College Wrestles With Controversy Over Its Response to Professor’s Religious Views

The case of Larycia A. Hawkins has raised troubling questions at Wheaton College of Illinois about theology, academic freedom, and diversity. Ms. Hawkins, who is the first and only black female tenured professor at the evangelical Christian college, says she is stunned by how a Facebook post intended to express support for Muslims led to a move by the provost, Stanton L. Jones, to force her out. That move is the latest conflict in what she and others describe as a challenging tenure at Wheaton, where she has taught since 2007, in which her beliefs have been questioned on several occasions.

“A hermeneutic of suspicion has followed me since I began at Wheaton, and it all revolves around my evangelical fitness, and I can’t explain where that comes from,” she said in a telephone interview on Saturday. Raised in a Baptist church, where her grandfather was the pastor, and later a member of an evangelical parachurch, she said she has struggled to understand why she has not seemed evangelical enough for some people in the Wheaton community. “I get evangelicalism, not from the outside but from the inside. But Wheaton has its own version. I call it evangelicalism on steroids.”

On a campus of fewer than 200 full-time faculty members, Ms. Hawkins’s case has reverberated deeply. And while many professors are reserving judgment until they know more about her situation, others plan to wear their academic regalia to class each day in solidarity with their colleague.

Wheaton, which is nondenominational, requires all faculty members to sign, and renew annually, a commitment to its Statement of Faith. Among Christian colleges, Wheaton is seen as more strict than average, but it also maintains a strong academic reputation. Some professors say they worry that Wheaton’s reputation may be at risk if professors can be punished for views that do not appear to explicitly contradict the faith statement.

“Many faculty are frustrated, confused, and angered by the rationale, the process, and the pace with the way the Dr. Hawkins case has been handled,” said Noah Toly, an associate professor of urban studies and a friend of Ms. Hawkins. “Her initial statements would have been controversial among both Muslims and Christians. But it’s not clear that they were outside the bounds of the Statement of Faith and required her to be put on leave.”

Asked for Explanations

The controversy began on December 10, when Ms. Hawkins, an associate professor of political science, posted a photograph of herself on Facebook wearing a hijab and wrote that “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.”

She said her action stemmed from conversations she’d had with students about how best to show solidarity with Muslims at a time when they were increasingly under attack. Among evangelicals, the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God is an open, if controversial, debate. A recent poll showed that about 35 percent of evangelical Christians agree that they do, and Wheaton’s faith statement does not directly weigh in on the matter.

Mr. Jones, the provost, called Ms. Hawkins into a meeting the week after her Facebook post and asked her to clarify her views. In a memorandum to her, which she later posted on her blog, he noted that Wheaton’s faith statement describes a distinct view of God, one that is different than that understood by Muslims.

Ms. Hawkins submitted a three-page response two days later, and said she had been told that her statement was sufficient. But in a follow-up meeting, on December 19, Mr. Jones said that he continued to have questions about her theological beliefs. The best option he put on the table, she said: Agree to a two-year open-ended series of conversations with the administration and the Board of Trustees about her theological views while her tenure was suspended. She refused. “I don’t know anyone in academia who thinks that’s an option,” she said.

Mr. Jones, responding on Sunday to emailed questions, recalled their exchange differently. “When Dr. Hawkins presented her written response, she asked immediately whether it was sufficient. I responded that outside the current context, such as in a prospective faculty member’s initial application for employment, the response would not likely cause the administration or Faculty Personnel Committee concern. But in the present context, while it was a good start for further conversation, it was not sufficient by itself. She then expressed her unwillingness to have further theological discussion.”

Because of this “impasse,” as the college described it in one of several statements posted on its website, Wheaton began termination proceedings against Ms. Hawkins last week. It earlier noted that it had “significant questions regarding the theological implications of her recent public statements.”

Ms. Hawkins said she had refused to answer further questions because there was no point in continuing the conversation: Either her written clarification and her discussions with Mr. Jones are sufficient or they aren’t.

On the campus, professors say that while there have been many conversations among faculty members, this week, when classes resume, marks their first opportunity to meet as a group. Peter Walhout, a chemistry professor, said many faculty members are disturbed by how Ms. Hawkins’s case has unfolded.

“Regardless of how one views the complex theological and semantical issues of the ‘one God’ controversy, the faculty, I believe, are uniformly alarmed at the heavy-handed approach of the administration,” he wrote in an email.

Her colleagues describe Ms. Hawkins as deeply committed to both the college and her faith, loved by students, and tireless in her willingness to sit on committees and serve in the community. A petition to reinstate her has drawn more than 55,000 supporters. “She is the consummate liberal-arts teacher who cares for the personal and intellectual development of her students,” said Gene L. Green, a professor of New Testament who attended a news conference Ms. Hawkins held last week. “So I say, What’s going on here?”

Held to a Different Standard?

To some, the answer is that Ms. Hawkins is being held to a different standard than her colleagues are. This is the fourth time she has been asked by Mr. Jones to explain how her views align with the college’s faith statement.

The first such questioning occurred when she wrote her statement of faith and learning, required of all faculty members up for tenure, about black-liberation theology. As a social scientist, she said, it is useful to trace how that theology has influenced black notions of justice and to discuss what Christians can learn from it. Others, including Mr. Toly and Mr. Green, have also discussed black-liberation theology in their work and teaching, but they were not questioned, as she was, about her views. In their meeting, Ms. Hawkins said Mr. Jones had asked if she supported Marxism.

“Nowhere in our faith statement does it suggest Marxism is outside the bounds or that drawing on Marxist theologians are out of bounds,” said Mr. Toly.

Ms. Hawkins said she met again with the provost last spring after she had pushed for the inclusion of discussions of sexuality in curricular revisions, in addition to existing discussions about race, gender, and ethnicity. She said that former students have responded in alumni surveys that they did not feel Wheaton had prepared them well to enter a diverse work force.

“This is not a political agenda,” she said. “This is about academic integrity, this is about accreditation.”

She said that a diversity committee had endorsed her statement on the subject and that she told Mr. Jones she was offended that he would question her religious integrity. “I have no idea why I’m being singled out,” she said. “Why there is a difference between Larycia Hawkins and every single other person.”

Mr. Jones said he has not treated Ms Hawkins differently. “As a matter of principle, I would not single out any one faculty member,” he wrote. “We regularly speak with faculty casually and comfortably about our shared religious convictions, precisely because they are deeply held and shared convictions. We occasionally seek clarification with some faculty when questions emerge, and on some unusual occasions have a difficult conversation about statements or actions that seem in conflict with our convictions. In my view, I have not held Dr. Hawkins to a higher or different standard.”

Because she is one of seven full-time black professors on the campus, about 3 percent of the faculty, the role that Ms. Hawkins’s race has played in the latest controversy has come up in online conversations. In the petition, for example, some question Wheaton’s support for racial diversity.

Some of Ms. Hawkins’s supporters, however, say they believe Wheaton is, in fact, committed to diversity. “We pull from a very conservative student body from very conservative churches, and we work overtime to root out racism,” said Mr. Green. “To say that the administration is tone-deaf and unaware about problems of race or that they turn their head would be a wrong characterization.”

Ms. Hawkins herself praises Mr. Jones for his work in that area. “For the nine years I’ve been at Wheaton, there’s not anyone more committed to diversity in the administration,” she said. “He has thought out how to increase the number of minority faculty, including women and people of color and international scholars.”

Wheaton said in a statement last week that Ms. Hawkins’s suspension had “resulted from theological statements that seemed inconsistent with Wheaton College’s doctrinal convictions, and is in no way related to her race, gender, or commitment to wear a hijab during Advent.”

Tradition and Diversity

Yet Ms. Hawkins and others question how welcoming Wheaton is of diverse viewpoints and styles. “All evangelical colleges have to ask what diversity means,” said Gary M. Burge, a professor of New Testament who added that he finds Ms. Hawkins’s views in keeping with the faith statement. “Genuine diversity is going to stretch the margins of what’s comfortable for us.”

Michael S. Hamilton, an associate professor of history at Seattle Pacific University who has written about Wheaton and other religious colleges, said Wheaton is often uncomfortable with people who don’t fit into its Northern, white, fundamentalist tradition. “If you don’t sit in that tradition, then you don’t fit at Wheaton. But if you don’t fit in that tradition, they will pin your nonconformity to the faith statement,” he said. “That’s what’s happening in the case of Larycia Hawkins.”

Faculty members also worry about how much external constituents’ prejudices are pressuring the administration. Time magazine excerpted an email that Mr. Jones sent to another professor, in which he described Ms. Hawkins’s Facebook statements as “innocuous” but noted that “the media are pounding on our door asking for comments about our faculty who are endorsing Islam.”

Ms. Hawkins said that Mr. Jones had told her that hundreds of students had already withdrawn their applications. Mr. Jones said that’s not accurate. “We did, however, discuss the numerous responses the college was receiving, and that this could have negative implications for applications,” he said.

“I don’t think the administration is being racist in singling her out for her recent comments,” said Mr. Toly. “I fear that in the background of many concerns raised by external constituencies there may be systemic undercurrents of racial issues that are at play that we don’t want to acknowledge.”

Ms. Hawkins’s case may be resolved within the next month. The administration has compiled a roughly 40-page memo, she said, outlining why she should be fired, including her assertion of religious solidarity with Muslims and Jews, and that Muslims and Christians worship the same God.

A Faculty Personnel Committee, consisting of nine tenured faculty members, will review evidence from both sides and make a recommendation to Wheaton’s president, Philip G. Ryken. His recommendation will then be forwarded to the Board of Trustees for a final decision.

More than Ms. Hawkins’s future is at stake. Professors say this case raises the question of whether the administration will allow faculty members the flexibility they thought they had to have lively debates on theological issues, and whether their social-media posts will receive the same scrutiny that Ms. Hawkins’s have. “I think our academic freedom will be compromised if she is let go,” said Mr. Green. “I think it has already been compromised.”

Ms. Hawkins agrees. “If I’m not safe at Wheaton,” she said, “no one is.”

Beth McMurtrie writes about campus culture, among other things. Follow her on Twitter @bethmcmurtrie, or email her at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.

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