By Kirkland An and Sarah Pulliam Bailey
February 6 at 8:50 PM
Wheaton College’s provost has withdrawn charges for firing political science professor Larycia Hawkins just five days before a faculty hearing was scheduled to help decide her fate at the school.
In an email sent to faculty on Saturday, which was provided to The Washington Post, provost Stanton Jones said that he asked Hawkins for forgiveness.
“I asked Dr. Hawkins for her forgiveness for the ways I contributed to the fracture of our relationship, and to the fracture of Dr. Hawkins’ relationship with the College,” he wrote.
Jones wrote that he apologized for his “lack of wisdom and collegiality” in his original contact with Hawkins, which was through another colleague, as opposed to through direct contact.
Hawkins was placed on administrative leave on Dec. 15 after she published a Facebook post suggesting that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. The statement set off a wave of controversy across the country amid larger debates about the role of Muslims in America. The college said at the time that her comments raised significant theological questions and requested the professor provide a theological statement. Faculty are required to sign a statement of faith, which some felt Hawkins could not affirm after making her comments.
After Hawkins issued her theological statement, Jones requested further clarification, and upon the request, she declined to continue the conversation, telling The Post, “I don’t want to be subjected to a theological inquisition.” Jones then issued a notice for termination-for-cause, which he has now revoked.
Saturday’s email from Jones came one day after 78 current Wheaton faculty members signed a letter petitioning for Hawkins’ reinstatement, and after the school’s 12-person Faculty Council, which represents the faculty, issued a similar letter, outlining their concerns with Hawkins’ termination proceedings. There are 211 faculty.
Jones said in the email that while he still has concerns that Hawkins’ theological statements “raised important questions,” he revoked his termination charges because of the “deficiencies” in his early responses, and recognizing that Hawkins’ theological response was a “promising start” toward the conversation he wished to hold.
Hawkins remains on administrative leave, a matter, Jones said in his email, Wheaton’s president Philip Ryken will resolve.
Political science professor Leah Anderson, who is Hawkins’s department chair, said that faculty she spoke with on Saturday are rejoicing.
“We’ve been hallelujah-ing,” Anderson said. “Everybody is just so relieved. I’m so impressed with the provost because I just can’t imagine the courage it took to reverse that decision.” Anderson believes that there could be backlash among some of the college’s alumni, but she hopes Wheaton can “gently educate” and help people “understand why the issue is more complicated than it looks to them.”
Anderson said she does not know what the next steps will be in the process.
“I think there are still issues and concerns and questions among faculty that we’ll have to work out as a community, but this creates a foundation on which we can work on,” she said.
Calls to Wheaton’s spokeswoman and Hawkins were not immediately returned on Saturday.
Hawkins’s comments that she would wear the hijab in solidarity with Muslim women during Advent, and her comment — Christians and Muslims worship the same God — became especially controversial in evangelical circles. She received criticism from leading evangelicals, including evangelist Franklin Graham, and was defended by others, including theologian Miroslav Volf.
Hawkins is one of Wheaton’s five black tenured professors, who make up 2 percent of the faculty, and its only full-time black female professor.
The underlying debate taking place among evangelicals is complex, centered on how the Christian belief in a Trinitarian God — God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — differs from the God of Islam and Judaism.
Theologians have debated whether Christians and Muslims understand God in the same way, and if so, whether they worship the same “one God.” Do they define the word “worship” in the same way?
But those questions have been set aside amid the personnel dispute that had faculty concerned about the process the college used.
Above is from: https://www.facebook.com/sarahpulliambailey
Joint Statement by Wheaton College and Dr. Larycia Hawkins Announcing a Resolution
February 6, 2016
Wheaton College and Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Larycia Hawkins announce they have come together and found a mutual place of resolution and reconciliation. The College and Dr. Hawkins have reached a confidential agreement under which they will part ways.
“Wheaton College sincerely appreciates Dr. Hawkins’ contributions to this institution over the last nine years,” says Wheaton College President Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. “We are grateful for her passionate teaching, scholarship, community service and mentorship of our students.”
In reflecting on her years at Wheaton, Dr. Hawkins says, “I appreciate and have great respect for the Christian liberal arts and the ways that Wheaton College exudes that in its mission, programs, and in the caliber of its employees and students.”
Both parties share a commitment to care for the oppressed and the marginalized, including those who are marginalized because of their religious beliefs, and to respectful dialogue with people of other faiths or no faith. While parting ways, both Wheaton College and Dr. Hawkins wish the best for each other in their ongoing work.
In pursuit of further public reconciliation, a joint press conference will be held at the Chicago Temple First United Methodist Church, 77 W. Washington St., in Chicago, on Wednesday, February 10, at 10:00 a.m.
Neither Wheaton College nor Dr. Hawkins will speak to the press about their relationship or their reconciliation before the scheduled press conference, and there will be no questions taken by the parties at or after the press conference.
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