Saturday, January 9, 2016

The Hawkins Questions at Wheaton

There is confusion.

The pertinent question with regard to Wheaton College's process against Larycia Hawkins is NOT any of the following:

  • Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?
  • Are Allah and Jesus the same God?
  • Is it appropriate or inappropriate for a Christian woman to wear a hijab to express solidarity with Muslim women who are mistreated because they wear a hijab?
  • Is Islam true?
  • Is Islamic theology compatible with Christian theology?
  • Are Muslims saved or damned?
  • Is Allah really Satan in disguise?
  • Is Christianity true?
  • Is there salvation in any other name than the name of Jesus?
  • Is God a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
  • Can Christians be Democrats?
  • Can evangelical Christians be politically liberal?
  • Should Wheaton have a Statement of Faith?
  • Should adherence to Wheaton's Statement of Faith be a condition of employment as a faculty member at Wheaton College?
  • How do politically conservative big donors feel about politically liberal professors at Wheaton?
  • Is Larycia Hawkins politically liberal?
  • Should Wheaton College exclude or embrace women and people of color?
  • etc., ad infinitum

Some of the preceding question are interesting, and some of them are stupid. But they are not the pertinent question.

The pertinent question is this:
  • Has Larycia Hawkins, by commenting, in the context of an expression of solidarity with Muslim women who are mistreated because they wear the hijab, that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, breached the Wheaton College Statement of Faith?

The answer is: certainly not.

Answers to the other questions are not answers to this question.

A further pertinent question is:

  • Is Larycia Hawkins in any other way out of step with the Wheaton College Statement of Faith?

Answer: she says that she is not, and I have not seen any credible suggestion that she is.

Further question:

  • Why is this so hard?


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