and that Wheaton did not permit dances on campus. Wheaton was in the news several years ago when it joined Catholic University in a lawsuit that challenged the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to provide emergency contraceptives to students. Earlier this month, Wheaton made national headlines by suspending Larycia Hawkins (age 43), its first ever tenured African-American female.
What did Professor Hawkins do? While affirming Wheaton’s statement of faith, she decided to wear a hijab to support Muslims who are under scrutiny in the wake of the mass shootings in San Bernadino, CA and Paris. (I have not read that her decision goes beyond the recent shootings to include a protest over Orwellian action such as drones are unmanned aerial vehicles, torture is enhanced interrogation, and occupation is liberation.) In her controversial Facebook post, Professor Hawkins wrote, “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book” and that “as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”
We worship the same God. The God of Abraham is the God of the Jews, the God of the Muslims, and the God of the Christians. However, some Christians believe that only the God of the National Association of Evangelicals (www.nae.net) is the real God. I spoke to a friend about Professor Hawkins, and he told me that shortly prior to my arrival at North Park that Fred Holmgren, a North Park seminary professor at the time, and thus a trainer of clergy for the school’s denomination (www.covchurch.org), had a charge of heresy lodged against him for writing that the God of the North Park community heard the prayers of the Jews. The charge was brought forth over his book, The God Who Cares: A Christian Looks at Judaism. Professor Holmgren (currently 95 years old) was ultimately cleared of the charge.
So I did an internet search on Professor Holmgren, and found this: http://www.pietisten.org/xxvii/2/long_humiliation.html I couldn’t believe what I had quickly found! The author taught at North Park’s seminary, and I had visited Burton Nelson at Swedish Covenant Hospital just days prior to his death, years ago.
All of this makes me wonder if some of Wheaton’s fat cat donors approached the president with ill will directed toward Professor Hawkins and her religious solidarity statements, and in order to placate evangelical constituents, Wheaton took disciplinary action against Professor Hawkins.
Professor Hawkins: North Park University (my alma mater) has a bigger tent and a more accepting Christian atmosphere than pharisaical, rulebound Wheaton College, so why not make the short journey to the north side of Chicago, and to North Park, to teach in your area of expertise, political science?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!
Wheaton’s Hijab-Wearing Prof. Says ‘Same-God’ Comment ‘Affirmed by Christian Church for Centuries
