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Grove City College Rejects ‘Wokeness,’ CRT in New Report

By Kathryn Post
Grove City GCC wokeness
The Chapel on the quad at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. (Photo courtesy of Grove City College)

Grove City College insists it’s not “going woke.” A new report from the conservative Christian college in Pennsylvania denounced school-sponsored courses and trainings they say promoted “CRT concepts” and characterized inviting historian Jemar Tisby to speak at a 2020 chapel service as a “mistake.”

“Grove City College has not changed,” a committee composed largely of Grove City board members said in the report released last week. “It remains a Christ-centered, conservative institution.”

The report, a product of the committee’s assignment to ascertain any “mission drift” at the college, recommends re-adding the word “conservative” to the school’s mission statement after it was removed in 2021 and lists “remedial actions” to curb the promotion of critical race theory at the school. These actions include replacing an education course accused of promoting “pop-CRT,” rebranding the school’s Office of Multicultural Education and Initiatives and exercising increased scrutiny of guest speakers and student trainings.

Tisby, The New York Times bestselling author of “The Color of Compromise” and “How to Fight Racism,” said the report uses CRT as “a junk drawer for anything about race or justice that makes a certain type of person feel uncomfortable.” Because of the rhetoric around CRT, he said, “much needed conversations about racial justice are being muted in the environments where they are needed most, such as Christian colleges and universities.”

Others found the report encouraging. Megan Basham, an author at conservative news outlet The Daily Wire, tweeted that it offered a “straight-forward, honest assessment,” and said she appreciated its clarifying description of how CRT is incompatible with the school’s mission. “Well worth reading the entire report. Bravo!”  

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Matt Kennedy, rector at an Anglican church in Binghamton, New York, and his wife Anne Carlson Kennedy praised the report on their podcast.

“The best part of it is the description of critical race theory upfront, which is just one of the best short summaries of the problems of critical race theory I’ve ever read,” said Matt Kennedy. 

Grove City College
Grove City College logo. (Courtesy image)

The report says critical race theory is incompatible with the school’s vision, mission and values because it evaluates people based on their race and antiracist works, can’t be separated from political activism, “uncharitably detects aggression where none is intended” and sometimes “demeans rational argument as itself racist and oppressive.”

The school, which has just 2,400 full-time students, was first accused of promoting critical race theory, an academic framework that sees racism as embedded in institutions and policies, in a November petition authored by Grove City parents and alumni. The petition alleged that this “destructive and profoundly unbiblical worldview” was asserted at the college in a fall 2020 chapel presentation by Tisby.

The petition also called into question the chapel screening of a pre-recorded TED talk by Bryan Stevenson, an Equal Justice Initiative founder and criminal justice reform advocate; as well as a Resident Assistant training that invoked the concepts of white privilege and white guilt. Additionally, the petition decried several books used in an education studies class and in focus groups, including Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be an Antiracist” and Wheaton professor Esau McCaulley’s “Reading While Black.”

That initial petition triggered a flood of follow-up petitions, articles and open letters debating whether the school had forsaken its traditional values. In February, the college’s board of trustees categorically rejected critical race theory and introduced a committee to investigate the allegations of mission-drift. Grove City College did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The report notes that Tisby’s October 2020 chapel presentation is the chapel service that has “drawn the most attention from critics.” According to the report, most Grove City leaders interviewed said inviting Tisby to speak in chapel was a “mistake” due to what they described as his evolution.

“Most of those in GCC leadership with whom we spoke observed that ‘the Jemar Tisby that we thought we invited in 2019 is not the Jemar Tisby that we heard in 2020 or that we now read about,’” the report stated, citing Tisby’s short stint as assistant director of narrative and advocacy at Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research and the “progressive policies” he advocates in his latest book as evidence of his transformation.

Tisby said that his convictions did not change between 2019 and 2020 — what changed was the socio-political climate.

Jemar Tisby GCC
Jemar Tisby speaks at Grove City College in Oct. 2020, in Grove City, Pennsylvania. (Video screen grab)

The chapel in question, called “The Urgency of Now,” was a 21-minute sermon that drew parallels between the biblical story of Esther and the modern-day movement for racial justice. Tisby quoted Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and letter from Birmingham Jail and called on those in attendance to engage in racial justice work. 

“Many of you, unfortunately, are in the target demographic whom King called the ‘white moderate,’” Tisby said in the chapel. Tisby asked the listeners to “fill your minds with an awareness of racial justice so that five, 10, 20 years from now, you don’t have to say ‘I never knew.’”

Tisby said the allegations that his sermon promoted CRT are “ludicrous.” While the November petition charged Tisby with being an “outspoken apologist for CRT,” Tisby said he has never been trained in critical race theory.

“What most people, including compilers of this report, are calling critical race theory is not critical race theory,” he said. “My work is influenced by the study of history. It doesn’t take a specific training in critical race theory to understand that racism is not simply a matter of personal prejudice but a matter of policy.”

The report also found that an educational course called “Cultural Diversity and Advocacy” “effectively promoted pop-CRT” because it offered readings such as Kendi’s “How To Be an Antiracist,” Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” without “a critical or opposing perspective.” It found that the director of Multicultural Education and Initiatives promoted “‘woke’ concepts” in a book club and parroted “CRT concepts” in a training for Resident Assistants that criticized the “concept of race neutrality.” 

Warren Throckmorton, a professor of psychology at Grove City, said he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the report’s findings because it offers a faulty definition of CRT.

throckmorton
Prof. Warren Throckmorton

According to Throckmorton, the report says CRT embraces biological distinctions — however, he said, CRT rejects biological distinctions because it sees race as socially constructed. He also pointed to a footnote that says: “Our references to CRT include popular ‘CRT-adjacent’ advocacy cloaked in the secular or religious language of social justice.’”

“That could be anything, couldn’t it?” asked Throckmorton. “So when they say they found CRT, what did they really find?”

While the report promises not to ban books, Throckmorton said that promise has done little to reassure professors who are questioning if and how to teach on topics like health disparities or social justice in the classroom.

Natalie Kahler, a Grove City alumna (’94) who authored a March 8 petition asking the school not to inhibit discussions about racism on campus, said she’s worried the report’s findings could lead to “indoctrinating and not educating,” especially given the fact that Grove City professors don’t receive tenure and are given one-year contracts.  

“If you create an environment where people are constantly afraid for their job, and are afraid something they might say could be interpreted as CRT because everybody is interpreting CRT in very different ways, they’re creating a culture where people aren’t going to be able to have hard conversations,” said Kahler.

In March, John Fea, professor of American history at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, wrote an article showing Grove City’s board chair, Edward D. Breen, has advocated for diversity, equity and inclusion as CEO of the chemicals company DuPont. “(I)s the Edward Breen who led the Grove City College Board’s condemnation of critical race theory the same guy working for racial justice at DuPont?” Fea asks.

Another board member, David Forney, is pastor of a Charlottesville church and has offered a list of racial justice resources to his congregation on the church website, including TED Talks by Bryan Stevenson and the books “How To Be an Antiracist” and “Between the World and Me,” both of which the report characterized as promoting “pop-CRT.”

“I am puzzled that these resources are considered fine and helpful for a board member to recommend to his congregation but are considered off-mission for our faculty to assign as study resources for a college course,” Throckmorton said in an email to media. Neither Breen nor Forney could be reached for comment. 

Tisby said that the CRT debate at Grove City points to a broader “sorting” in Christian higher education between schools working to be more racially and ethnically inclusive and those doubling down on appealing to “a very small but loyal constituency that does not want to meaningfully engage with vital conversations around racism.”

On his podcast, Kennedy suggested that Grove City is exemplifying how other Christian organizations ought to approach CRT. “Congregations, denominations, need to start seeing wokeness as a heresy,” said Kennedy. He added that “the language employed by especially Christian ‘wokesters’ is very, very gospel-like. And so the unwary can be pulled-in and you have compassion on them. But the leaders of this thing, those people need to be driven out of the church.” 

Tisby said Grove City’s response to CRT should be taken as a warning. 

“(A)nyone, regardless of race or ethnicity, who speaks up for racial justice could be a victim of these kinds of attacks,” Tisby said. “And, I would say, these actions are all the more lamentable because they come out of Christian institutions. We follow a savior who said, ‘you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.’ But we have people who profess to be followers of Christ, who seem to be running from the truth about racism.”

Kathryn Post is a writer living in Washington D.C. She is a graduate of Calvin College and an editorial assistant for Sojourners magazine. 

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43 Responses

  1. I would be interested to see how their stance is on LGBTQ issues, and if they allow said groups or individuals to attend and/or graduate from the institution.

    1. They definitely do allow them to, and some of the professors support it (although subtly) in a classroom setting.

    2. If, as it does, the Bible condemns homosexuality as sinful, and unrepentant homosexuals as unbelievers and on thier way to hell.(1 Corinthians 6:9-10), why would a Christian college allow unrepentant homosexuals to attend and graduate?

      1. Bob, they should also prohibit students who are greedy, those who gossip and those who are gluttons.

        Right?

  2. Good work! Tisby and his anti-racist revisionist history must be thwarted at every step. Throckmorton is totally wrong. Ironically, to truly speak freely on racial issues, CRT and anti-racism must be eliminated. Anti-racists do not want debate!! In fact, if you are white, you don’t get to debate. If you’re white you are part of the problem and you do not get a voice. You are a product of a racist system that seeks only to preserve white superiority. It is truly sinister. So, if we genuinely want to evaluate our systems and end racism, we must promote an “anti-racist free” environment where everyone gets to come to the table and seek true restoration and unity.

    1. Brandon said, “It is truly sinister. So, if we genuinely want to evaluate our systems and end racism, we must promote an “anti-racist free” environment where everyone gets to come to the table and seek true restoration and unity.”
      Brandon, do black people get to sit at that table? You said everyone… most black people are going to come to that table and say things and tell stories that you won’t like… Will you let them stay at the table? Do you really mean everyone?

      1. Sorry Andrew, I’m not going to do the dance with the cynical straw man you have created. Your response is exactly why progress on racial issues is difficult right now. Leftists love painting people who question CRT into the “he must me a racist white man” box

    2. Anti-racists do not want debate!! In fact, if you are white, you don’t get to debate.

      That is false. Here is what is going on at GCC.

      I am one of the professors who teaches the EDU 290 class at Grove City College on Diversity and Advocacy… For a surprisingly large number of my students, I am the first black person that have had an actual, engaging conversation with. Ever.
      That gives context…

      The report finds as fact or instance the CRT, or as they termed it “pop- CRT” is taught in my course. How did they
      determine this “fact”? Well to date, not one committee member has entered my classroom. To date, not one committee member has spoken to the current students or the former students of EDU 290. … (N)one of the committee members (had) actually read the book or any of the books they found objectionable for that matter (by the way, none of the books they have objected to are actual CRT)…

      (I)t became very clear to me and everyone that was interviewed that none of this was centered on theological concerns, but on political talking points. This was never about a Christian approach to education. I also want to go on record that the format of EDU 290 is an open, honest discussion of the various ideas regarding racial relations in this country and our Christian response. It is compromised of yes, several books, along with dozens of additional readings, articles, videos, etc., all offering various views on the topics. The student engage in open discussion with one another.

      https://twitter.com/whbizlaw/status/1519261315633758214?s=20&t=9Q_n0L_kCi83TThRq4m8-A

  3. I’m sitting here reading this with tears in my eyes. I have zero connection to Grove City, but as someone in the helping professions, I could never, ever be a competent therapist or follow my profession’s code if I hadn’t learned about racism, classism, SES, structural inequalities…the list goes on. It’s ALL connected, not “just” for an individual’s life in the very early years, but from a generational standpoint as well (epigenetics, genograms, learned behavioral patterns passed down from family to family, etc). Grove City offers a B.S. in social work. What will psychology professors be allowed to teach, pray tell? You can’t properly teach psychology *without* teaching and explaining the generational impact of systemic injustice. How can a psychology teacher in a college like this one even approach teaching a theorist like Adler or Bronfenbrenner? It would simply be impossible. No wonder the psychology professor interviewed is so distressed. Graduates from this college pursuing the helping professions will not be adequately prepared, may inadvertently damage their future clients, and may have difficulty upholding their profession’s Code of Ethics. So, so disturbing.

  4. If CRT or “WOKEness” means being aware of American history of slavery, the Klan, lynchings, segregation, white supremacy and racism–and its effects on America today–then opposition to it suggests a wilful lack of awareness of America’s original sin. (See Chapter 12 of the Book of Numbers.)
    If you do NOT believe that race infects some American systems, blacken your face and hands, wear a hoodie and drive slowly through a residential suburb at 2:00 AM in an old car with a busted taillight.
    Or imagine what that would be like.

    1. John Fenner,

      Thanks for a little reality. CRT is simply American History – something which many religionists hate – primarily because they are grifted on by leaders needing some kind of boogieman to fear and hate – to maintain their power over the masses.

      1. CRT is not “simply history”. This is a common defense used by those who advocate it. CRT is a lens through which to read history. According to the architects of the intellectual theory, Stefanjik and Delgado, it is an overarching framework that seeks to view every institution, relationship and all of history in terms of an oppressor/oppressed narrative. It is collectivistic in its anthropology and views all of mankind as groups imbued with guilt or virtue based on their melanin count. You’re simply wrong.

        1. a lens through which to read history

          Joseph, you do agree that any lens of American history shows without a doubt that every institution and every system was built on the foundation of white supremacy, meaning they were for whites only. Correct?

          If so, why can’t we teach that?

          Also, have you read the book Color of Compromise? Is there anything in the book that is factually incorrect?

          1. white supremacy. what a term. It’s as if the world started around the 1600s. If white supremacy means Europeans had ships and muskets and cannons and used them to colonize, then that is accurate. But what about the Zulus? they had a special spear designed that was much better than the other tribe’s weapons and the Zulu king forced his warriors to run barefoot to toughen their feet. Is this a form of Zulu supremacy? The Chinese’s who invented gunpowder and used against the Mongolians to conquer, is this Chinese’s supremacy? I would be much more open to listening if all of my (European) history wasn’t condensed into “white supremacy”. Our country is now in a divide and conquer mode. And using white supremacy and people of color as titles will not being about peace. And unfortunately, the true powers who run the world depend on it. go to you tube and find Dr John Coleman “the committee of 300”. It’s both scary and educational. what is going on in the world and to all of us is not by accident or coincidence.

      2. Actually Greg, CRT is not in any way, shape, or form history. This is a category mistake (logic). CRT is a lens. It is a way of interpreting history through the lens of how white males have rigged the system to keep people oppressed and preserve their power.

        1. Brandon, all I know is that anti CRT “Christians” around the nation are trying to ban the honest teaching of history along books like “To Kill A Mocking Bird” and Martin Luther King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail.”

          Have you actually read The Color of Compromise? After you do, please come back an tell us where it promotes CRT.

          BTW, if white American Christians were as anti racist for the last 300 years as they are anti CRT in the current Trump years, we would not have the race issues we do today.

    2. John Apples vs oranges. Broke taillight at 2 am in suburb will get anybody pulled over. Can’t see the hoodie or color at night and thank you cops for doing that. Drive slowly in neighborhood at 2 am and thank you cops for pulling over because maybe there has been a string of car break ins and burglaries like occurred in my old neighborhood until the cops caught the slow-moving car (most likely checking things out) and guess what no more burglaries. I am sure you’re trying to make a point but that wasn’t the way to do it.

      1. Or how about when the cop stops you and after you give your license, they look in the passenger’s seat at your son and say “recite to me your address. This ID is fake. No way you can afford to live in this area.”
        Happened to me and my Black family as we were in our own upper middle class neighborhood, less than a mile from our own home after celebrating my brother having his braces removed. We were terrified, because we knew to challenge the officer would just make things worse. When my stepmom (who was driving) insisted her ID is real, she was met with, “You’re calling me a liar? Get out of the car.” It was when my brother recited our address – and my dad’s phone number and occupation as a lawyer – that the officer started relenting.
        I have yet to hear of this happening to a white one. Does that make a better point, Greg?

  5. It would be nice if they spoke about racism in a deeper and broader way than trying to narrow it down to simply blaming white supremacy. I read a while back a black Kenyan slave escaped a Saudi Princess in Orange County, California. The Saudi Princess got arrested but she escaped back to Saudi Arabia. Also, there’s a good documentary by a black scholar that tells how bad the slave markets were in Africa called Africa’s Greatest Civilizations. People should know America today is much better for blacks than many other nations around the world today. That’s why people from Haiti are coming to America through the Mexico border right now. It’s because they know they have some more hope for a good life in America than Haiti.

    https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/saudi-princess-appears-in-court-in-slavery-case/1954802/

    1. None of that covers the sins of america…or a majority of the white american church. what if my children used that excuse when they needed disciplining… “but Dad, I did such and such yesterday!” What if my wife calls me out for my misbehavior today and I whine, “But honey, remember that big bouquet of flowers I gave you at Valentines! How dare you call me out now!” ….

      You’re trying to divert and ignore something dark that’s been revealed in the american white church (I’m white, thoroughly so and I do not feel unfairly targeted by ‘wokeness’… on the contrary it’s freeing, liberating to own my participation in system sins and to then renounce them).

      In a child abuse situation, would some measure of healing and closure not come if the perpetrator, even after decades, would come forward and publicly acknowledge their sin and repent and beg forgiveness? Would you support such an action or would you advise the perpetrator to deny and stuff their ears to the victim’s story? I doubt it.
      History very clearly, unequivocally shows a majority of the white american church to be a serial abuser of people of color, deep into recent times… and everyone (but the perpetrator) knows it; can see it, world wide… yet the perpetrator arrogantly stands up and denies, denies, diverts, and thumbs their noses at the victims… that kind of pride and impunity is begging for consequence unless repentance is chosen. I don’t wish for that nor know what shape that will take, but if some of the white american church continues down this path, they will learn someday that God is God and His justice won’t be mocked like this…

      1. You want to focus on American slavery only? Then tell the full truth about it. It was mostly rich landowners that had slaves in the south. The majority of southerners didn’t have slaves. My 4th great grandfather’s name is John Single born in 1777 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He was black and married a white woman according to his 1840 census. His son George Single was listed as being mulatto in an 1850 census. John Single owned land in Pennsylvania and was allowed to marry a white woman as the interracial marriage laws changed in 1780 there. CRT isn’t telling the full story of slavery in America. It’s cherry picking the worst part of slavery in America and claiming that represents all of black and white history in America when it doesn’t.

        The reason CRT is an issue is because George Soros and other globalist billionaires are using it as a issue to divide Americans and we have lots of grifters using it to make millions of dollars. That’s why the BLM cofounder Patrisse Cullors is under scrutiny for buying a $6 million dollar mansion in Los Angeles, California and other expensive homes. Corporations don’t care about slavery. That’s why the Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya says ‘nobody cares’ about Uyghur genocide in China. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/17/chamath-palihapitiya-says-nobody-cares-about-uyghur-genocide-in-china.html

        Also, it was communist in universities that came up with ideas in CRT for the purpose of making CRT about creating a racial class system for the purpose of division and spreading the communist agenda. Here’s a good video on the issue of CRT – https://www.bitchute.com/video/FOP3S7L0uUaa/

        1. Bob, I agree more stories should be told about slavery. It was a richly horrific chapter in our nation’s history, full of stories of racism, classism – and also heroic survival.

          But Bob, something as horrific as slavery was not just the fault of slave owners. Every person who sat by silently or did not protest and do everything possible to bring about its ending is also at fault.
          That doesn’t require owning slaves. So I ask, what were your ancestors doing about slavery? And then after slaves were free and our nation moved on to Jim Crow, what were they doing about it?
          To be silent or “go with the flow” is to be ok with it, to give it power and allow it to continue.

          1. I just said before I had slave ancestors. John Single was born in 1777 in PA in Cumberland County. What was he supposed to be doing about slavery? I’m sure he was helping in whatever ways he could to end it. To say going with the flow makes you guilty then I hope you hold that high standard for yourself because all those products you may own that are bought in China support a communist government that murders Christians and runs slave camps full of Muslims. It’s not the fault of the poor person for buying a product made in China at Walmart because they can’t afford to buy it at a high end retailer. The only ones responsible for that are the corporations and politicians that moved manufacturing to China. The real criminals are the globalist such as Klaus Schwab and George Soros in The World Economic Forum who buy politicians who call themselves “young global citizens” and sell out their own nations for money and power.

          2. Bob –
            To paraphrase MLK, to remain silent about injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So yes, to sit by and say nothing as people were owned or forced to attend segregated schools, was to condone injustice and send a message that it’s ok to others – hence threatening justice in other areas.
            This is why I believe we as Christians SHOULD be the loudest voice, the first to march, and the organizers of any resistance to injustice. It pains me to read about the “whataboutisms” and excuses for remaining silent when it comes to confronting and combatting racial injustice (past or present) – from Christians. To finger point and say “THEY are the real problem” (while changing the topic from slavery and Jim Crow to shopping – which is not even in the same realm) without looking in the mirror at what we are doing (or could and should do) is to deflect and go into moral relativism – which is what the world does. It actually reminds me of Luke 18, and the Pharisee’s prayer.
            My point is that it is foolish to say “I didn’t own slaves, so I’m not to blame”, if one sat by and said/did nothing when in the midst of a community whose economy was thriving due to slavery. Our entire nation is at fault for allowing slavery (and Jim Crow and the disenfranchisement of Black people) to exist for HUNDREDS of years. Even if a few made the decisions, the nation created the environment in which it was allowed to thrive.
            Let’s be grateful for those who didn’t say “what can little ol’ me do?” and instead did all they could to protest, march, and speak out until it toppled down.

    2. America today is much better for blacks than many other nations around the world today

      That is really a shameful and shallow way to view the horrors of slavery in America.

  6. I highly recommend The Color of Compromise, published by Zondervan. Here is their review of the book:

    An acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically–up to the present day–worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.

    The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don’t know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.

    The Color of Compromise:

    – Takes you on a historical, sociological, and religious journey: from America’s early colonial days through slavery and the Civil War

    – Covers the tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today’s Black Lives Matter movement

    – Reveals the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about meaningful integration
    Charts a path forward to replace established patterns and systems of complicity with bold, courageous, immediate action

    – Is a perfect book for pastors and other faith leaders, students, non-students, book clubs, small group studies, history lovers, and all lifelong learners

    The Color of Compromise is not a call to shame or a platform to blame white evangelical Christians. It is a call from a place of love and desire to fight for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Bible teaches about human dignity and equality. A call that challenges black and white Christians alike to standup now and begin implementing the concrete ways Tisby outlines, all for a more equitable and inclusive environment among God’s people. Starting today.

    1. You lost me at “the strides the BLM movement has made.” Would Tisby be referring to BLM’s desire to tear down any notion of the nuclear family? (Their words not mine- oh, wait Google took that down so nobody could see what BLM is really about). Maybe he’s thinking about the leaders of BLM that are “trained Marxists” that want to tear down every institution in America and rebuild them in the image of the anti-racist (even though Karl was a racist- how ironic). Maybe he’s referring to the NYC’s BLM leader that called for war if a certain mayor was elected. Or, maybe he’s referring to the hundreds of businesses that were destroyed and the few lives that were lost during the “mostly peaceful BLM protests.” Maybe Tisby just wants a room in that $6 million mansion BLM just bought… or maybe he wants to have an overnighter at one of the 2-3 mansions that one of BLM’s leaders bought last year. Nope, BLM hasn’t done anything other than promote disunity and chaos.

      1. Brandon, would you be willing to read the actual book then come back and discuss any perceived inaccuracies?

          1. Brandon,

            I am glad you are willing to read and discuss the book. That is the very thing GCC was condemned for doing.

            Reading and discussing is what people were trying to prevent. This is from GCC President Paul J. McNulty:

            Critical Race Theory and Chapel Programming: CRT has never been promoted in chapel. This inaccurate charge stems from two chapel presentations over the course of a year. During an October 12 chapel service on the subject of mercy, students in attendance watched a six-minute TED Talk featuring Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative. Mr. Stevenson discussed his work on sentence reform for minors (e.g., 8- and 9-year-olds being sentenced to life in prison) and erecting educational monuments in Alabama pertaining to slavery. CRT was never mentioned nor advocated.

            The second event concerns an address by Jemar Tisby. He was invited to speak in chapel in 2019, a year before Dr. Opitz began serving as the College’s chaplain. His visit was postponed because of COVID-19 until the fall of 2020. He spoke as one burdened by what he sees as the church’s historic complicity in racial injustice. I read his book, “Color of Compromise,” before his address, and my copy is filled with my personal notations of dismay over Christian support for slavery and Jim Crow, and disagreement about many of his conclusions. A panel discussion offering rebuttal observations was held several days after the event.

            https://www.gcc.edu/Home/Our-Story/Leadership-Teams/Office-of-the-President/A-Response-to-the-CRT-Petition

  7. Greg and Andrew and Megan. What is sad is your so ready to attack white people over the sins that are and were wrong. But you never seem to think about how those sins were attacked and fought against and won over. HOW: Well from people like my cousins who in the sixty’s traveled from NJ and NY and went to the south for voter registration drives and protest and GOT their butts kicked many many times. It’s almost like the current attitude is, whites still look at blacks the same way as prior to the sixty’s and still holds true today. The only group I find that want the past to reflect today are people that appear to see the world as if nothing has changed and GOD help you if you have an opposing view. Look at the reaction to musk buying twitter. The news is full of people saying that censorship will explode. WHAT R U KIDDING ME. Be at peace.

    1. Not sure what Musk buying Twitter has to do with it. He is a known troll and doesn’t know the difference between censorship and upholding terms and conditions (that are posted upon signing up for said service).
      The latter is not infringing upon freedom of speech. It’s a company upholding its own standards (like a Christian bakery not wanting to make a cake for an LGBTQ wedding….remember that?). Musk hated that and instead of using billions to feed the poor, he bought the company to get his own way. What a tantrum.
      Hate speech is not protected speech. (And Musk is a known defender of such).
      Unless you are being harassed, imprisoned, or fined by the government for what you say, please stop throwing around grandiose “you’re infringing upon my freedom of speech!” statements.

    2. your so ready to attack white people over the sins that are and were wrong. But you never seem to think about how those sins were attacked and fought against and won over.

      Sure, we can celebrate the racial victories over these last decades. But the victories have been won in most cases IN SPITE of the white conservative churches, not because of them.

      I think that is a discussion Christians, especially those “standing up against CRT,” need to have.

  8. To deny that our nation is racist is to:
    – deny that the institutions and policies establishing and reinforcing slavery were racist. (I guess we Black folks just came over here to work for free and made it all up)
    – deny such Supreme Court rulings as Plessy v Ferguson were racist.(I guess we Black folks just decided to sit in the back of the bus on our own and made it up)
    – admit that the fact over 90% of our nation’s political, judicial, economic, and business leaders have been – and continue to be – white men is just because “they’ve always been better than everybody else and earned it fairly”. (I mean, no one’s been held back or disenfranchised because of race in this great, non-racist country, right?)
    – MLK was marching and dreaming for nothing. (I guess he was bored and needed attention.)
    Does that sound accurate to you? It shouldn’t.

    By the way, if more people read MLK’s writings and speeches beyond I Have a Dream, they’d be surprised at how “woke” he was.

  9. The irony here is that if a college were taking such actions against conservative thinkers and ideologies, we’d be up in arms about free speech. But shutting down “liberal” thought is ok?

  10. Jemar Tisby’s articulation of racism both within and outside of the church in his writings as well as during his Grove City College invitation in 2020 to speak and meet is not unlike the Hellenistic Jews bringing complaints and accounting for murmurs concerning the Hebrew Jews in Acts 6. That outcome became a model for the growing, universal, and diverse church – for how to lead, and how to embrace. Grove City College seems to have lost this blueprint.

    Claiming high and low that it is the gold standard for Christian colleges, one would expect an over the top reflective performance from it’s trustees, leaders, and the reportedly God-loving students and alumni on hearing from another Christian about unsolved problems in the church. About redeemable shortcomings in the Body of Christ. About sin. This is chapel worthy material.

    But instead, the model leaders of Grove City College crank out a report impugning Jemar Tisby. Putting Jemar Tisby in a shame box is not easy to do given the stature of his gifts, history, and integrity. But Grove City gave it a college try. Bearing false witness was helpful. It is hard to see the real Jemar – what he really says and has done in their report. Yes – an entire institution claiming agency for Christ throws itself against one man who stood in their chapel for twenty minutes speaking of the call of Christ to deal with the oppression of people.

    Maybe donations have been protected, but if Godly purpose and high callings are the thing at GCC, this all seems to gut the mission of the enterprise.

  11. Praise God! A Christian institution with the holy boldness to push back against the culture and the Deceiver’s infiltration of the Church. Everything is not about race and gender! We need to be much better discerners in a culture that slides further and further at breakneck speed. And shame on Throckmorton. He engages in many worthwhile battles but is completely missing the war. “A little leaven…”

    1. Marty, I do agree that not everything is about race and gender. However, since the beginning of time (go back to scripture), mankind has committed the sin of pride that manifests as refusing to love others as Christ calls us to, often due to mattes of race or gender (Jews vs Samaritans, Miriam disliking Moses’s wife for being a Canaanite, woman at the well, etc.)
      So we as the church should be leading the way by addressing racism and sexism as spiritual matters.
      But instead, we don’t want to talk about it at all, under the guise of “everything’s not about race and gender.” And when has refusing to talk about something ever resolved it?

  12. I applaud this report. Finally, Christians are realizing the damage they did in 2020 by blindly embracing the Tisby’s and the Kyle J Howards and are waking up to the true black voice of Christians. People like Voddie Baucham, Darrel Harrison, Virgil Walker, Samuel Sey, Monique Duson, George Yancey, Carol Swain, etc show us the Biblical way of working towards racial justice, not the false and divisive idealogies of Be The Bridge and Color of Compromise.

    1. Gus –
      “True black voice of Christians”? Who determined who this Black voice is? I’m a Black Christian and I don’t agree with everything that Baucham, Harrison, et al. say. It does not suddenly negate my Blackness or Christianity.
      We are not a monolith.

    2. Gus, have you read The Color of Compromise?

      If so, what in it is false or innaccurate?

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