Dr. Larycia Alaine Hawkins is an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College, a private Evangelical school located just west of Chicago that is consistently on the wrong side of social and political issues. As a courageous response to the growing climate of fear and hatred that Muslims in America are facing, she decided that she would wear a hijab during the month of Advent, explaining that her decision to do so was intended as a gesture of solidarity with a minority that is increasingly under threat.
Dr. Hawkins took to Facebook last week to explain her actions. “I don’t love my Muslim neighbor because s/he is American. I love my Muslim neighbor because s/he deserves love by virtue of her/his human dignity. 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.”
The administrators at Wheaton College, not wanting to miss an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that they are, in fact, among the worst and most ignorant Christians in the country, responded by placing her on administrative leave. In defense of their action, they pointed to “significant questions regarding the theological implications of statements… Hawkins has made about the relationship of Christianity to Islam.”
Ignorance of Christianity, Islam, or both are the only reasons that one might harbor "significant questions" regarding Dr. Hawkins' claims "about the relationship of Christianity to Islam." Except among theological extremists on both sides, this is a settled question. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God.
Period.
Full stop.
I'm dreading to see why Wheaton College makes the news next time.
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