Over 1250 Alumni And Current Students Accuse Wheaton College Of Anti-Christian Mission Drift
Over 1250 alumni and current students of Wheaton College have signed a letter against the storied Christian institution, accusing the Board of Trustees of mission drift, faithlessness, and out-of-touch leadership after they deleted and apologized for a Facebook post calling for people to pray for Russ Vought’s confirmation to the Office of Management and Budget.
On February 7, Wheaton College posted the following benign message:
A day later, it was deleted, with a new missive going up.
That was too much for the progressives at Wheaton. Days later, over 1500 alum signed a letter expressing their “deep concern” with Russell Vought’s “role in forming and implementing Project 2025 on behalf of the current presidential administration”, saying, “Vought’s vision for government, as outlined in Project 2025, to be antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the mission of Wheaton College.” They conclude:
Wheaton College has stood as a beacon of Christian higher education, committed to rigorous intellectual engagement, faithful discipleship, and responsible citizenhood. To align, even indirectly, with a political vision that prioritizes power over service, exclusion over love, and coercion over conscience would be to abandon the very heart of our faith.
As Wheaton alumni, we publicly distance ourselves from Russell Vought’s work and reaffirm our commitment to the Gospel’s radical call to justice, mercy, and humility. Silence in the face of such an anti-Christian vision is complicity.
Vought himself commented on the deletion, which also drew the attention of Elon Musk:
The actions by Wheaton were the final straw for many of the alum and current students, who have been concerned for a long time by the spiritual trajectory of Wheaton and their caving to the spirit of the age, prompting them to write:
For most of its 165-year history, Wheaton has excelled at that task. Graduates have followed God’s calling into every domain of life, from the mission field to the football field, from the classroom to the boardroom, to be salt and light in a world desperately in need of Christ. Yet in recent years, Wheaton has lost its focus.
It has gone adrift—not in its formal beliefs, which are boldly written in the Statement of Faith, but in practice—in the direct experience of students who come to campus and find it lacking the countercultural witness embodied in that document…our complaint is that Wheaton has repeatedly capitulated to the spirit of our age—placating bad actors while sidelining those who bear a more faithful witness.
And:
We see this in the relentless centering of race and the elevation of voices who promote unbiblical pedagogies, like critical theory; the unjust and unbiblical adjudication of alleged violations of the Community Covenant; the de facto capitulation on sexual ethics through the uncritical appropriation of LGBT terminology and identities; and the general tendency to stifle those who bring conservative viewpoints. We also hear about this drift from graduates who attest that some of their professors openly violated the Statement of Faith behind closed doors—for instance, affirming universal salvation or referring to God as both “Father and Mother.”
Citing “a lack of doctrinal or ethical conviction among many graduates, a notable drop-off in missionary sending, and fewer parents and students who are choosing Wheaton.” the alum are inistiny that Wheaton College take immediate action regarding:
(1) the state of the college, including the need for new leadership, (2) putting an end to the current DEI regime, (3) conducting an audit of every single faculty and staff member’s commitment to the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant, (4) evaluating the process for adjudicating claims of racism, sexism, and other forms of harassment, (5) affirming free speech and the importance of a vibrant competition of ideas on campus, and whatever else is necessary to ensure the drift toward worldliness is ended and replaced with a vigorous, fearless, joyful pursuit of the Lord.
Until then, they are committed to:
- Ceasing all financial support to the college.
- Declining to recommend Wheaton to prospective students and their parents.
- Sharing examples of institutional drift with friends, fellow parishioners, online audiences, or the press to ensure students and parents who are considering Wheaton are aware of the disconnect between what is advertised in the Statement of Faith and what is really happening on campus.
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