University President warns of loss of intellectual and religious freedom and numerous college closures
Oklahoma Wesleyan University President, Dr. Everett Piper, is speaking out about Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s statements regarding staffing practices for faith-based organizations. “I am very concerned” says Piper. “Senator Obama’s statements that appear on his campaign’s web page, as well as, those spoken at the Saddleback Civil Forum and his July 1 speech in
“The issue is one of freedom of association in staffing” Piper states. “Since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, all faith-based colleges and universities have had a religious exemption when it comes to hiring faculty and staff.” Piper goes further: “By definition an Evangelical college has always had the right to expect its teachers to be Evangelical, a Jewish college could hire only those who are Jewish, a Catholic school could require its faculty to be Catholic and so on. This has been common sense and common practice. The logical privilege and legal right of a school to refuse employment to those who hold views antithetical to the institution – to its ideological, theological, and historical moorings – to its very mission statement and reason for existence – has been a given. It would be absurd to force a Jewish school, for example, to hire an advocate of Al Qaeda ideology. Students and parents choosing such a school would assume that, by definition, they would not have someone teaching such a worldview.”
Piper says his concerns stem directly from Obama’s own words. “In Obama’s July 1, 2008 speech in Ohio the Senator contends that if an organization benefits from federal grants it can't make any staffing or hiring decisions ‘on the basis of religion.’ Furthermore, on his official campaign web page Barak Obama clarifies that under his presidency ‘religious organizations that receive federal dollars cannot discriminate with respect to hiring for government-funded social service programs; and [faith-based organizations] can only use taxpayer’s dollars on secular programs and initiatives.’ Finally, in the Saddleback Civil Forum with Rick Warren, Obama commented specifically on Christian colleges and said ‘When it comes to the programs that are federally funded, then we do have to be careful to make sure that we are not creating a situation where people are being discriminated against [in hiring practices].’” Piper says the problem in Obama’s statements is this: “Almost every college in the nation – religious or secular – has students who qualify for and receive federal funds in the form of grants, loans, and scholarships. Students have always been able to use these dollars to go to the college of their choice. But Obama’s position clearly indicates that this freedom could be in jeopardy and that students may only be able to use such grants and loans to attend schools that are secular in their worldview and behavioral codes.” Piper goes further: “My question is this (and Senator Obama does not provide an answer): Will students be prohibited by law from using their financial aid to attend any school that hires faculty in a manner that is consistent with its Christian faith, values and theological distinctions? Will the funding that flows from the student to the institution – funding that has been available since the GI Bill of the 1940s – be averted? Will students lose their ability to attend a Christian college and will the colleges by default lose a primary source of revenue?” “If so” says Piper “hundreds of colleges and universities across the land would be forced into immediate financial exigency and imminent closure.”
Piper summarizes by saying “As far as I can tell, this conversation at this level is unprecedented. At no time in our history has the religious and intellectual freedom of the academy been held up to such ambiguity. Does it really make any sense to require Christian organizations to hire those who explicitly deny Christian orthodoxy and explicitly violate Christian orthopraxy?”
Oklahoma Wesleyan University is a Christian liberal arts university recognized by U.S. News and World Report and Forbes.com for its excellence. Its mission statement calls for the integration of faith, learning, and living in all disciplines with the Primacy of Jesus Christ, the Priority of Scripture, the Pursuit of Truth, and the Practice of Wisdom as the University’s distinct foundation. For more information on Oklahoma Wesleyan or Dr. Piper go to www.okwu.edu or call 918.335.6234.