I find myself wondering how much richer our nation's university life would be with a few more Wheatons willing to be out of touch for the sake of their deepest beliefs.
Posted on 05/13/2008 4:54:47 AM PDT by Zakeet
It's tough to run a college these days. It's tougher still when you set high standards. And it's toughest of all when those standards reflect an Ozzie and Harriet morality in a Sarah Jessica Parker world.
Just ask the folks at Wheaton College.
Wheaton is a Christian college that takes its beliefs seriously. These beliefs are embodied in a "Community Covenant" that all must sign and live by if they hope to teach or study there. The provisions include a biblically based view of marriage, and the understanding that the only acceptable grounds for divorce in this community are those found in Scripture – namely, adultery or abandonment.
Which brings us to two unhappy events. The first is the failed marriage of Kent Gramm, a popular English professor who has taught at Wheaton for two decades. The Gramms recently filed for divorce after 30 years together.
The second unhappy development flows from that filing. Mr. Gramm chose to resign from the school rather than discuss the reasons for his breakup with the requisite members of the Wheaton community. Because he has told his story to the media, his plight has received national attention. And because of that attention, a small evangelical school outside Chicago now finds itself derided as a group of pinched old authoritarians out of touch with the realities of 21st century America.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I find myself wondering how much richer our nation's university life would be with a few more Wheatons willing to be out of touch for the sake of their deepest beliefs.
Good article.
Too bad, so sad.
The rules are clear; divorce for reasons other that those stated and you lose your job.
This Nation would be in alot better shape if people would mean what they say and say what they mean.
I was expecting another Christian-slam. Instead I found a refreshing and respectful article.
That’s countercultural!
I was going to say something like that, but my brain wouldn't form the thought :-). We'd be much better off if people had the honor to abide by their agreements.
Good thing someone of low moral character like Ronald Reagan never worked there. /s
Wheaton is the not the influence for the truth of the Scriptures that it was when Ronald Reagan was around there.
Is this strawman supposed to elucidate anything? There's no implication that the former professor is of "low moral character," only that he is out of compliance with the terms of his employment. Fwiw, I suspect Mr. Reagan's divorce from Jane Wyman would have been considered an "abandonment" situation by the college administration, since she left him and initiated the divorce.
A lot of others would have screamed and sued.
We need more Wheatons, and we need more people willing to take responsibility for their own actions/failures.
Let me share something from my religion's (Mormon) teachings:
24 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.
25 And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed.
26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.
28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.
1 Nephi 8:24-28
The world mocks but their opinions are not important. Clinging to the word of God and doing the right things in life so that you may be led to eternal life is far more important than the situational ethics and morality of the worldly. Hang in there Wheaton! You are setting a great example and the mockery is proof that people are noticing. Keep up the good work!
Until a few years ago, Wheaton’s football team was known as the Crusaders, but that name was dropped so as not to offend Muslims.
I know several West Michigan companies that prefer graduates from Christian Colleges.
I maintain that "the world" has crept in everywhere, including the mainline church, the Evangelical church, the RC church, and the Mormon church. And in fact, "the world" has been prominent in some of these churches more than others from the get-go.
For example, ya wanna explain then why a number of LDS general authorities who were 19th century polygamists got divorces? What about Brigham Young...who was a nine-time divorcee--all from his polygamous wives? (That was almost 1 in 6 of his wives...and this was in comparatively low-divorce times of 1860s and 1870s...imagine what it would be now!).
A BYU history professor did a study of polygamous marriages in the Manti, Utah area. She discovered 83 divorces among 465 plural marriages...about 18% of them ended in divorce...35% of the polygamous men were divorced. Now keep in mind that these divorces occurred anyway despite the 19th century being less than a "divorce culture" and despite the fact that these women were told that their very celestial kingdom attainment depended on their marriage.
Do those divorces correlate to Utah becoming a member of the USA? Seems to me, they were supposed to reject polygamy in order to become a state. If the existing polygamous unions were not grandfathered, they may have needed to obtain divorces. But I’m no history expert.
This thread is about Wheaton College sticking up for its beliefs. I posted in support of them. How do you feel about it?
The Mormons were forced to reject polygamy in order to keep their church. The Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 actually disbanded the church, and ordered its property seized by the government. After the Act was upheld by the Supreme Court, the Mormon Church relented and President Woodruff issued the 1890 Manifesto wherein the practice was officially abandoned on this earth (but not in heaven). Mormons were allowed to keep their present harems, but were not permitted to enter into any new new polygamous unions.
The 1904-07 Smoot Hearings before the United States Senate revealed the Saints lied to the government and were in fact still "sealing" new plural marriages. An embarrassed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a "Second Manifesto" (i.e. "this time we really mean it") condemning the practice and expelling some of their members (including two of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles) for entering into new polygamous marriages.
The last polygamous President of the LDS Church died in 1945.
Thanks for the clarification.
I support Wheaton as well. So on that we're in agreement.
This thread is about Wheaton College sticking up for its beliefs.
(So that's why you quoted a passage from the Book of Mormon, because the Evangelicals at Wheaton are so fluent in it...here...I'll give you an out...I'll betcha there's a BoM somewhere in the library there...but nobody uses it as a geographical reference for its marvelous ancient maps of Central or South America...maybe you could explain why many Bible versions have maps but no BoM versions do).
Yet another reason I would love for my children to attend Wheaton College.
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