Christian Colleges Balance Faith and Politics in Response to Trump’s Ban on Refugees

André Chung for The Chronicle

Many college leaders have struggled to respond to President Trump’s executive order halting travel to the United States by refugees and by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, a decree sparking widespread protests and a wave of anxiety among international students.

The challenge has been especially vexing for Christian colleges, where leaders face a balancing act. They tend to view the action as an affront to their faith’s central tenet of loving one’s neighbors. But they also oversee students who tend to be politically conservative and more supportive of Mr. Trump than students at American colleges more generally.

Mr. Trump, for example, received 58 percent of the Christian vote, according to an analysis of exit-poll data by the Pew Research Center. Among white evangelical Christians, Mr. Trump received 81 percent.

Faith-based institutions have to strike a balance between hewing to religious doctrine while also observing the nation’s laws, said Sharon L. Hirsh, president of Rosemont College. Her institution signed on to a statement put out by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities affirming “the moral obligation of our country to assist migrants, particularly those who are fleeing any kind of persecution.” But such a stance has come into conflict with Mr. Trump’s executive order, which the association strongly opposes.

“It’s taxing us,” Ms. Hirsh said. “We’ve never been pushed to the point where upholding our mission would be breaking the law. In my 12 years as president, I’ve never had that kind of a dilemma.”

The order, which Mr. Trump signed on Friday, describes its purpose as “protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States.” But like many colleges, Oklahoma Christian University is trying to figure out exactly what it means for them. The university has about 400 international students, but only two from the countries on the list. Its president sent an email to all international students on Monday morning explaining that the university stood with them.

“We wanted to communicate very clearly to all of our international students that they are welcome here and we love them and that diversity brings our campus together,” says John Osborne, director of international programs. Even so, Oklahoma Christian did not explicitly oppose the executive order and Mr. Osborne noted that students had differing views on the matter.

Religious doctrine has always been open for interpretation, but these hyperpartisan times underscore that fact. Loving one’s neighbor, for example, sounds simple enough, but Mr. Osborne says that students also point to that imperative to justify their support of Mr. Trump’s order: Keeping neighbors safe from terrorism is one form of supporting them.

“If that’s your perspective, OK, I can appreciate that,” Mr. Osborne says. “But how are you loving your neighbor who may be caught by this executive action and is an innocent victim, someone who is our most vulnerable, people fleeing persecution?”

‘A Scriptural Mandate’

Ambiguity didn’t plague Beck A. Taylor’s response to Mr. Trump’s executive order.

“The Bible speaks very clearly about how we are to treat those who are under persecution,” said Mr. Taylor, president of Whitworth University, a Christian institution in Spokane, Wash. “There’s very clearly a scriptural mandate for us to open our arms and doors and provide refuge to such people.”

Mr. Taylor spent Tuesday on the Hill here preaching that message to his state’s U.S. senators and other lawmakers. He had planned to spend the visit mostly on topics like financial aid, tax issues related to charitable giving, and student-loan repayment, but Mr. Trump’s order catapulted the treatment of international students to the top of the list.

Many students and community members in Spokane support Mr. Trump’s executive order, said Mr. Taylor, as he waited outside the office of Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, in the Russell Senate Office Building. “I respect their opinion, but my highest and most sacred duty as university president is to protect the health, welfare, and safety of my current students. That’s going to take priority over everything else.”

On his campus, Mr. Taylor said, the immigration order largely transcends politics. It’s located in a conservative area of Washington, and its students tend to be Republicans. Even so, Mr. Taylor said he believes most students oppose the order because they personally know someone who is worried about its effects. Even though only a single Whitworth student, an Iranian undergraduate, is from one of the seven countries on Mr. Trump’s list, about 100 of the university’s 3,000 students are international, and many of them are concerned they’ll be next.

Teachable Moment

Messaging is key for Christian colleges. Conversations on campus can be tense and colleges should try to avoid the perception that their opposition to the travel ban is grounded in politics, said John J. Petillo, president of Sacred Heart University. In an email to students and at a prayer service on the campus on Tuesday, Mr. Petillo stressed the institution’s mission of inclusiveness.

“We remind students, whether they hear it or not, that it’s not a political statement,” he said. “It’s a human-dignity statement. Government needs to do what’s best for security, but they need to do so in a humane and just manner.”

Other Christian college groups have also voiced opposition to the letter. A group of evangelical leaders, including Shirley V. Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, wrote a letter to Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence denouncing the order. Among other issues, the letter states, the executive action hurts families and deprives churches of an opportunity to “live out the biblical commands to love our neighbors, to make disciples of all nations, and to practice hospitality.”

In an interview, Ms. Hoogstra said Mr. Trump’s order provides Christian colleges a teachable moment and has sparked healthy conversations about what it means to be a citizen and a Christian.

“Our immediate priority is addressing students’ fears and concerns about their well-being,” she said. “And then offering an opportunity for them to think about the electoral process and about how that fits within the totality of a faith perspective and worldview.”

Correction (2/2/2017, 10:40 a.m.): This article originally misstated the enrollment of Whitworth University. It is about 3,000, not 300. The text has been updated accordingly.

Vimal Patel covers graduate education. Follow him on Twitter @vimalpatel232, or write to him at vimal.patel@chronicle.com.