Wheaton College Smears Black Pro-Life Speaker for Talk on Race and Abortion

By Ryan Scott Bomberger, Radiance Foundation
National Right to Life

For Christ and His Kingdom. That’s the motto featured prominently throughout Wheaton College. But what happens when it’s not about Christ or His Kingdom?

I found that out recently after being invited by Wheaton College Republicans to speak on something I’m deeply familiar with—abortion and race. As someone conceived in rape yet adopted and loved into a multiracial family of 15, I have a rather unique take on this. I love actual diversity. As a biracial individual, it’s literally in my blood.

I presented a multimedia talk entitled: “Black Lives Matter In and Out of the Womb” (see video) which provided a perspective that is rarely heard. I wanted to compel students to critically think.

Instead, some wanted to silence the message and smear the messenger.

The Student Government Association (SGA), reportedly with the help of two staff members (Peter Hansen and Crystal Cartwright) of the Office of Student Activities, sent out a dishonest, campus-wide email denouncing me and the hope-filled, fact-based, Biblically-sound presentation. Signed by student leaders Lauren Rowley (Student Body President), Tyler Waaler (Student Body Vice President) and Sammie Shields (EVP of Community Diversity), the letter claimed that my comments “made many students, staff and faculty of color feel unheard, underrepresented and unsafe on our campus.”

Of course, they didn’t identify me as a “person of color” (isn’t everyone a color?). In my emailed response to SGA and administration leaders, I reminded them that my presentation was about those who are always unheard, always underrepresented and actually unsafe—the unborn.

But let this sink in. Sharing a different perspective (aka speaking truth) made “many” feel “unsafe”. Wheaton, are you teaching students to fear or to think?

Only one of those five people involved in this letter of denouncement even attended the event (Sammie Shields). The presentation was 50 minutes, followed by nearly an hour of Q&A and discussion. How was anyone “unheard” or “underrepresented”?

I asked Philip Ziesemer, the Founder of the College Republicans, his reaction to SGA’s attack. 

“I’m disappointed by the school’s response because I do not believe Wheaton College wants to restrict students from taking part in open dialogue…I believe free speech is threatened when someone with a different point of view is accused—in print—of making students feel ‘unsafe’ and ‘underrepresented.’ I wish the school would have responded by encouraging students to think critically, discuss the message from both sides, and challenge themselves on the content presented.”

Sadly, it was clear that even on an evangelical Christian campus, truth is anathema to those who deify “diversity”. In a presentation on what Jesse Jackson once called “black genocide”, those who prefer activism over factivism chose to demonize and distort. 

The talk focused on the hypocrisy of the #BlackLivesMatter movement’s leadership and its announced solidarity with the leading killer in the black community—Planned Parenthood—where 247 black lives are killed by the abortion giant every single day. I pointed out several disturbing policy platform positions (see www.M4BL.net) that are, inarguably, hostile to Christianity.

I refuse to bow to groupthink. And that never goes over well with those who think “diversity” means ideological conformity.

Continue reading here

Wheaton College Wins 5-Year Religious Freedom Battle Against Birth Control Mandate

By Anugrah Kumar
Christian Post

Wheaton College has won a five-year battle to fulfill its Christian mission without having to provide services like the week-after pill and abortion-inducing drugs in its healthcare plans.

A district court judge has ruled that the government would violate federal civil rights laws if it forced the Illinois-based Christian liberal arts college to provide some services, which are required by the contraceptive mandate under the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act, against its religious beliefs.

The decision permanently protects Wheaton from any current or future version of the mandate, according to the nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the college.

"The government is not above the law — that's why we have civil rights laws. Wheaton should never have had to go to court to protect its rights in the first place. This order ensures we won't have to come back," said Diana Verm, Wheaton alumna and legal counsel at Becket, said in a statement.

Wheaton President Philip Ryken said, "We are grateful to God that the court recognized Wheaton's religious identity and protected our ability to affirm the sanctity of human life. The government should never have tried to force us to provide drugs and services against our faith, and we are pleased by the resolution of our case."

A recent new HHS rule admitted the federal government violated the law and provided temporary protection to religious objectors. But judges in California and Pennsylvania halted the rule in late December.

Wheaton, which is guided by its religious mission "For Christ and His Kingdom," filed a lawsuit to defend its right in 2012 after receiving no response from HHS to its concerns. The college was founded by abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard in 1860.

The contraceptive mandate, which requires health insurance plans to offer birth control and abortion-inducing drugs, has gone to the Supreme Court five times, and each time the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of protecting religious groups.

In 2015, Wheaton had announced that it would no longer offer health insurance to its students to avoid conflicting with the institution's Christian convictions.

"What has brought us here is about student health insurance, but it's bigger than student health insurance," Paul Chelsen, Wheaton's vice president of student development, said at the time.

 "What really breaks my heart is that there are real people that are affected by our decision. But if we don't win this case, the implications down the road in terms of what the government will tell us what we can and cannot do will be potentially more significant."

In 2013, the Obama administration proposed accommodations concerning the contraceptive mandate, but pro-life and religious liberty groups pointed out that it did not meaningfully expand the "church-only" exemption and amounted to little more than a gesture.

Christian Post article continues here