Earlier this week Wheaton College Alumni penned a dramatic letter demanding changes to the school’s woke policies. The group said the Christian school has not officially changed policies but has effectively become a woke school. Until their demands are met, alumni will cease funding the school through donations. In a recent clip, David Bennett gave the school’s first-ever Sexual + Gender Identity Institute (SGI) lecture. This clip provides an insight into the activity which angered alumni.
“Gay celibacy, as I define it, is a deeply queer phenomenon charting the intersection of the experience of gay orientation and a radical focus on a theology of love which gives primacy to our desire for unity or intimacy, or as the Christian tradition calls it, Eros,” Bennett said. “My research emerges from the notion that to be gay and non repressively celibate is queerer than both the often quite lackluster and idolatrous alternative positionalities that fight over the good of marriage. Although us gay people, we did take the idol of marriage pretty fabulously off the heterosexuals.”
“Our complaint is that Wheaton has repeatedly capitulated to the spirit of our age—placating bad actors while sidelining those who bear a more faithful witness,” the letter began. We see this in the relentless centering of race and the elevation of voices who promote unbiblical pedagogies, like critical theory…; the de facto capitulation on sexual ethics through the uncritical appropriation of LGBT terminology and identities; and the general tendency to stifle those who bring conservative viewpoints.”
“We also hear about this drift from graduates who attest that some of their professors openly violated the Statement of Faith behind closed doors—for instance, affirming universal salvation or referring to God as both “Father and Mother,'” they continued. “This mission drift didn’t happen overnight. It has been subtle, creeping, but real. As believers, we know this is how evil normally works. In America, we have 400 years of history that show this very form of drift leading countless Christian colleges away from their mission.”
“As alumni and parents, we have sensed Wheaton’s drift for some time. We’ve exchanged anecdotes with each other from our time on campus and from our children currently enrolled,” the letter added .”Many of us have brought our concerns privately to President Ryken and to you, the trustees, hoping to have our concerns resolved privately. But there is no evidence that you have seriously heeded our concerns or been vigilant to reverse Wheaton’s drift.”
“As such, we are now compelled to publicly air these concerns and take additional steps in the hope of seeing necessary change. We are not doing this out of anger, frustration, or spite, but out of deep love for Wheaton College..” The alumni added.”We recognize these are challenging times for institutions of higher education, particularly those committed to Christian distinctives in a changing world. Filling a faculty with faithful Christian scholars given the state of modern academia poses a tremendous challenge.”
“In our time, the Gospel may be viewed as “conservative”; in other times, it has been “progressive.” So be it. Our world’s categories should be irrelevant to how we carry out our mission,” the letter insightful observed. ” Christian students and parents want a college that will shape them into the kinds of countercultural people who will walk boldly into the wind in the strength of Christ, wherever He leads them.”
Watch Bennett’s Lecture Here:
In response to the clip, many social media users expressed their outrage. “How the heck did Phil Ryken allow this to metastasize in the +12 years under his Presidency? And what is he doing to roll this back? Unless there is a substantial answer, TGC would be wise to reconsider Ryken’s role on their board of directors,” one user said of Wheaton’s President.
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