Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL is one of conservative Christianity’s premier schools. It is, after all, the alma mater of Billy Graham. This week it has stood by its conservative Christian principles and fired a 20 year English professor after it was determined his divorce wasn’t “biblically justified.”
The issue emerged after the professor notified administrators that he and his wife, Lynelle, had filed for divorce last month.
Many theological conservatives say the New Testament permits divorce only in cases of adultery or desertion. Wheaton requires faculty and staff to sign a faith statement and adhere to standards of conduct in areas including marriage, said Provost Stan Jones.
Still, every year, the college has dealt with several cases in which it must evaluate the divorce of a job applicant or a staff or faculty member and consider whether it matches the exceptions laid out in Matthew 19 and the writings of the Apostle Paul.
“And if it does, we stand by the applicant,” Jones said. “In cases where it doesn’t, it’s a tragic instance where we have to say, because of the nature of the institution, we can’t employ you.”
UPDATE: The title of this post was changed to reflect that techincally Professor Gramm resigned his position rather than pursue options to fight for his job.
Some times, the right thing is not always the polictically correct thing, I applaud both Professor Gramm and Wheaton for doing the right thing.
1 Corinthians 11(NIV)
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
Divorce is a sticky subject across all arenas of society…reconcilliation would be optimal…forgiveness rules even here.
We used to have a joke in our home group, which was comprised of quite a few divorced and remarried couples that divorce was the “unforgiveable sin” One member commented that if he had killed his wife, he could have served time in prison and then by now be pastoring his own church, but, because they divorced, he was unsuited for “church service”.
While there are occupations where losing your job because of divorce would be unconscionable, this is not one, because of the nature of the institution,
Pixelmaster,
It doesn’t change the context at all. It is clear that Wheaton was going to fire the professor had he not resigned.The professor clearly lost his job because of his divorce.
Let me also be clear that I am not taking a position for the professor against Wheaton or vice versa. Wheaton obviously believes that the facts in the divorce lead them to conclude the professor’s divorce does not meet their standards for a biblically justifiable divorce. The fact that the professor chose not to enter a process to fight for his job leads me to believe that he sees it as a losing proposition. He was going to be terminated. He chose to resign before Wheaton terminated him.
So the context is clearly that this professor lost his job because of his divorce.
Sarah,
Wheaton College Provost Stan Jones is quoted in the Chicago Tribune story comparing Professor Gramm’s case to previous faculty members who were let go because of their divorces, saying “…it’s a tragic instance where we have to say, because of the nature of the institution, we can’t employ you.”
I do get your point, however, that Professor Gramm chose not to pursue his options and fight for his job, so on technical grounds it is a resignation and not a termination. I have changed the title of the post in that spirit.
That certainly changes the context of the issue.
Just to clarify, Dr. Gramm resigned from Wheaton College. He was not fired. It would be great if that could be fixed.
I thought that Wheaton was consider liberal? Is this a little overboard? Divorce is a messy thing and the idea of firing someone because of their personal failure seems harsh. I say that even though I just railed against divorce in God’s house. However, I don’t think it to be hypocritical to say that firing him is awefully harsh. I could understand if it was do to infedelity on the part of the professor but that doesn’t seem to be part of this issue.