{"id":20742,"date":"2024-02-08T09:38:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T14:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=20742"},"modified":"2024-02-08T09:38:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T14:38:23","slug":"has-wheaton-college-strayed-too-far-from-its-christian-ideals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/02\/has-wheaton-college-strayed-too-far-from-its-christian-ideals","title":{"rendered":"Has Wheaton College Strayed Too Far From Its Christian Ideals?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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James Casil\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wheaton College is usually called the \u201cHarvard of Christian Schools\u201d due to its academic rigor being relatively comparable to the Ivy League school. Its notable graduates range from Billy Graham to Dan Coates, former Director of National Intelligence and U.S. senator. However, recently, the school in the suburb west of Chicago has started mimicking some of Harvard\u2019s ideals.<\/p>\n

Teaching critical race theory, banning biblical words, and psychologizing gender identity issues might not seem extreme in modern academia, but for a school that houses the works of Rev. Graham, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, it\u2019s a far cry from its orthodox Christian moorings. Still, this isn\u2019t a recent drift. In the 2000s, the education department commended\u00a0the teachings of Marxists.<\/p>\n

In 2016, 78 faculty members voiced support for a fellow professor who stated Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and five years later, the school held its first ceremony recognizing graduating minority students sans White students. But its most blatant\u00a0offense against Christianity\u00a0is banning certain biblical words that are key to the faith\u2019s foundation. In this year\u2019s curriculum for freshmen, students are informed about opportunities to meet the needs of those less fortunate, commonly known as the act of\u00a0service<\/em>.<\/p>\n