Dear ZOE colleagues:
After some summer rest, and when we begin to plan our programming for fall, I hope we can strategize about how our ministries can take leadership roles on our campuses in response to the current attacks by the Trump administration against colleges and universities. Defunding research, dismantling DEI, shuttering cultural and queer student centers, denying visas to foreign students – these are just opening salvos in the culture war that is being waged against the institutions where we minister.
Very many secular colleges and universities in the US were created by progressive Christians. So we have a stake in this struggle - a unique voice to add to the resistance. Ours are often the only Christian groups on campus that fully support the mission of secular higher education. I doubt that any of us want "viewpoint diversity" that results in putting 6-day creationism alongside evolution in university earth science courses! We don't want government funding for research to be held hostage by the current government's political agenda. We can raise our witness in defense of independent, secular higher education with shared governance by faculty with tenure protections, and real free speech for students and staff.
Trump's administration is loaded with high-level officials who are all-in for the Seven Mountains Mandate - a crusade for domination of all spheres of culture by right-wing Christianity. We are the alternative Christian voice on our campuses. How shall we make our voice heard, on campus and in the wider public sphere, to resist this fundamentalist, totalitarian agenda - with our own positive vision?
Our ministries have protected student club status, with professional staff support - so we are uniquely able to offer programs on campus that the universities themselves are being pressured to abandon. We can host speakers, events, vigils, and programs on and off campus – effectively “adopting” ethnic, cultural and queer groups that have been cut or abandoned. Our ministries housed in campus-adjacent churches are in a great position to house and support such efforts. This is already happening at a number of our campuses. Check out what Collegiate Presbyterian and its “The Vine” campus ministry are doing right next door to the University of Iowa at Ames – serving as a meeting place for students and faculty to keep campus diversity and inclusion work alive.
Part of the challenge before us is to craft a vision of the “beloved community” we want to prevail on our campuses. Toward this end, as a conversation starter, have a look at this piece in the New Yorker re: pluralism as an alternative, perhaps more politically viable framework for pursuing diversity and inclusion on campuses. Eboo Patel of Interfaith America is in the forefront of this response to the current crisis: see a video of him on the subject here. We are perfectly positioned to be leaders of this conversation on our campuses - as progressive, religiously pluralistic Christians.
In August, let’s do a ZOE ZOOM on this subject, and get the conversation going in earnest, so we can go into fall semester/quarter with at least the beginnings of a shared strategy. Let me know your thoughts about how we can proceed!
I believe that if we can step out boldly and publicly as defenders of secular higher education, a higher level of support for our ministries will follow.
Jim Burklo
Executive Director, ZOE – zoeoncampus.com – [email protected]