Leaders of evangelical icon Wheaton College thought they could calm things down by deleting a controversial post about an alumnus who works for President Donald Trump. They instead gave fuel to activists who’ve ignited a holy war and claimed the 165-year-old school has become “a weapon in Satan’s arsenal.”
Wheaton’s most famous alumnus is evangelist Billy Graham, but Graham’s son Franklin, who gave the invocation at Trump’s inauguration, accused the school’s leaders of lacking “backbone” for caving in to “the winds of wokeness” and “leftist Trump-haters.”
Original Facebook post
At the center of the conflict is Russell Vought, a 1998 graduate and self-proclaimed “holy warrior” who was again confirmed to serve as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget Feb. 6, reprising his role from Trump’s first presidency.
In between terms, Vought founded the pro-Trump Center for Renewing America and co-authored the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s reshaping of the federal government.
On Feb. 7, Wheaton posted a simple message: “Wheaton College congratulates and prays for 1998 graduate Russell Vought regarding his senatorial confirmation to serve as the White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget.”
“Within hours, hundreds of Vought’s fellow alumni had complained that Vought’s agenda contradicted the values they had been taught at Wheaton,” reported Christianity Today.
“Within a universe of controversial cabinet nominees by Donald Trump, Vought ranks high on the list of the most controversial because he is perceived as a true believer in slashing the federal government and creating a Christian theocracy as outlined in Project 2025,” BNG reported.
An open letter from critics of Wheaton’s post cited Vought’s seduction to “the temptation of totalitarianism” and his “marginalization of the vulnerable.”
Vought has helped eliminate U.S. funding for foreign aid, which experts say will cause needless deaths, and he said he hoped to “inflict” trauma on government employees, whom he described as “villains.”
The turnabout spawned a flood of condemnation from conservative groups and political activists loyal to Trump.
Wheaton deleted its post the next day, explaining its decision in a statement: “The recognition and prayer is something we would typically do for any graduate who reached that level of government. … It was not our intention to embroil the college in a political discussion or dispute.”
The turnabout spawned a flood of condemnation from conservative groups and political activists loyal to Trump.
“Evangelicals Shame Wheaton After Woke College Deletes Post Praising Trump Appointee” read the headline from James Robison’s conservative Christian outlet, the Stream. The Stream article also criticized Wheaton for deleting the words “savage Indians” from a plaque honoring alumnus and slain missionary Jim Elliot.
“Christian College Caves to Woke Mob, Apologizes For Congratulating Alum In Trump Admin” wrote activist journalist Megan Basham for the conservative outlet The Daily Wire.
Eric Teetsel
One of Wheaton’s harshest critics is Eric Teetsel, a 2006 grad with a lengthy political resume. He worked with Vought at the Center for Renewing America after working with the Heritage Foundation and the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, which is affiliated with Focus on the Family.
Teetsel wrote an open letter criticizing Wheaton that has been signed by 1,200 alumni and claims Wheaton has been overrun by radicalized faculty. These “guerrilla warriors for a progressive agenda … intentionally undermine orthodox Christian teachings,” he argued in a podcast from the year-old Center for Baptist Leadership.
“They are knowingly and intentionally and willfully undermining the Statement of Faith in their classrooms, and they tend to close the door just before they do it, because they know they’re doing it,” Teetsel told the conservative Baptist group in its “Has Wheaton Gone Woke?” podcast.
The group Answers in Genesis blamed Wheaton’s wokeness on its rejection of young-earth creationism.
“Wheaton College (like so many other supposed Christian institutions) has compromised God’s word in Genesis for a long time,” said the group, which holds an annual Creation College Expo for young-Earth schools.
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