Stanton Jones, provost of Wheaton College in Illinois, argues in today's InsideHigherEd.com that his college is tolerant because it's willing to allow gay students who never have sex to remain on campus.
If Wheaton College's anti-gay policies are really a product of a voluntary community of religious scholars, as Provost Jones claims, then surely he would be willing to put the college's homophobia up for a secret vote of the faculty. They should also be willing to publicly debate their values on campus; I'd be happy to debate Provost Jones at Wheaton any day.
Wheaton College fires professors for getting divorced (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/25/wheaton), and for becoming a Catholic (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/12/faith), even though their rules don't actually prohibit Catholics.
I don't think the government should seek to prohibit colleges like Wheaton from existing. But all of us (including evangelicals who share the faith imposed at Wheaton) should condemn their bigotry, and their appalling attacks on academic freedom.
Wheaton embraces the false notion that a college cannot maintain a Christian identity without prohibiting dissent and diversity among its faculty and students. For this, its administration deserves our condemnation.
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