Wheaton College has come under fire for bowing down to the left when it deleted a social media post congratulating Russ Vought, who was recently confirmed as Director of the Office of Budget Management (OMB).
The controversy came when the college deleted the post and posted another, apologizing for having congratulated Vought, an alumnus of the school, in the first place. The post explained that “the political situation surrounding [Vought’s] appointment led to a significant concern expressed online” and affirmed that “It was not our intention to embroil the College in a political discussion or dispute.”
On Friday, Wheaton College posted a congratulations and a call to prayer for an alumnus who received confirmation to a White House post. The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached that level of government. However, the political situation surrounding the appointment led to a significant concern expressed online. It was not our intention to embroil the College in a political discussion or dispute. Our institutional and theological commitments are clear that the College, as a non-profit institution, does not make political endorsements. Wheaton College’s focus is on Christ and His Kingdom.
Over 1,000 former Wheaton College students signed a letter slamming the school for praising Vought after he was confirmed. The letter argued that “Vought’s vision for government, as outlined in Project 2025, to be antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the mission of Wheaton College—and moreover, we are concerned by the college’s quick and public proclamation of support in social media posts on February 7th, 2025.”
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The letter further pointed out that the college has typically not made political endorsements in the past. The document then engages in the type of frantic fearmongering about Project 2025 that Democrats parroted during the 2024 campaign. Indeed, the students’ arguments could easily have been ripped from an MSNBC broadcast.
Project 2025 is a blueprint for consolidating executive power to remake American government and society along rigid ideological lines. The plan proposes dismantling independent institutions, purging thousands of career civil servants in favor of political loyalists, and centralizing authority under one person. Such a system is not only dangerously authoritarian but also profoundly unbiblical. As fallen and sinful people, we acknowledge the need for accountability, regardless of how high or prestigious one’s position or office; indeed, leaders are held to a higher standard and are accountable not only to the people they lead, but to God himself (1 Timothy 3:1-10, Ezekiel 34:10). Project 2025 is less concerned with governing faithfully as Christians than with cynically using Christianity’s majority status to establish political dominance, remake the United States in their own image, and further marginalize at-risk populations.
Apparently, not all alumni were as aghast at Vought’s confirmation as those who signed the letter. Those affiliated with “For Wheaton,” a movement aimed at pushing back against the school’s embrace of hard leftist ideology, signed a letter arguing that it has “lost its focus” and that it “has repeatedly capitulated to the spirit of our age—placating bad actors while sidelining those who bear a more faithful witness.”
We see this in the relentless centering of race and the elevation of voices who promote unbiblical pedagogies, like critical theory; the unjust and unbiblical adjudication of alleged violations of the Community Covenant; the de facto capitulation on sexual ethics through the uncritical appropriation of LGBT terminology and identities; and the general tendency to stifle those who bring conservative viewpoints. We also hear about this drift from graduates who attest that some of their professors openly violated the Statement of Faith behind closed doors—for instance, affirming universal salvation or referring to God as both “Father and Mother.”
The students demanded that Wheaton College “take immediate action” to install new leadership, end “the current DEI regime,” and evaluate the process for “adjudicating claims of racism, sexism, and other forms of harassment,” among others.
They further declared that if the school does not make these changes, they will halt “all financial support to the college” and refuse to “recommend Wheaton to prospective students and their parents.”
I’ll be blunt: This has got to stop.
Over the past decade, several institutions in business, education, and others have tried to kowtow to the hard left out of fear of running afoul of the Woke Sanhedrin and getting canceled by the Cancel Culture Community. The crybullies on the left have managed to cow these institutions into acquiescing to their demands.
Anyone who has dealt with bullies knows that this is an excellent way to ensure that one continues to be bullied. There is absolutely nothing wrong with congratulating a former student, regardless of politics, when they make a great accomplishment.
Wheaton College had absolutely no reason to exhibit this level of cowardice. Indeed, the authoritarian left’s influence has waned considerably over recent years. Much of the reason is because they seek to push their views on the rest of us through coercion and threats rather than persuasion and dialogue. The more we give in to them, the further they will go. Instead of giving these people what they want, the college would have done better to tell them to go pound sand. Unfortunately, there is still too much cowardice when it comes to dealing with those on the hard left.
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