{"id":30705,"date":"2015-12-18T17:39:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T22:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=30705"},"modified":"2016-03-31T19:08:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T23:08:45","slug":"breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking news: Wheaton College suspends King Christian X of Denmark for suggesting Christians and Jews worship the same God"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>You may have heard the famous urban legend about <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christian_X_of_Denmark\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">King Christian X of Denmark<\/a>, whose reign was interrupted by the German conquest and occupation of his country in 1942.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30706\" style=\"width: 220px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2015\/12\/Denmark.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30706\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2015\/12\/Denmark-220x300.jpg\" alt=\"Christian X was also a freemason, so that's two strikes for Wheaton.\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christian X was also a freemason, so that\u2019s two strikes for Wheaton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The legend has it that the Nazis ordered Jewish Danes to wear a yellow Star of David, as had happened in other countries overrun by Germany in the second World War. The king said that if the order applied to one Dane, it applied to them all and then he donned a yellow star himself. Soon, the legend goes, all of the people followed his example and the entire country was wearing the symbol, making it impossible for the conquering Germans to segregate and murder Denmark\u2019s Jews.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.snopes.com\/history\/govern\/yellowstars.asp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">That didn\u2019t happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But the legend remains popular because it provides a way of explaining what <em>did<\/em> happen in Denmark after the German conquest, which was, perhaps, even more remarkable and inspiring. In his book <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Righteous-Gentiles-Holocaust-Genocide-Obligation\/dp\/1557788219\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust<\/a>,<\/em> Dave Gushee describes that event as a \u201cmass smuggling operation involving thousands of people and two governments\u201d that resulted in \u201cthe astonishing rescue of the Danish Jews in October 1943\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Warned of the imminent deportation of the Danish Jews \u2026 Danish government officials helped to mobilize seemingly the whole Danish people along with the eight thousand Jews in Denmark for an escape. Between September 29 and October 1, nearly every single one of these Jews was hidden and then ferried under the Germans\u2019 noses to Sweden, where the government welcomed them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Christian X never donned a yellow star, but he did help to\u00a0fund and negotiate this rescue conspiracy.\u00a0And, although the Germans never imposed the wearing of the star on Jewish Danes, the king had written this in his diary, earlier in the occupation:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #252525\">When you look at the inhumane treatment of Jews, not only in Germany but occupied countries as well, you start worrying that such a demand might also be put on us, but we must clearly refuse such this due to their protection under the Danish constitution. I stated that I could not meet such a demand towards Danish citizens. If such a demand is made, we would best meet it by all wearing the Star of David.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So the famous legend is not historically accurate, but it\u2019s not altogether misleading either. It\u2019s a fictional story that captures the spirit of the facts of history.<\/p>\n<p>The facts of that history, and the spirit of that legend, resonate in the recent decision by Dr. Larycia Hawkins, a black Christian professor at the white evangelical Wheaton College, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/larycia\/posts\/10153326773658481?pnref=story\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">to wear a hijab in solidarity with Muslim women here in America<\/a>. Dr. Hawkins wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Theoretical solidarity is not solidarity at all. Thus, beginning tonight, my solidarity has become embodied solidarity.<\/p>\n<p>As part of my Advent Worship, I will wear the hijab to work at Wheaton College, to play in Chi-town, in the airport and on the airplane to my home state that initiated one of the first anti-Sharia laws (read: unconstitutional and Islamophobic), and at church.<\/p>\n<p>I invite all women into the narrative that is embodied, hijab-wearing solidarity with our Muslim sisters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What prompted this expression of solidarity? If you have to ask that, you\u2019re not paying attention. America is convulsing in a wave of ugly anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry. The governors of 31 states announced that they would refuse to welcome Syrian refugees. The anti-Muslim and anti-refugee statements from Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush reached such a fever pitch that also-ran Republican candidate John Kasich, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottpaeth.com\/2015\/11\/kasich-goes-full-niem%C3%B6ller-on-donald-trump.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">as Scott Paeth put it<\/a>, went \u201cfull Niem\u00f6ller\u201d in response:<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fzuq8UzbhAA\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fzuq8UzbhAA<\/a>\n<p>But that stark statement \u2014 and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ushmm.org\/information\/press\/press-releases\/museum-statement-on-syrian-refugees\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a statement of concern <em>from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum<\/em><\/a> \u2014 didn\u2019t make a dent in the escalating anti-Muslim rhetoric of Trump and the candidates scurrying to keep up with him. Trump\u2019s call to shut down American mosques led to Marco Rubio\u2019s one-better (worse) call to shut down Muslim-owned restaurants and cafes. Trump\u2019s call to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. \u2014 including American citizens returning home from abroad \u2014 caused him to surge further ahead in the polls.<\/p>\n<p>And all this rhetoric is bearing fruit in real violence against real people. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2015\/12\/17\/a_shame_on_america_hate_attacks_on_u_s_muslims_are_spiking_and_wheres_the_outrage\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Hate attacks on U.S. Muslims are spiking<\/a>,\u201d Ben Norton reports at <em>Salon. <\/em>Mosques are being burned, vandalized and threatened by armed mobs of angry whites. Muslim Americans are being randomly <a href=\"http:\/\/abc7ny.com\/news\/queens-store-owner-attacked-by-man-who-allegedly-said-i-kill-muslims\/1117233\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">assaulted<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/local\/city\/2015\/11\/29\/Muslim-taxi-driver-shot-on-Thanksgiving-in-Pittsburgh-calls-attack-a-hate-crime\/stories\/201511290154\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That is the context.<\/p>\n<p>And how did the white evangelical administrators of Wheaton College respond to this gesture in this context?<\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/16\/wheaton-college-suspends-its-own-credibility\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">immediately suspending the first-ever black woman tenured professor in the 155-year history of the college<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This suspension, Wheaton\u2019s leaders feebly suggest, was due to theological concerns that Hawkins is somehow rejecting distinctive Christian doctrines and blurring the line between Christianity and Islam because her Facebook post also included this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #141823\">I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jrdkirk.com\/2015\/12\/17\/how-we-theologize-matters-wheaton-college-edition\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">This is not \u201ccontroversial,\u201d unless one is determinedly obtuse<\/a>. To clarify her\u00a0meaning, Hawkins cited <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2011\/april\/muslimschristianssamegod.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the\u00a0respected theologian Miroslav Volf<\/a>, but this did nothing to satisfy the purported \u201cconcerns\u201d of the Wheaton administrators.<\/p>\n<p>The only explanation for their\u00a0continuing dissatisfaction is that their purported \u201cconcerns\u201d were not their actual concerns, i.e., that they were arguing in bad faith. It simply isn\u2019t possible or credible to conclude otherwise. Their semantic hair-splitting is based on a willfully hostile, perversely disingenuous determination to read Hawkins\u2019 remarks in the worst possible light while ignoring her larger statements. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SlacktivistFred\/status\/677734555827249152\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sorry, Alan Jacobs, but suspending a professor based on such willful, voluntary hostility is not \u201ccivil\u201d or \u201ccharitable\u201d or decent<\/a>. (Oh, and as we say in Philly, bloviate <em>this<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p>But set that aside for the moment, because there\u2019s another, larger problem here beyond the Wheaton administrators\u2019 incivility and dishonesty.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s pretend it were somehow possible that they were being genuine and arguing in good faith. That would mean that, given the context of escalating\u00a0violent, hideous anti-Muslim bigotry, these Wheaton leaders have decided their top priority should be a monomaniacal focus on semantic nitpicking.<\/p>\n<p>If these folks were in Denmark in 1942, they would be criticizing King Christian X for suggesting that Christians should don the Star of David alongside their Jewish neighbors. That threatens to blur the lines between Christianity and Judaism. Jews don\u2019t believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, or that Jesus was the Messiah. Those are core Christian beliefs \u2014 essential doctrines reaffirmed by Wheaton\u2019s \u201cStatement of Faith\u201d!<\/p>\n<p>That would be a remarkably silly, stupid and irrelevant argument in 1942. It is just as silly, stupid and irrelevant in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Wheaton administrators\u2019 insistence on elevating such a ridiculous argument is, alone, sufficient to cast them all into disgrace. But the fact that they demonstrably\u00a0aren\u2019t even making this weak argument in good faith compounds their sin.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How should Christian leaders respond to escalating violence and bigotry toward Muslims? The leaders of Wheaton College suggest the best course of action would be a monomaniacal focus on preposterous semantic hair-splitting premised on a willfully hostile and perverse reading of non-controversial remarks about the God of Abraham. I disagree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[158,28,65,240,212],"class_list":["post-30705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-racism","tag-religious-right","tag-tribalism","tag-trump","tag-wheaton"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Breaking news: Wheaton College suspends King Christian X of Denmark for suggesting Christians and Jews worship the same God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How should Christian leaders respond to escalating violence and bigotry toward Muslims? 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I disagree.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking news: Wheaton College suspends King Christian X of Denmark for suggesting Christians and Jews worship the same God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How should Christian leaders respond to escalating violence and bigotry toward Muslims? The leaders of Wheaton College suggest the best course of action would be a monomaniacal focus on preposterous semantic hair-splitting premised on a willfully hostile and perverse reading of non-controversial remarks about the God of Abraham. I disagree.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-18T22:39:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-31T23:08:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2015\/12\/Denmark-220x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking news: Wheaton College suspends King Christian X of Denmark for suggesting Christians and Jews worship the same God\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-18T22:39:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-31T23:08:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"How should Christian leaders respond to escalating violence and bigotry toward Muslims? 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking news: Wheaton College suspends King Christian X of Denmark for suggesting Christians and Jews worship the same God","description":"How should Christian leaders respond to escalating violence and bigotry toward Muslims? 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I disagree.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2015\/12\/18\/breaking-news-wheaton-college-suspends-king-christian-x-of-denmark-for-suggesting-christians-and-jews-worship-the-same-god\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking news: Wheaton College suspends King Christian X of Denmark for suggesting Christians and Jews worship the same God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":"&quot;Test everything; hold fast to what is good.&quot;","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}