Professor’s Views on Islam Divide a College Teacher at religious school is under fire for saying that Christians and Muslims worship the same God By Douglas Belkin
CHICAGO—A professor’s effort to express solidarity with Muslims by wearing a head scarf and saying that Christians and Muslims worship the same God is dividing a small private Christian school as her tenured position hangs in the balance.
Professor Larycia Hawkins, placed on administrative leave and awaiting a hearing before nine faculty members at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago, told reporters last week she “is flummoxed and flabbergasted” by the school’s response but won’t cower “in fear of the enemy of the month” as defined by “fundamentalists of every stripe.”
Ms. Hawkins, a 43-year-old associate professor of political science, announced on Facebook she was donning the hijab during the pre-Christmas season of Advent. She said her aim was to show support for Muslims amid a rise in anti-Islamic sentiment after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif.
School officials said they had no problem with the hijab or her support for Muslims, but took offense at comments in her Facebook post in which she said Muslims and Christians worship the same God. That conflicts with the school’s statement of faith, which holds that God consists of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. Muslims don’t believe in the Trinity.
“As they participate in various causes, it is essential that faculty and staff engage in and speak about public issues in ways that faithfully represent the college’s evangelical Statement of Faith,” the school said in a statement.
After Ms. Hawkins’s hearing, the faculty group will make a recommendation to the school president, who in turn will advise the Board of Trustees, which ultimately will decide her employment status.
In an interview in her lawyer’s office here last week, Ms. Hawkins said she wouldn’t back down from her mission to “bring attention to the plight of American citizens…who are discriminated against because they wear their faith on their head.”
The debate is roiling the college as students return Monday to the campus in Wheaton, Ill., 20 miles west of Chicago, after a holiday break.
“It’s extremely divisive right now,” said Kirkland An, the editor of the school’s student newspaper. “Some people disagree about how the administration has handled this whole episode, some people disagree about Prof. Hawkins’s response, some are responding to the theology. It’s very muddled.”
Alicia Artis, a senior majoring in biology, said she is organizing a student sit-in at the college president’s office on Monday to express displeasure with what she sees as an excessive reaction to Ms. Hawkins’s perceived transgression.
“Mainstream Christianity doesn’t like to say we have anything in common with Islam,” Ms. Artis said. “I think their decision is based more on current world events and the demands of conservative alumni.”
A Web page called Thank You Wheaton, with several hundred names on it, praises the school administration for helping to create “an academically rigorous Christian liberal arts college that is dedicated to sound theology as well as excellent scholarship.”
Luke Nelessen, a sophomore, said he wished Ms. Hawkins had expressed support for Muslims without saying they worshiped the same God. “She crossed a line that’s important,” Mr. Nelessen said. “I guess I would say we don’t need to worship the same God to love and respect each other.”
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