Free Republic

A Wheaton College professor announced on Facebook Thursday night that she will be wearing a hijab (Muslim head scarf) throughout her celebration of the Advent as a way of showing solidarity with Muslims. Larycia Hawkins, a political science professor at the Wheaton, Illinois, evangelical higher education institution, explained on her Facebook page that she will be wearing a hijab to work, class, and church. She also vows to wear the hijab during her trip to Chicago and even when she goes on an airplane to return to her hometown for Christmas. "I don't love my Muslim neighbor because s/he is...

An professor at an Illinois Christian college was placed on leave Tuesday after wearing a headscarf to show solidarity with Muslims.Larycia Hawkins, who is a Christian and an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago, said Wednesday that her actions were demonstrations of her own faith. Hawkins began wearing a hijab to counter what she called the "vitriolic" rhetoric against Muslims in recent weeks."In the spirit of Advent, my actions were motivated by a desire to live out my faith. Period," Hawkins said Wednesday at a news conference at a Chicago church. Advent is the season...

The Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service vowed in a Senate hearing this week that the federal agency will not strip Christian colleges and universities of their tax-exempt statuses should those institutions refuse to update school policies to be more accommodating toward gay marriages. Following the Supreme Court decision in June that nationally legalized same-sex marriages, fears have dramatically risen that Christian colleges and institutions could be stripped of their tax-exempt statuses if they don't compromise their biblical beliefs on the subject of same-sex marriage. But IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen, told Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in a Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee...

Two universities that belong to the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, an organization dedicated to delivering Christ-centered education at all of its schools, will now allow the hiring of professors who are married to a partner of the same sex. Goshen College in Indiana and Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia announced on Monday that they will now hire faculty who are in same-sex marriages. "We have spent several years reviewing our hiring practices," said Goshen College's Director of Communications Jodi Beyeler to The Christian Post on Monday. "There's been prayer. We've listened to a variety of voices from our...

WASHINGTON — Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced Monday the launch of an "aggressive" initiative to combat any state or federal legislation, or court ruling seeking to protect religious objectors of same-sex marriage from government consequence for living according to their religious convictions. The organization, which advocates a strict separation view of the religious freedom clauses of the First Amendment, has started the "Protect Thy Neighbor" project, which will monitor and battle all state and federal legislation and court challenges that pertain to giving individuals, business and religious institutions the right not to serve or participate in...

Faith-based nonprofit organizations that object to covering birth control in their employee health plans are in federal court Monday to challenge a birth-control compromise they say still compels them to violate their religious beliefs. The plaintiffs include a group of Colorado nuns and four Christian colleges in Oklahoma ... The groups are appealing to the 10th Circuit in Denver, the court that ruled last year that for-profit companies can join the exempted religious organizations and not provide the contraceptives. The U.S. Supreme Court later agreed with the 10th Circuit in the case brought by the Hobby Lobby arts-and-crafts chain. The...

Religious colleges and universities, often derided by academic elites, got a surprising shout-out recently from an Ivy League insider. harvard hoodie “Elite schools like to boast that they teach their students how to think, but all they mean is that they train them in the analytic and rhetorical skills that are necessary for success in business and the professions,” William Deresiewicz wrote in the July 21, 2014 issue of The New Republic. “Everything is technocratic—the development of expertise—and everything is ultimately justified in technocratic terms.” “Religious colleges—even obscure, regional schools that no one has ever heard of on the coasts—often...

Supreme Court Sides With Christian College In Birth Control Case The three female justices say their colleagues are reversing themselves from this week’s Hobby Lobby ruling. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) BY ROBERT BARNES July 3 The three female justices of the Supreme Court sharply rebuked their colleagues Thursday for siding with a Christian college in the latest battle over providing women with contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act, saying the court was retreating from assurances offered only days ago. In a short, unsigned opinion, the court said that Wheaton College in Illinois, at least temporarily, does not have to comply...

Former lesbian Rosaria Butterfield found controversy and opportunity on her recent visit to a Christian college campus Joni Mitchell sang, “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow, it’s cloud illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all.” Rosaria Butterfield, a former lesbian and Syracuse University professor, has looked at homosexuality from inside and outside, and has not come away empty-handed. I learned a lot from interviewing her last year, and Wheaton College students learned a lot when she visited their campus in late January. The visit was not without controversy....

For 15 years, Heather Ann Clement was a faculty member at Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian school in Southern California. But that changed last month, with the start of Azusa’s new academic year, when Heather came out as a transgender. The professor of theology began referring to herself as Heath Adam Ackley. And she even started to develop a more masculine appearance. The professor of theology formerly known as Heather demanded that Azusa officially recognize “his” new name and gender change. So university administrators sat the prof down for several “thoughtful conversations.” After hearing out Heather/Heath, it was abundantly...

What happened to so many once-Christian colleges in the United States? Two fine books describe the decline. George Marsden's 462-page The Soul of the American University shows how once-Protestant universities became secular look-alikes. James Burtchaell's The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches uses 868 pages to show not only how schools moved from liberal theism to secularism but how, before that, they moved from theologically conservative to liberal stances. I'll try to give the high points of 1,330 pages in fewer than 1,330 words: Three central messages are (1) Follow the money,...

A historic Christian university in Rome, Georgia has received record resignation letters from staffers after mandating that its employees sign a “personal lifestyle statement.” Reports indicate that nearly sixty out of the two hundred employees at Shorter University have decided to leave the educational institution rather than sign the statement, which outlines a moral code that staff are required to live by.

(MoneyWatch) If you agree with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum that colleges are too liberal, take heart. There are institutions of higher learning that pride themselves on their conservatism. In response to frequent requests by families, the Young America's Foundation has released a list of its top conservative colleges, which includes schools from Virginia to California. In alphabetical order, here are the foundation's 15 favorite conservative colleges and universities: 1. Christendom College (Va.) This small Catholic institution with just 400 students happens to enjoy Santorum's stamp of approval. The presidential candidate, who is Catholic, serves on the advisory board of...

In a brazen move by the Obama administration, an important provision of the healthcare reform law, which will take effect on August 1st, was released this week – a mandate that states that most healthcare plans will be required to cover the cost of contraceptives for all those who seek such protection. Though the push for increased availability of oral (and otherwise) contraceptives is nothing new for a democratic caucus, the perhaps most surprising aspect of this passing date is that Christian institutions—including colleges and universities—will be mandated to comply with this measure within an extended time period. A blatant...

Out of concern for the rise of for-profit colleges and vocational educational programs, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has issued a ruling directing states to implement a licensing process for private colleges. The government's actions came after public concerns that some of these for-profit colleges were selling students a shoddy product, as their credentials showed little worth in the job market. An unintended consequence of the DOE ruling, however, is that it also could lead to greater regulation of Christian colleges and universities by state governments. Christian colleges are concerned that the licensing process would provide an avenue through...

We live in an age of scientific hegemony (if I may borrow a term from the Marxists and feminists), where access to intellectual power and influence is granted to those who demonstrate their loyalty to the approved theories of the ruling elite. Scientists who refuse to bow at the altar of uniformity are labeled heretics and cast out of the intelligentsia, condemned to lives of unfunded grant proposals, tenure denials, and ruined reputations. The scientific theories to which we must pledge allegiance are not threats in and of themselves. For example, global warming, which used to be known as global...

One would think if you send your child to a Christian college that the school would uphold Christian principles and values. That is often not the case. Gustavus Adolphus College, an ELCA school presents some eye opening and very disturbing information to its incoming 2010 freshmen class. A group called Gusties for Restoring America describes one of the presentations, “The first video, from a seminar titled the 'Inside Scoop' (a 'must see' event according to the orientation schedule), features a series of sexually suggestive skits explaining to incoming students such things as where to get free condoms on campus, how...

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck will deliver the commencement address at Liberty University's May 15 graduation. “Beck is one of the few courageous voices in the national media standing up for the principles upon which this nation was founded,” Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of Liberty University, said in the school newspaper's story. The baccalaureate address will be delivered by Paige Patterson, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, whom Falwell called one of the “patriarchs of Christian higher education." SNIP In 2008, Focus on the Family pulled an interview with Beck over concerns with his Mormon faith. Christianity Today did...

There’s hardly an evangelical who doesn’t know about Wheaton College. Alma Mater of the Reverend Billy Graham, Wheaton boasts a student body of superior intellect and an education rivaling much of the Ivy League. Wheaton College graduates can boast of presidential speech writers and Speakers of the United States House of Representatives along with doctors and executives and professors and missionaries and pastors across the globe. But Wheaton is different. Founded by an anti-slavery father and son, Jonathan and Charles Blanchard, Wheaton was established as a chain in the Underground Railroad to help runaway slaves. Wheaton’s distinctive has always been...

As of last Friday, Lynchburg, Virginia’s Liberty University said “no” to Democrats. It was reported that the leadership of the largest, fastest -growing evangelical campus ordered the college Democrats club to cease, because it stands against the conservative Christian school’s moral principles. The group may still meet on campus, but will not be an officially recognized club of the university and may not use Liberty’s name or funds. Falwell writes, “Parents and students support the university because they believe in its distinctly Christian identity and mission. Liberty University is pro-life and believes that marriage between one man and one woman...