WHEATON COLLEGE EXPOSES INTOLERANCE BY FIRING PROFESSOR

Wheaton College is moving to fire a tenured professor, Larycia Hawkins

In educational circles becoming tenured is a really big deal.  It means that one must do something truly egregious to get fired.    So one might wonder what would sort of transgression would cause a college to fire a tenured professor.  Would the professor have to commit some sort of felony or gross malfeasance or perhaps get caught in some sort of devious sexual act with a student?  In the case of Wheaton College getting rid of tenured African American professor, Larycia Hawkins, the transgression is none of the above.  Prof Hawkins is being let go because she committed the unpardonable act of displaying religious tolerance!

Specifically, Professor Hawkins is being let go because  of her statement, in reference to Muslims, “As Pope Francis said last week, we worship the same God.”  To the uninitiated, it might seem ironic that only a religious institution would fire someone for displaying the noble attribute of tolerance.   But I’ve had some experience in this realm and have seen firsthand, not only the results of this mentality, but also some of the lessons to be gained from understanding it.

Several years ago I was called upon by a couple of African American students to give a guest lecture at their Christian college on the subject of spirituality.  I started the lecture by explaining that the two fundamental tenets of spirituality are that we are all more alike than we are different, and that most people’s religion is an accident of birth:  most Muslims are Muslims because they were born in a Muslim country and most Christians are Christians because they were born in a Christian land.  Both statements are pretty basic and readily agreed upon by reasonable individuals.  Yet as I continued, I could feel the classroom becoming increasingly angry and hostile.  During the question and answer period I was finally able to coax out the source of their hostility, and when I did it gushed forth in torrents.

It turned out that by proclaiming the oneness of all humanity, I was also unwittingly (or perhaps wittingly) attacking their core belief that they, as the Chosen People, were superior to everyone else.   I was somewhat taken aback that a class on spirituality would be so upset at the fundamentals of spirituality so I asked what they had been studying.  They all held up a book on fighting evil spirits.  It turned out that their idea of spirituality was to fight evil spirits!  As the discourse continued, I learned that these Caucasian children had a completely different Jesus than the one worshipped by the African American community.  The African American community has a soft sweet usually blond Jesus, brimming with love and forgiveness.  These people worshipped what I call the G. I. Jesus, one tough American Jesus who took no stuff from nobody and would destroy anyone who would not get with the program.  All of which brings me back to Prof. Hawkins. 

In echoing the pope’s affinity for the Muslim faith, Prof Hawkins was demonstrating that all too rare intersection of spirituality and religion.  In firing her, the administration demonstrated that all too common commodity: religion without spirituality.  Spirituality seeks oneness harmony and understanding.  It is based upon inclusion and empathy.  To be spiritual is to be connected: to oneself and the rest of humanity.  The great Howard Thurman, who often served as Martin Luther King’s spiritual advisor, once said, “I always look for my own scent when I meet another man.”   This is the kind of understanding that precludes wars and most conflicts.

Politics and morality are indivisible, just as religion and politics are.  Religious institutions not grounded in spirituality have, throughout history, been found to be on the wrong side of moral/political issues, from slavery to genocide.

Admittedly as a private religious educational institution, Wheaton College has the right to hire and fire whomever they wish.  And I certainly do not equate firing of a professor with the atrocities that have been committed throughout history in the name of the church.  I am saying that in a world of constant ongoing conflicts, the religion of exclusion as practiced and taught by places like Wheaton College are part of the problem and not the solution.  But I have to give them credit for one thing: in asserting that Prof Hawkins religion is somehow different theirs, they are absolutely correct.  Hers is grounded in spirituality.
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