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Christian college has become target of criticism after post congratulating alumnus as Trump appointee

A congratulatory social media post from Wheaton College to an alumnus joining the Trump administration has sparked opposing alumni letters, signed by more than 3,000 people connected to the evangelical Christian institution.

Earlier this month, the Illinois college created and then deleted the post congratulating alumnus Russell Vought as an appointee to the Office of Management and Budget.

Dakota Powell, a 2023 alumnus, told The College Fix he wonders why Wheaton leaders decided to delete the post.

“… the statement was deemed ‘political,’ even though they had no problem releasing a statement about the death of George Floyd which was entirely political. The inconsistency and ‘lack of backbone’ by the leadership is alarming and saddening,” Powell said in a recent email.

The Feb. 7 post stated: “Wheaton College congratulates and prays for 1998 graduate Russell Vought regarding his senatorial confirmation to serve as the White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget.”

However, the college deleted it a short time later after being flooded with comments. Many accused Wheaton of supporting politics that are antithetical to Christianity including Project 2025, which Vought co-authored.

Two opposing alumni letters soon surfaced.

The “For Wheaton” letter, which Powell signed, asserts that the college, whose notable alumni include evangelist Billy Graham and missionaries Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, has allowed “unbiblical” identity politics to become part of its education.

They believe “Wheaton has repeatedly capitulated to the spirit of our age” by “centering” race and elevating “voices who promote unbiblical pedagogies, like critical theory.”

The letter also asserts that leaders have allowed “the uncritical appropriation of LGBT terminology and identities” and “stifle[d] those who bring conservative viewpoints”; it calls for “an end to the current DEI regime.”

As of Tuesday, nearly 1,300 alumni and more than 600 others connected with the college have signed the letter.

The second alumni letter urges the college to reject Project 2025, a conservative proposal for government reform that Vought co-wrote. It raises concerns about proposed policies that “target marginalized communities,” including illegal immigrants and people with disabilities, in contradiction of Christianity.

“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,” the letter states.

“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,” they wrote.

As of Tuesday, more than 1,600 alumni and students had signed it.

MORE: Wheaton College removes president’s name from library after racism report

Wheaton declined to comment on the matter.

“We are aware of the open letters, and we have no more information to share at this time,” spokesperson Joseph Moore told The Fix in an email Tuesday.

Despite the national media attention and criticism, Professor Matthew Milliner told The Fix the atmosphere on campus is much the same as ever.

“This isn’t our first rodeo of social media outrage. A lot of students haven’t noticed because (God bless them) they aren’t on social media,” the art history professor said in a recent email.

Asked about the two letters, Milliner (pictured) said: “Healthy disagreements about how these complex matters relate to the truth of Christianity is what makes for such an invigorating educational environment.”

His opinion of them is mixed: “One wants new leadership, and to see us ‘audit of every single faculty and staff member’s commitment to the Statement of Faith and Community Covenant’ (both of which I sign wholeheartedly), and the other wants us to expressly distance ourselves from Vought and Project 2025. Instead of condemning my classmate Vought, I prefer to keep praying for him. On the other hand, what some see as ‘captive to DEI,’ from my point of view, has been a decade of life-changing engagements with Native American Christians around the country.”

Wheaton has students and faculty who are left leaning, and some student projects – such as working with refugees or going to pro-life marches – are political, he said.

Congratulating and calling for prayers for notable alumni on social media is something Wheaton typically does.

However, “when we called for prayer for Vought (who we’re still praying for), this was perceived as an endorsement,” Milliner said. “Considering what I saw on the comment thread and the confusion it led to, I understand why the post was removed.”

Another sad result of the controversy, he said, is that “some seem to think that if we don’t give select alumni invitations to speak in chapel, then they’ve been effectively cancelled.”

Asked about the overall mission of a Christian college, Milliner told The Fix: “Every school has a statement of faith (as cancel culture has made clear). We’re just public about ours.

“If I disbelieve in the resurrection of Christ, if I conclude (as this controversy makes unlikely) that original sin is a fiction, that God endorses racism, or that the Virgin Mary was no virgin because Jesus was born like the rest of us, then I should not teach at Wheaton College,” he said. “That is not intellectual bondage. For me, that is the highest form of freedom.”

As the controversy keeps swirling, both Milliner and Powell believe Wheaton remains a stand-out in U.S. education.

A recent graduate, Powell said his professors and coaches “taught me worth ethic, excellence, and how to think, but most importantly how Jesus Christ and the Gospel interacts with my academics and how these Gospel truths go beyond me.” Powell is a former writer for The College Fix.

“Wheaton College is the standard of Christian colleges and must set the pace and be the institution that others follow instead of an institution that bows at the feet of public opinion. Wheaton is an institute worth fighting for,” Powell told The Fix.

“I do not believe that the information coming out of Wheaton College is indicative of the school at large,” he said.

For Milliner, its exceptionalism comes, in part, through nuanced discussions about faith in the classroom.

“I just listened to a student presentation giving a detailed and nuanced elucidation of the art of the Ramayana (one of the great epic poems of India). Having just returned from a semester in north India, the student put that poem into critical conversation with her own Christian faith, to which she is more committed than ever,” he told The Fix.

“Where else does this happen? Many places would either merely celebrate the Ramayana, or merely insist it is idolatrous,” Milliner said. “We have found the Christian middle path.”

MORE: Christian college deletes post congratulating alum in Trump administration

IMAGE: Stevan Sheets/flickr, Wheaton College

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