The college, which includes Billy Graham, A.W. Tozer, and Josh McDowell among its graduates, is also the alma mater of Russell Vought. In a party line Senate vote late last week, he was confirmed as director of the Office of Management and Budget. That appointment earned him a congratulations from Wheaton, which was posted online, but the post was taken down hours later after backlash because Vought is part of the Trump administration.
In a statement explaining removing the congratulatory post, Wheaton said the “political situation surrounding the appointment” created “significant concern” online.
Reacting to Wheaton’s decision, New Saint Andrews seminary professor Dr. Joe Rigney tells AFN it is a sad pattern he has witnessed over and over at once-solid evangelical Christian colleges.
“It's the classic example,” he says, “of the way that the Left steers and manipulates Christian institutions.”
The way that manipulation works, Rigney advises, is first there is a “victim class” that claims it has been hurt and injured. Then there is an “advocate class” that dishonestly claims the congratulations to Vought is somehow a “full-throated endorsement” of the Trump administration. Finally, he says, there are the “nice guys” who are concerned about their reputation and back down.
Vought, who served in the first Trump administration, was himself a victim of anti-religious hatred during his 2017 Senate confirmation hearing. That is the hearing in which Sen. Bernie Sanders said he was “bothered” by a student newspaper article Vought wrote at Wheaton that states Jesus is the source of salvation.
That article, Vought told Sanders, “was to defend my alma mater, Wheaton College, a Christian school that has a statement of faith that includes the centrality of Jesus Christ for salvation.”
Sanders, who angrily accused Vought of “condemning” Muslims and Jews, was himself accused of using an unconstitutional religious test against the Trump nominee.
Rigney says it is sad to watch Wheaton bow down to an angry mob when the same school produced Jim Elliott, the famous missionary who was killed by the Auca tribe in Ecuador.
The lesson for every Christian campus, and for every Christian, Rigney says, is it avoid trying to mirror a secular culture that rejects Christianity.
“Evangelicals do the same thing the world does, but five years later and not as good,” he summarizes.
