The Culture Warriors Come for GCC
Grove City College becomes the latest front in Evangelicalism's culture war
A couple months ago, a friend who graduated with me from Grove City College (GCC) sent a link to a parent petition. I could hardly believe my eyes as I read about the concerns of parents and students regarding the infiltration of “woke” ideologies at GCC. A staunchly conservative Christian college, GCC seemed one of the few things left that could be counted on as many of our culture’s “intermediary institutions” seem to fall apart or lose their way. The petition went on to charge GCC with harboring CRT and/or woke ideas and promoting them to students. Shortly thereafter, President Paul McNulty issued a response. Megan Basham of the Daily Wire did a “yellow-flag piece” and the Twittersphere took over from there. I’ve been following Josh Abbotoy at American Reformer, follow-on discussions and threads among Basham and GCC officials, and interacting with former professors to try and understand what’s happening. Below are twelve observations that represent my current view of the situation:
GCC gives its faculty and leadership staff considerable autonomy. This autonomy fosters more intellectual diversity than expected on a conservative Christian college campus. We had Calvinist religion professors, libertarian Econ profs, and a liberal history prof. This autonomy can also leave room for misguided efforts to get further down the track than they would otherwise.
In Summer 2020, some of the social justice sympathizers on campus overreacted to the George Floyd situation and favored more woke-leaning sentiments. As one fellow GCC supporter noted, the steady conversion of public schools into indoctrination factories has been reflected in GCC student body.
This resulted in a number of unfortunate activities including a one-sided Chapel series on racial justice, an education course whose syllabus appears to be lifted from some woke Ivy League campus, and some RA training that may have involved the expression of some white guilt.
A number of parents and students observed these things and some raised concerns with McNulty. McNulty responded but not in a way that they found satisfactory, so they chose to escalate and go public with the petition.
The petition caught the notice of some ‘blue check mark’ (BCM) Twitter luminaries on the conservative-fundamentalist side of the evangelical divide. Megan Basham of Daily Wire did a ‘yellow-flag’ piece in which she clearly sympathized with parents and paid little regard to official statements from the GCC administration.
Other ‘blue check marks’ on the progressive-social justice side of the evangelical divide, including Kristin Du Mez, took their typical positions on the issue, lamenting GCC being taken to task by those on the other side.
As a function of the meme-ified discourse fostered by our social media landscape, no quarter is given to nuanced views of these matters. Any questioning of CRT is viewed as racism by the woke mob. Any discussion of racial injustice past or present is viewed as Marxist CRT by the unwoke mob.
Keep in mind, the ‘blue check marks’ (BCM’s) are part of a religious-political industrial complex. At its best, this field generates thoughtful discussion in a free and open exchange of ideas. But too often, it is fueled by finding situations like the one at GCC and using them as arenas for outrage, hand-wringing, moralizing, and condemning ideological opponents. (See: recent SBC conventions) They use such fodder to send fundraising appeals about ‘defending American values,’ ‘keeping America a Christian nation,’ 'being a voice for justice,' etc. on both sides of the evangelical divide.
McNulty came out with a statement intended to reaffirm GCC’s values and pledge that they would look into the concerns and take appropriate action. By projecting a reasoned and deliberative approach, and admonishing the petitioners for a guerilla attack, it managed to draw condemnation from all the BCM’s on both sides of the divide.
Keep in mind that GCC is nothing if not independent. They were willing to go to the Supreme Court to keep the government out of their business. The conservative-fundamentalist BCM’s are outraged that GCC is no more interested in letting them into its business than it is having the gov’t in its business. They point to the fact that GCC replaced the term ‘conservative values’ with ‘permanent values’ in its mission through a recent strategic plan update. They suspect this is further evidence GCC is coming loose from its moorings. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that this may reflect a reduced desire to be associated with ideological bullies that are ascendant in the conservative movement.
GCC now finds itself the theatre of a proxy culture war within evangelicalism—between the progressive-leaning social justice oriented evangelicals and conservative-fundamentalist evangelicals. Some are Christians, some merely identify as Christian and enjoy their sense of superiority over those on the other side of the divide. The two sides of this war are running roughshod over GCC while trying to gain the upper hand over one another.
I don’t know McNulty at all, let alone well, and don’t know exactly what his views are. As an alumni observer I've been impressed with his leadership and commitment to a Christ-centered campus community. I suspect he personally identifies with the conservative-fundamentalist side of the evangelical divide, as I do, yet also believes that there can be room for diversity of thought and engagement with people of different views, even on campus. He also has a corporate CEO chairing their board, and may join him in reflecting a ‘company line’ that values stability and minimal drama. Whatever his personal views, he is likely seeking to do what anyone governing a territory occupied by forces in a larger conflict might do: seek to protect their people, repair the damage done, and prevent further damage from occurring until the battle moves on to another unfortunate occupation territory.
I hope that GCC re-affirms its commitment to a biblical worldview and the principles of freedom, responsibility, and virtue that flow from it. It clearly has some clean-up to do in the Education Dept., and may need to institute guardrails to prevent future instances where a misguided faculty member can use their autonomy to contradict the institution’s beliefs. I pray that the leaders will prove faithful in keeping GCC focused on its timeless mission, and that it will remain a bastion of genuine and independent Christian higher education for decades to come.