Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois is in the news again, and again for all the wrong reasons. Just after it was announced that Wheaton alumnus Russell Vought had been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the college posted this on Facebook:
Wheaton College congratulates and prays for 1998 graduate Russell Vought regarding his senatorial confirmation to serve as the White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget!
Within hours, Wheaton deleted the post and added another, this one an embarrassment to the once-great Christian institution:
On Friday, Wheaton College posted a congratulations and a call to prayer for an alumnus who received confirmation to a White House post. The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached that level of government. However, the political situation surrounding the appointment led to a significant concern expressed online. It was not our intention to embroil the College in a political discussion or dispute. Our institutional and theological commitments are clear that the College, as a non-profit institution, does not make political endorsements. Wheaton College’s focus is on Christ and His Kingdom.
So, Wheaton “typically” offers a public congratulations and call for prayer for any graduate who has reached a prominent position in the government, that is, unless leftists screech about it. If enough leftists get their panties in a twist, Wheaton turns tail.
Congratulating someone for a professional accomplishment and calling for prayers for them are not political acts and do not constitute political endorsements. Capitulating to the demands of an online leftist mob politically motivated by beliefs antithetical to theological orthodoxy is a political act.
And Wheaton’s brief non-political congratulatory post was not the cause of the embroilment. The cause was the petulance of leftists.
The former evangelical flagship school added more details in a statement to the Religion News Service, denying that the deletion of the initial congratulatory post constituted an apology:
The social media post led to more than 1,000 hostile comments, primarily incendiary, unchristian comments about Mr. Vought, in just a few hours. It was not our intention to embroil the College or Mr. Vought in a political discussion or dispute. Thus, we removed the post, rather than allow it to become an ongoing online distraction. This was in no way an apology for having expressed congratulations or for suggesting prayers for our alumnus. (emphasis added)
Note the change from the online explanation, which stated that “it was not our intention to embroil “the College” in a political discussion or dispute. The revised statement includes Mr. Vought suggesting that Wheaton is concerned about the effect of its congratulations on Mr. Vought, which seems at once a disingenuous and political change.
If the welfare of Mr. Vought were their chief concern, maybe they should have talked to him before deleting their congratulations. Mr. Vought found their actions “sad.”
Mr. Vought seems to have more spine than does the Wheaton administration. He stands strong, courageous, and upright even in the face of thousands of hostile comments, while Wheaton collapses in the face of worldly opposition.
If Wheaton has a typical practice of congratulating and calling for prayer for alumni who reach high levels of government service, and if Wheaton believes such a typical practice is God-honoring, then the antipathy of the world should not lead to the reversal of its typical practice.
Jesus warns,
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
And Christians are urged to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
From what I’ve learned from diverse people connected to Wheaton College in diverse ways, I suspect some of the incendiary commentary against Mr. Vought emerges from in-house. It is inarguable that Wheaton has more lefties on its faculty than many Wheaton alumni and donors realize and far more than many believe it should.
No better evidence of the troubling presence of lefties on Wheaton’s faculty is Nathan Cartagena, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, devotee of Critical Race Theory, and fan of Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire. Some intrepid investigative donors ought to look into Cartagena’s assignments to students, and while they’re at it, find out if he has described whites as “racist” or “settler colonialists.”
Even more troubling is the fact that Cartagena is not alone at Wheaton.
Curiously, for a school that claims to be fervently apolitical, Wheaton hosted an event in 2023 to honor deceased Wheaton alumnus and President George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, a vociferous opponent of President Trump. How is a Facebook congratulations and call for prayer for an alumnus serving in the government a political act but an hour-long event to honor an alumnus who served in the government is not a political act? It seems the only difference is 1,000 angry, squawking leftists.
Wasn’t the removal of former Wheaton College President James Oliver Buswell Jr.’s name from the library a political act impelled by the “woke” mind virus? Wasn’t the replacement of a plaque honoring Wheaton College alumni Jim Elliot and Ed McCully who were killed by Waorani savages a political act impelled just a wee bit by the “woke” mind virus?
The reality is Wheaton College has moved leftward, and President Phil Ryken has proven himself too weak a leader to right the ship. It is clear to many that President Ryken has demonstrated after fourteen long years that he lacks the will and/or skill to fix what ails the school. As a result, both conservative faculty members and students feel just like conservative faculty members and students feel in secular universities: oppressed and silenced.