<p>Do most of Christian colleges (as the term is understood on this forum) get rid of faculty members if they divorce or convert to Catholicism, or is this rare?</p>
<p>[Inside</a> Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/12/faith]Inside”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/12/faith)</p>
<p>Christian colleges are a diverse lot, but many of them do consider divorce possible grounds for termination – depending on the reason for the divorce. They might not necessarily fire someone deemed to have legitimate grounds for a divorce (such as an unfaithful spouse). But they might fire someone who got a divorce for reasons deemed less justifiable.</p>
<p>Wheaton recently dismissed a popular, long-time English professor, after he refused to discuss the reasons for his divorce with the college adminstration. This may or may not seem reasonable to you – but in Wheaton’s defense, it does seems that “the rules” on divorce were clearly spelled out, and that the prof knew “the rules” when he took the job.</p>
<p>Wheaton was on shakier ground when they recently dismissed another professor who converted to Catholicism. In this case, it’s not clear that the dismissed professor broke any rules, because the rules don’t appear to say anything about Catholicism specifically. Wheaton requires professors to sign a [“Statement</a> of Faith”](<a href=“http://www.wheaton.edu/welcome/aboutus_mission.html]"Statement”>http://www.wheaton.edu/welcome/aboutus_mission.html) – but there is nothing in this statement that obviously appears to bar Catholics. On the contrary, many Catholics – including the dismissed professor – insist that they can sign it in good conscience. </p>
<p>So Wheaton accepted the prof’s signature on the “Statement of Faith” when he was a Protestant, but then refused to accept the same signature on the same Statement after he converted. So it was arguably Wheaton – not the professor – who violated the terms of their employment agreement.</p>
<p>The divorce issue probably arises regularly at Christian colleges. The Catholic conversion issue is probably very rare.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say most – only the theologically conservative ones. Gordon College also fired a professor for converting to Catholicism not all that long ago. But Gordon is also big into Intelligent Design and seems to get money from many of the same sources as Liberty University. It’s not Liberty, but it’s closer to that end of the spectrum than a lot of Christian colleges.</p>
<p>As for divorce, it really seems to depend on the circumstances. There are some professors at my alma mater, a Christian college of the liberal arts & sciences near Boston, whose spouses left them. And they’re all great, wonderful Christian faculty members. It’d really be awful to fire a faculty member who’s been unjustly abandoned by his or her spouse!</p>
<p>Thomas Howard resigned from Gordon in 1985 when he converted to Catholicism. 25 years ago is quite a while in my book, though there are still no Catholic faculty members. Quite a few Anglicans and Episcopalians, though.</p>
<p>There have been Gordon professors that have divorced and stayed on as faculty members. At Gordon, Taylor, Wheaton and other CCCU schools, disclosure to the academic dean is what is most important, in most cases. I can’t imagine that most schools would wholesale dismiss a prof only because he is divorcing. </p>
<p>Where do you get your info about Gordon and ID? And the Liberty connections? I can’t saw I would have expected Gordon and Liberty to have been mentioned in the same breath. It is usually deemed the “left of the right” in comparison to other prominent Christian college.</p>