Post by Daniel on Jun 1, 2015 8:52:41 GMT -5
By Denny Burk on February 12, 2014
Over the weekend, I read the news of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield’s recent visit to Wheaton College. The reports I read focused on a demonstration led by Wheaton students who were concerned about Butterfield’s testimony. It’s no surprise when students on a secular university campus stage a public protest against Butterfield. But it is quite surprising when about a hundred students demonstrate at an evangelical bastion like Wheaton. The question is this: Why did these students feel the need to demonstrate?
It turns out that they did not like the message that Butterfield was bringing to the college. And the message they didn’t like was the story of her own conversion to Christ. As I have noted here before, Butterfield was formerly a tenured lesbian professor specializing in feminist studies at Syracuse University. But the Lord intersected her life and won her to Christ through the witness of a local minister and his wife. In her book, Butterfield is very clear that following Christ meant repenting of her lesbianism. And that’s the part that the Wheaton demonstrators didn’t like.
The students who demonstrated said that it was wrong for the university to give the impression that Butterfield’s “story” was the only valid story. According to the demonstrators, there are gay people who follow Christ and who see no need to repent of same-sex behavior. Their stories are just as valid as Butterfield’s, and Butterfield’d story of repentance from sin should not be held out as the norm on Wheaton’s campus. If you want to read about these student demonstrators you can do so here. You can read about Butterfield’s “talk back” session with the student demonstrators here.
Wheaton College’s “Community Covenant” reflects a very clear biblical understanding of sexuality. Every student on campus voluntarily agrees to this covenant as a condition for admission to the college. What does the covenant say? It requires students to “uphold chastity among the unmarried (1 Cor. 6:18) and the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman (Heb. 13:4).” It also condemns “sexual immorality, such as the use of pornography (Matt. 5:27-28), pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexual behavior and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman (Rom. 1:21-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31).”
As President Ryken pointed out in his recent statement, the college’s covenant is very clear. Students know up front that Wheaton has staked out a traditional biblical understanding of sexual norms and that they must volunteer to live within those norms in order to be students. The problem is not with the covenant. The problem is that these students are protesting the very terms of the covenant that they promised to uphold when they were admitted to the college.
continue reading
www.dennyburk.com/wheaton-students-protest-rosaria-butterfield/
Over the weekend, I read the news of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield’s recent visit to Wheaton College. The reports I read focused on a demonstration led by Wheaton students who were concerned about Butterfield’s testimony. It’s no surprise when students on a secular university campus stage a public protest against Butterfield. But it is quite surprising when about a hundred students demonstrate at an evangelical bastion like Wheaton. The question is this: Why did these students feel the need to demonstrate?
It turns out that they did not like the message that Butterfield was bringing to the college. And the message they didn’t like was the story of her own conversion to Christ. As I have noted here before, Butterfield was formerly a tenured lesbian professor specializing in feminist studies at Syracuse University. But the Lord intersected her life and won her to Christ through the witness of a local minister and his wife. In her book, Butterfield is very clear that following Christ meant repenting of her lesbianism. And that’s the part that the Wheaton demonstrators didn’t like.
The students who demonstrated said that it was wrong for the university to give the impression that Butterfield’s “story” was the only valid story. According to the demonstrators, there are gay people who follow Christ and who see no need to repent of same-sex behavior. Their stories are just as valid as Butterfield’s, and Butterfield’d story of repentance from sin should not be held out as the norm on Wheaton’s campus. If you want to read about these student demonstrators you can do so here. You can read about Butterfield’s “talk back” session with the student demonstrators here.
Wheaton College’s “Community Covenant” reflects a very clear biblical understanding of sexuality. Every student on campus voluntarily agrees to this covenant as a condition for admission to the college. What does the covenant say? It requires students to “uphold chastity among the unmarried (1 Cor. 6:18) and the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman (Heb. 13:4).” It also condemns “sexual immorality, such as the use of pornography (Matt. 5:27-28), pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexual behavior and all other sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage between a man and woman (Rom. 1:21-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31).”
As President Ryken pointed out in his recent statement, the college’s covenant is very clear. Students know up front that Wheaton has staked out a traditional biblical understanding of sexual norms and that they must volunteer to live within those norms in order to be students. The problem is not with the covenant. The problem is that these students are protesting the very terms of the covenant that they promised to uphold when they were admitted to the college.
continue reading
www.dennyburk.com/wheaton-students-protest-rosaria-butterfield/
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