WSJ: A professor's firing after his conversion

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

A Test of Faith

A professor's firing after his conversion

highlights a new orthodoxy at religious colleges.
By DANIEL GOLDEN
January 7, 2006; Page A1

WHEATON, Ill. -- Wheaton College was delighted to have assistant professor Joshua Hochschild teach students about medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas, one of Roman Catholicism's foremost thinkers. But when the popular teacher converted to Catholicism, the prestigious evangelical college reacted differently. It fired him.

Wheaton, like many evangelical colleges, requires full-time faculty members to be Protestants and sign a statement of belief in "biblical doctrine that is consonant with evangelical Christianity." In a letter notifying Mr. Hochschild of the college's decision, Wheaton's president said his "personal desire" to retain "a gifted brother in Christ" was outweighed by his duty to employ "faculty who embody the institution's evangelical Protestant convictions."

(snip)

Historically, religious colleges mainly picked faculty of their own faith. In the last third of the 20th century, however, as enrollments soared and higher education boomed, many Catholic colleges enhanced their prestige by broadening their hiring, choosing professors on the basis of teaching and research. As animosities between Catholics and Protestants thawed, some evangelical Protestant colleges began hiring faculty from other Christian faiths. But now a conservative reaction is setting in, part of a broader push against the secularization of American society. Fearful of forsaking their spiritual and educational moorings, colleges are increasingly "hiring for mission," as the catch phrase goes, even at the cost of eliminating more academically qualified candidates.

(snip)

Defining evangelical schools isn't easy to do, but in general they are populated by people of various Protestant faiths who share a common religious vision. That includes a commitment to spreading the word of God and a literal interpretation of the Bible. Many, like Wheaton, bar Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faculty... Such hiring policies would be illegal at most universities but the 1964 Civil Rights Act carves out an exemption for religious colleges. Their students qualify for federal financial aid. Partly because of their hiring practices, evangelical Protestant colleges have been denied certain kinds of aid in California and Colorado under laws barring support of "pervasively sectarian" schools.


(snip)

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113659805227040466.html (subscription)

[papau]

1. This's sad-I wish there was more tolerance -at Weaton, at DU, in the world

:-(

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Evangelical Christianity's dirty little secret

I know that not all evangelicals feel this way, and I'm not talking about the tolerant ones. I'm talking about the evangelicals who have consistently railed against Catholics as "idol worshipers" and not really Christians-I had an evangelical cousin who told me these things when Kennedy was running for President. She gave me tracts telling of the dangers if a Catholic got in the White House. Knowing this, I was surprised at first when certain evangelicals seem to be tolerant of Catholics in that they joined them in anti-choice marches, etc. I have a feeling that for many, the Catholic Church is only an ally as long as it is profitable for them to be-but if the evangelicals ever fulfill their agenda to make this a theocracy, the Catholics will be the first to be condemned.

[yurbud]

4. I saw anti-catholic Chick tracts in college in the early 80s (LINK)

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0082/0082_01.asp|>

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0082/0082_01.asp



And another:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5023/5023_01.asp|>



http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5023/5023_01.asp


Another


http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0054/0054_01.asp">


http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0054/0054_01.asp

Chick tracts are very popular in Evangelical circles though I don't know how popular these titles are lately.

[TahitiNut]

3. Wheaton College should lose any accreditation it has for anti-academic

... practices and policies. There's no room whatsoever for dogmatic doctrinaire above rationalism. None.

[xchrom]

5. shocking!

uh -- not so much.

[pop goes the weasel]

6. speaking as an atheist

Good.

The past several years have seen increasing federal acceptance of open discrimination against non-believers in organizations receiving funding (my tax money!) from the federal government. The response of most relgious people has been yawning silence. Well, great, now religious people get to feel what it is like to lose a job or not even be given the chance for interview solely on the basis of faith or lack there of. Now that a few are being reminded what religious discrimination really means, maybe we can hear a larger chorus in support of good old fashioned separation of church and state.

[knitter4democracy]

7. Sad thing is

The prof knew what he was doing and was hoping that Wheaton would decide differently. Wheaton's usually pretty strong, academics-wise, compared to other evangelical colleges, so he was probably hoping that they'd be okay with it, seeing as he's a good prof who publishes a lot. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.

At the evangelical college I went to, the profs had to sign the same kind of belief statement and keep any differences so intensely private that no one would hear about it. They knew if you weren't going to church, and they'd say something to you about it. They knew if you were thinking of converting to a different form of Christianity, and they definitely would let you know that your job was in jeopardy. One of my English profs told me this, so that's how I know. He ended up leaving and going to Baylor, and we all missed him.

God forbid anyone question anything and come to a different conclusion about anything in those places. :eyes:

[Charlie Brown]

8. Maybe he'll find a job at a better school than Wheaton n/t