Larycia Hawkins, Wheaton College offer gratitude, move on

At an often-emotional press conference to announce they had reached a confidential agreement to part ways, Wheaton College’s president and Larycia Hawkins expressed gratitude for their time together.

The evangelical school had moved to fire Hawkins, a tenured political science professor, after she said Muslims and Christians worship the same God. The school’s action stirred up intense public scrutiny, especially after the school’s faculty diversity committee issued a memo calling the administration’s proceedings against Hawkins "discriminatory on the basis of race and gender."

At a joint press conference Feb. 10, Wheaton President Philip Ryken commenting publicly for the first time said the college will move forward with an effort to address "the issues that brought us to this point." He did not elaborate.

"But," he added, "we are saying we are moving forward in genuine friendship, wishing each other well and wanting to bless each other and our work."

Hawkins was joined by Ryken and about two dozen interfaith clergy, faculty, alumni and other supporters at the press conference "in pursuit of further public reconciliation" at First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple.

Wheaton Provost Stan Jones noticeably was absent, his name scribbled out on the agenda for the event.

"My journey at Wheaton College is part of my journey," said Hawkins. "It’s not the end of my journey. There are no goodbyes -- only good memories," Hawkins said.

Tears streaked her face as she spoke about her students -- who, she said, taught her what "embodied solidarity" looks like.

"Just because I walk away from Wheaton College does not mean I walk away from them," she said. "They are my classroom, and they continue to teach me. We will continue to grow and walk and learn together."

Wearing a hijab to identify with American Muslims during the Christian season of Advent leading up to Christmas was an act of "embodied solidarity," she said. And continuing to stand with -- not apart from -- Wheaton is what embodied solidarity means.

During the conference, Ryken thanked Hawkins for developing Wheaton’s new certificate program in peace and conflict studies. That’s a program the college is committed to continuing after her departure, inviting Muslim and Jewish scholars to dialogue about interfaith relations.

He also announced the college would establish an endowed scholarship in her name for interns to pursue a summer projects in peace and conflict studies.

Hawkins was placed on leave and termination proceedings against her started in December after she posted a photo of herself wearing hijab on her personal Facebook page. It wasn’t the hijab that gave Wheaton pause, the college has said, but the caption the tenured professor of political science posted with the photo: "I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God."

She later made additional posts on Facebook and Twitter reaffirming Muslims and Christians worship the same God, which the college has said seemed "inconsistent with Wheaton College’s doctrinal convictions."

Students, faculty and other supporters of Hawkins had planned a protest at the Edman Chapel on Wheaton’s campus in suburban Chicago at the same time as the press conference.

That protest was meant to begin a "fast of embodied solidarity" calling on Wheaton and all of the nation’s evangelical Christian institutions to confess and repent of racism, sexism and Islamophobia -- issues many see at the heart of the controversy. The fast doesn’t have to include abstaining from food, but is meant to encourage intentional engagement in dialogue or a commitment to prayer, according to a press release from organizers.

Individual members of other institutions, including Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.; and Westminster Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, N.M., were invited to participate.*

Wheaton students, faculty and staff had gathered for a reconciliation service the night before at Edman Chapel, where Ryken and Hawkins had spoken about lamentation, according to tweets from the service by Kirkland An, editor-in-chief of the college’s student newspaper, the Wheaton Record.

*This story has been updated to correct the list of institutions that was invited to participate.