Ryken continued, “Contrary to what appears on the web piece, Wheaton College remains fully committed to Christian service—which we embrace as ‘service’ in our very mission statement—to biblical orthodoxy and Christ-centered education, including in matters of human sexuality, gender identity, and race relations.”
Wheaton College’s mission statement reads, “Wheaton College serves Jesus Christ and advances His Kingdom through excellence in liberal arts and graduate programs that educate the whole person to build the church and benefit society worldwide.”
“I would discourage members of our community from engaging further with an incendiary op/ed that fails to meet minimal standards for journalistic accuracy,” Ryken said to conclude the statement.
On Thursday, Scheiderer took to social media to defend his journalistic integrity, saying that “there was much background I received from parents, current students, and other sources that confirm the changes taking place at Wheaton.”
He also linked to several publicly available sources from which he drew his claims. To support his allegation that Wheaton had compromised on issues of sexuality and gender identity, Scheiderer linked to an article published in the Wheaton Record that discussed the experiences of students at Wheaton “who identify as gender minorities.”
The article began with an editor’s note:
The Community Covenant, which all Wheaton students and faculty sign, requires students to abstain from homosexual sexual behavior and dating, as well as persistent or exaggerated cross-dressing. The Covenant and accompanying Student Handbook emphasize that the college’s approach to gender minority students is to support eventual reconciliation with one’s biological sex assigned at birth.
As to the claim of “prohibited” words, Scheiderer posted a photograph of a page he said came from a freshman orientation packet, which included the quote, “You may find a conspicuous lack of ‘service’ oriented language in this article: instead, we opt to co-labor with others sacrificially.”
RELATED: Wheaton College Restricts Employees’ Ability To State Preferred Pronouns
“As sacrificial co-laborers, we see service as a term that may invoke power dynamics across socio-economic, racial, and cultural lines,” the excerpt continued. “When Christians work together, we work alongside each other to further the message of Christ’s sacrifice and love toward us, not the message of our own benevolence that leads to pride.”
