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Thank You, Dr. Hawkins

Thank You, Dr. Hawkins

Last updated on: February 9, 2016 at 3:24 pm by Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Thank You, Dr. Hawkins 2016-02-09T15:24:49-05:00 Lindsey Paris-Lopez

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Photo: Dr. Larycia Hawkins (Screenshot from YouTube video “Rally in Support of Dr. Larycia Hawkins“)

Dear Dr. Hawkins,

As you prepare to leave Wheaton College, I want to extend to you my heartfelt gratitude for your wisdom, compassion, and embodiment of Christ. Your solidarity with the vulnerable and marginalized has left you vulnerable and pushed you beyond the margins of your institution. Yet your gracious courage and unwavering love reach beyond barriers, building bridges of understanding between God’s children, siblings struggling in rivalry.

For claiming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, a position once acknowledge by Provost Jones himself, you were judged to be beyond the boundaries of the Wheaton College Statement of Faith. Although the termination procedure was dropped and Provost Jones apologized for his “lack of wisdom and congeniality,” the resolution of the situation, including your resignation, falls far short of the full reinstatement so many of us had hoped for you, and thus falls short of reconciliation. I know that wherever you go, you will continue to embody the love of Christ, rising to the challenge to “put feet to faith” and inspiring others to do the same. I have faith that God will help you find a place where your knowledge and passion will thrive and send blessings through the world. At the same time, I am apprehensive for the Wheaton community that you are leaving.

The circumstances that have culminated in your resignation are an unmistakably ominous sign that the parameters of evangelical orthodoxy are narrowing to become more stringent and exclusive. At a time of increasing polarity and division, evangelical leaders are policing the boundaries of their theology, though Jesus continually transcended boundaries. Whereas Jesus reached out to embrace, some of those who follow Jesus are casting out to exclude. The Good News that God loves the whole world and came in human form to show us how to love one another has been warped by many into a message of God’s exclusive love for those with a particular theological formula. Identity in Christ is becoming increasingly confused with identity against others. I fear that, as boundaries narrow, new faculty (and students) of Wheaton will be less likely to engage of a variety of viewpoints and interpretations, especially considering matters of faith and theology. Faculty and students may fear to tread beyond boundaries of acceptability, and faith might shrink and shrivel rather than have room for growth. This will have devastating effects on the students, the college, the community, and the world, and will not help to advance Christ and His Kingdom.

It is especially devastating that the Wheaton administration does not seem to realize who it is losing as you leave. As black history month begins, as the Black Lives Matter movement shines an exposing light on violence wielded by authorities against African Americans, the only tenured black woman professor is leaving a prominent Christian college with abolitionist roots. Had the administration recognized racism as the strange fruit of American Christianity that continues to poison the Body of Christ, they would have condoned, rather than condemned, your presentation of Black Liberation Theology. They also would have better appreciated the value of your work to help Wheaton recognize and repent of the harm white privilege continues to cause. I hope that the Board of Trustees takes seriously its obligation to review charges of racism and sexism in the procedure that led to your resignation, and makes an effort not only to increase diversity, but to listen and learn from diverse perspectives, including those that make it uncomfortable.

Yet many of my fears turn to hope as I witness the outpouring of love for you coming from faculty, students, the broader community, and indeed worldwide. I am especially touched by the commitment many are making as they pledge solidarity to you in the season of Lent in the event known as “Fast and Continuation of Embodied Solidarity” hosted by Andrew Shadid. Recognizing the injustices of racism, sexism, and Islamophobia at work in the events that led to your resignation, many of your supporters

are embarking on a 40-day fast to pray, cry out to the Lord, and renew our commitment to true peace and justice. During Lent, we will ask ourselves before our Living God: “how are we complicit in the systems of oppression in our society, including financial institutions, the government, the church, and Christian colleges?” During and following Lent, we commit ourselves to follow Christ, taking up our cross, and proclaiming and embodying the Kingdom, God’s righteous reign of non-violent love and shalom justice.

I am heartened to see that so many people understand that what they do unto Larycia Hawkins, they do unto Christ. Those who recognize your courageous desire to stand with the marginalized as a call from the one who went to the margins to draw the whole world into his embrace now stand with you. I am prayerfully considering how I too may participate. This commitment to justice gives me hope that Wheaton College may yet be transformed in positive ways by this tragedy.

Yet my anxieties, mitigated though they are by the courage of those inspired by your example, extend beyond Wheaton College. Most of all, I am determined that outreach toward Muslims continue within the community of Wheaton. My fear is that as the college grows more exclusionary, so too will the community at large. I do not want to see Muslims become further marginalized and isolated. As Muslims at home are the targets of increasing vitriol, attacks, and political oppression, as American drones and missiles rain down on Muslim countries abroad, enmity toward Muslims is increasingly becoming a hallmark of vocal Christian leaders with influence over Wheaton’s constituency.

I therefore pledge to continue your work to make the city of Wheaton a more welcoming place for Muslims and inclusive interpretations of faith. As a Lenten discipline, I will begin to re-read the Qur’an alongside the Bible and explore, in my public writings, the theological issues wrapped up in the question of what it means to worship the same God differently. I will reach out to Muslims in the Wheaton area, visit a mosque, and bring my family when I am able. I will continue to engage challenging questions of faith with my Muslim sisters and brothers, knowing that we each have a mutual mission to learn from and bless one another.

You have emboldened me and so many to take risks for the sake of my fellow human beings, as you took risks at Wheaton College, as God took the ultimate risk in clothing himself in flesh and stepping into the space of humanity’s hate to transform it into love.

You, Wheaton College, the community at large, and this fragile, beautiful world are in my prayers. May we all recognize the face of God in each of our brothers and sisters, come together in peace, and explore what we may learn from our diversity of beliefs, that in our love for one another we may more clearly reflect the One God who is Love, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

With deepest gratitude,

Lindsey Paris-Lopez

Editor In Chief of the Raven Foundation

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