On May 7, Christina Littlefield, the woman who revised and updated my 2009 book, Christian America and the Kingdom of God, was banned, was banished by her Christian university, was told that for 15 months, without permission from the dean, she could not set foot on the campus of the university that was both her alma mater and her employer for 14 fruitful years.
One would think a sentence that severe might be rendered for a serious crime, a crime for example, like attempted embezzlement of university funds or physical assault of a colleague or lewd behavior in the presence of students.
Richard T. Hughes
Nothing approaching those transgressions, however, was true.
Instead, Littlefield’s transgressions mirrored those of Roger Williams, banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony some 400 years ago.
In 1635, the General Court in Boston convicted Williams of sedition and heresy, thanks to his vigorous argument on behalf of religious freedom. Like Williams, Littlefield protested on behalf of freedom of expression, rejecting the principle of censorship and challenging the Christian nationalism that in so many ways defined her institution.
In addition, Williams defended the rights of Indigenous people, claiming the king of England had no right to the native lands on which the Puritans had built their colonies. That, too, was judged a heresy that merited banishment. Likewise, when Littlefield helped her students envision Jesus as other than white, her university found her guilty of making them feel uncomfortable.
Because of her transgressions, her university informed Littlefield that for 15 long months, she is “not permitted to be on campus or attend university-sponsored events without prior written authorization from the dean’s office.”
Christina Littlefield
An even better way to understand Littlefield’s exile is through the lens of the prophet Amos, a star in the Hebrew Bible. A poor man who traveled from his home in the Southern Kingdom of Judea to prophesy against the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Amos inveighed against the king, his courtiers and the wealthy elites, men and women alike, “who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,” who “trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat.” Therefore, Amos warned, “They shall now be the first to go into exile.”
Like the General Court in Boston that banished Williams or the university brass who exiled Littlefield for 15 months, the king of Israel rejected Amos’ words and sent his high priest, Amaziah — the religious functionary who served the royal court — to shut Amos up and drive him out.
“Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah, earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. But never prophesy at Bethel again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom.” (Amos 7:12)
In the face of the court’s attempt to banish him back to the Southern Kingdom, however, Amos grew even bolder, defending his right to speak on behalf of oppressed and marginalized people.
I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. (Amos 7:14-15)
Littlefield never claimed to speak for God, but like Amos and Roger Williams, two prophetic voices separated by 2,400 years, she, too, is a prophet who lifts her voice in her Christian school to protest Christian nationalism, to defend free speech and artistic expression, and to help her students appreciate cultures, religions and ethnicities different from their own. And like the General Court in Boston and the royal court in Bethel that rejected the prophets and drove them into exile, the royal court of her Christian school has sought to silence her.
May God give her the courage to continue her prophetic work, even in the face of exile from the school that, in so many ways, has been her life.
Richard Hughes is the author of the forthcoming book, Whitewashing the Christian College: A Call for Courageous, Gospel-Rooted Leadership, to be released by Orbis Books in May 2027.