Wheaton College’s far lefty professor, Brian Howell (seen seated above on right wearing crown), is either ignorant, dishonest, or both. On Tuesday, May 5, 2026, Howell posted this on his Facebook page:
On May 9, Wheaton College Office of Multicultural Development, Student Development, and Wheaton College International Student Programs will hold their 6th Annual ISP & OMD Senior Recognition Ceremony. This is one of those things that critics of Wheaton have twisted into a sign of liberalism or theological drift or some other nefarious thing. They call it a “racially segregated graduation ceremony” even though it is not a graduation ceremony nor racially segregated.
Howell is a tricksy little sophist, so I will try to clear up what he has murkified. But first, I will agree that it is not THE graduation ceremony. It is a ceremony that honors graduating seniors and takes place in the morning of the day of THE graduation ceremony.
Now let’s march forward in truth to the controversial part about which Howell is not forthcoming.
I have heard nothing critical about this year’s Senior Recognition Ceremony, and Howell provided no evidence substantiating his claim that “critics have twisted” it into some “nefarious thing.”
Thanks to Wayback Machine, everyone can see what Howell omitted from his Facebook post. The “Senior Recognition Ceremony” has undergone quite a transing since it was born in the Year of Peak Wokeness—Spring 2021. At its inception, the Senior Recognition Ceremony was called the “Racialized Minority Recognition Ceremony.” Here is the description copied from the since-scrubbed Wheaton website:
SATURDAY, MAY 8 [2021]
- 10 – 11:30 a.m. RACIALIZED MINORITY RECOGNITION CEREMONY
Edman Chapel
Especially for undergraduate students, staff, and faculty of color; all students are welcome to attend, with limited seating
While Wheaton designed the ceremony for students, staff, and faculty “of color,” if there were any seats left—maybe in the back of the chapel—other students were welcome. My powers of deduction lead me to think the remaining students who were “welcome” if space permitted would have been white students. Sounds kinda, sorta, maybe racist to me. Let’s test that hypothesis.
Close your eyes and imagine reading this on a Wheaton College webpage:
Wheaton College is hosting a RACIALIZED RECOGNITION CEREMONY for undergraduate students, staff, and faculty that are white. All students of color are welcome in the remaining limited seating.
(insert nervous emoji in your mind’s eye)
Maybe Howell could enlighten everyone with a Facebook post about why the name has been changed to Senior Recognition Ceremony and why he didn’t mention that in his May 5 post.
For the past two months, since March 9, 2026, most of Howell’s Facebook posts have been campaign ads promoting his far-leftist daughter’s election campaign. She’s a pro-LGBTQ, pro-Drag, pro-feticide candidate running for office in Washington state. One wonders how any Wheaton College professor could endorse any candidate who affirms that which God abhors.
It’s a moral outrage that theologically orthodox parents have unknowingly been paying Howell’s salary because Wheaton refuses to acknowledge just how leftist it has become. Same goes for donors. And now parents are unknowingly paying the salaries of dozens of leftist professors at Wheaton.
Like a little engine that can’t, Howell tries to spin Wheaton’s leftist yarn into intellectual gold. Here’s what he posted on April 23, 2026:
We’re a school where students can come together and really debate ideas. We’re not a narrow school, only conservative or only liberal. We’re one of those rare places where there is true viewpoint diversity. I can’t imagine why some people would want their school to be only Conservative or only Liberal. The richness of a place that can hold all these things together in a way that honors Christ and honors one another is rare and beautiful. Anyone who tries to tell you Wheaton is “lefty” or “woke” doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
First, I have two children who graduated from Wheaton, both of whom are married to Wheaton grads. In addition, my son also got his M.A. in Theology from Wheaton. All four were swimmers, and my daughter was also a water polo player.
In addition, I know quite a few Wheaton alumni, including some former donors. I’ve met with two Wheaton trustees and President Ryken.
I have been researching and writing about Wheaton for years.
And I know that over half the board of trustees and over half the faculty are leftists.
So, I do, in reality, know something about Wheaton.
Second, since Howell apparently is deficient in the imagination department, I will share why I wouldn’t want to pay to send my children to any college where they would be taught by leftists.
Being exposed to diverse ideas does not require being taught by people who affirm false and destructive ideas. Nor does debating ideas require being taught by men and women who affirm false and destructive ideas.
A good professor is fully capable of presenting, leading discussions, and cultivating debates on diverse ideas without holding or affirming false and destructive ideas.
Does Howell believe that in order to foster expansiveness, richness, and beauty, Wheaton needs to hire atheists? What about polyamorists who identify as Christians? Should Wheaton hire them in order to serve expansiveness, richness, and beauty?
Contra Howell, many argue that Wheaton College has not been made richer, nor has God been better honored by the promulgation of false and destructive ideas.
When Howell acknowledges that Wheaton is a place of “true diversity of ideas,” when he says he “can’t imagine why some people would want their school to be only conservative,” when he admits Wheaton is “not a narrow school,” he is saying exactly what many have been saying for years: Wheaton is no longer the school it once was.
While Howell holds narrowness in disdain, Scripture teaches that we must “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it.”
We learn from Scripture that “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
And we are warned to “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
Not on board all the leftism at Wheaton College? Well, Howell describes those who criticize Wheaton’s descent into leftism as seeing through “their own veil of bitterness and partisan politics.”
According to Howell, either agree with Wheaton lefties or you’re bitter and partisan, unlike Howell who’s neither.
Ever the smug wag, Howell recently admitted he is exactly what Wheaton administrators, trustees, and students know he is: “I’m a lefty, sure, but some of my best friends are Republicans.”
Wheaton College is a private institution free to be a leftist-dominated institution if that’s what administrators, trustees, and donors want. But if it has any remaining institutional integrity, it will make clear to all donors, potential donors, potential students, and their parents that it is now a place where faculty members as far left as those at Brown or Columbia feel ideologically at home.
Leftists dominate the faculty—many far leftists—and many conservative faculty members do not feel welcome and do not experience the same freedom to express their views as lefties do.
Unfortunately, institutional integrity in many Christian institutions is in woefully short supply these days.
The good news is this is Howell’s last year at Wheaton. He’s leaving for lower-paying pastures with 2 hour Learning Alpha Schools. The Wheaton College student newspaper reported that “Howell found this position while scrolling on LinkedIn, feeling he had completed everything that an academic can. He was searching for other job opportunities that provided a more religiously diverse community.”
Theologically orthodox Christians shouldn’t get their hopes up for change, though. Rumors persist that Wheaton hasn’t hired any conservative faculty for years.