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Wheaton College is an institution of higher learning, a rigorous academic community that takes seriously the life of the mind. But this description does not exhaust the College's understanding of itself. Wheaton College is also a largely residential community made up of Christians who, according to the College motto, are dedicated to the service of "Christ and His Kingdom."
These features in combination mean that Wheaton College is a complex Christian community of living, learning, and serving that cannot be reduced to a simple model. For example, while the College is not a church, it is yet a community of Christians who seek to live according to biblical standards laid down by Jesus Christ for his body, the church. Or again, while the College is not a religious order, it yet demonstrates some features that are similar to religious orders, communities wherein, for the sake of fulfilling the community's purposes, its members voluntarily enter into a social compact. At Wheaton we call this social compact our community covenant.
For Wheaton's community covenant to serve its stated purpose, it is crucial that each member of the College family understand it clearly and embrace it sincerely. In joining this covenant we are, before the Lord, joining in a compact with other members of the Wheaton College community. If we do not wish to live under the provisions of this compact, we should not agree to it. But if we do agree to it, it should be with the full intention of living with integrity under its provisions.
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Dr. Litfin, does Wheaton College terminate an employee who gets a divorce?
No, the College employs dozens of people who have experienced divorce, both before or during their employment. They serve here happily and enthusiastically.
Then what is the current incident about?
Wheaton College is a living/learning/serving community designed around our Community Covenant. Built into that Community Covenant is the issue of accountability. In joining the Wheaton community, in the spirit of the biblical injunction to “Submit yourselves one to another out of reverence for Christ,” all of us make ourselves accountable back to this community (see Preface to the right) for the historic Christian standards spelled out in our covenant.
Are members of the Wheaton community required to sign this Covenant?
No one is ever coerced into being a part of this community. It is our responsibility to keep who we are clear, explicit, and public, and we work very hard at that. We don’t want anyone to be surprised by it. Then, only those join this community who freely choose to do so. They see what the College community is, including the mutual accountability membership entails, and they voluntarily decide to make themselves a part of it. Their signing of our covenant is thus an act of their own volition. If they don’t like it, they don’t affirm it. If they do like it, they join in. But it’s their choice. No one is ever pressured to join. Furthermore, any member who wishes to opt out of their membership and the accountability it entails is free to do so, at any time. Wheaton College is a purely voluntary association of those who have chosen to live accountably to the biblical standards spelled out in our Community Covenant.
The College’s Community Covenant touches on many aspects of one’s private life. What right does the College have to engage a person’s private life?
First, the public/private distinction is not very useful if the subject is biblical standards for Christian living. Those godly standards, as an examination of Wheaton’s Community Covenant will demonstrate, transcend any such distinction. But second, the only “right” the College community has to engage a person’s private life is the “right” that person grants it. If a person does not wish to live accountably in such a covenanted community -- accountable not only for their public selves but also for elements of their private selves -- they either do not join or they withdraw themselves from that community. This is their right and privilege at every moment. But if they do belong, inherent in their belonging is their willingness to be accountable back to that community and its agreed upon standards.
Why should divorce be an issue for such a community?
Perhaps the better question is, on what grounds would it be exempted? Jesus is the one who portrays divorce as potentially a serious moral issue, not the College. He does not say divorce is always a moral failing, but nor can we conclude from his teaching that it is never a moral failing. It depends upon the circumstances. Divorce often entails grave moral failure, even, according to Jesus, adultery. If Wheaton College exists, as our ancient motto has it, “For Christ and his Kingdom,” we do not have the luxury of avoiding the implications of our Lord’s instruction merely because they make us uncomfortable or some people do not understand or applaud them.
Are you saying that divorce is some sort of unforgivable sin that cuts us off from God?
Clearly not. One’s divorce may or may not be sinful, depending upon the circumstances, and even when there is sin involved, it is no more unforgivable than any other sin. The College’s approach to divorce takes all this into consideration. Our approach is nuanced, redemptive, and compassionate, as any number of divorced persons on this campus will affirm.
But because divorce is a very difficult situation, one which affects a great many people, you will only antagonize these people by making an issue of it. Why don’t you just relegate divorce to the person’s private life and ignore it?
Because the real issue is not our divorce policy. The real issue is the kind of community we aspire to be. To decide that the College community has no stake in the issue of a member’s divorce is to decide that the College has no stake in any moral dimension of a member’s private life, which is to void our community’s effort to live together according to our Community Covenant. What would be the implications for Wheaton if this were to stand? To claim that one’s divorce is no more than one’s private business is to take a position which, if applied to all, would terminate Wheaton’s ability to be the kind of community it has been for almost a century and a half.
But it’s only one person. Why not make an exception?
If one member of the community decides that his or her private life is not the community’s business, he or she is free to do so. Anyone can opt out of Wheaton’s covenant community at any time. And this is understandable; membership in this kind of a community is not everyone’s cup of tea. But what I must not do is insist that I want to remain a member, but without the accountability that membership entails. Such a conflicted stance won’t work. To opt out of one’s accountability is by definition to opt out of one’s membership; to choose membership is inherently to express a willingness to live accountably. To confuse this reality would have the effect of vitiating one of the core defining features of the College. We would not be making an "exception"; we would be dooming Wheaton’s ability to fulfill its own aspirations.
Unfortunately, this situation just makes the College look narrow and judgmental to a watching world. Isn’t there anything you can do to avoid that?
We can try to live out our allegiance to Jesus Christ with integrity, grace, and truth, and then seek to explain ourselves as best we can. But in the end, it’s possible that our explaining will have only limited success. Some of the biblical standards spelled out in our Community Covenant no longer have much resonance in our secularized culture. Moreover, there exists little understanding of or sympathy towards the kind of covenanted Christian community Wheaton College aspires to be. The corporate implications of living as a Christian are largely lost on our obsessively individualistic generation. Still, if they can get past the public distortions and see the issues for what they are, many, even in the broader community, are still able to understand and support what we are trying to do. At least, that’s our hope.
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