Wheaton College Smears Black Prolife Speaker for Talk on Race and Abortion

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UPDATE 01/10/19: Listen to the profane and pornographic speech that Wheaton College doesn’t want you to hear. Wheaton paid for this hostile and racist lecture by Emory University’s Dr. George Yancy, delivered in (of all places) the school’s Billy Graham Center. Click here to hear excerpts from the speech that Wheaton deems “of crucial interest to Christian thinkers”.

UPDATE 12/11/18: Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son and President of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, just called out Wheaton’s disgraceful actions today on Facebook and Twitter (herehere, and here).

For Christ and His Kingdom. That’s the motto featured prominently throughout Wheaton College.

But what happens when it’s not about Christ or His Kingdom?

I found that out recently after being invited by Wheaton College Republicans to speak on something I’m deeply familiar with—abortion and race. As someone conceived in rape yet adopted and loved into a multiracial family of 15, I have a rather unique take on this. I love actual diversity. As a biracial individual, it’s literally in my blood.

I presented a multimedia talk entitled: “Black Lives Matter In and Out of the Womb” (see video) which provided a perspective that is rarely heard. I wanted to compel students to critically think.

Instead, some wanted to silence the message and smear the messenger.

The Student Government Association (SGA), with the help of two staff members (Peter Hansen and Crystal Cartwright) of the Office of Student Activities, sent out a dishonest, campus-wide email denouncing me and the hope-filled, fact-based, Biblically-sound presentation. Signed by student leaders Lauren Rowley (Student Body President), Tyler Waaler (Student Body Vice President) and Sammie Shields (EVP of Community Diversity), the letter claimed that my comments “made many students, staff and faculty of color feel unheard, underrepresented and unsafe on our campus.”

Of course, they didn’t identify me as a “person of color” (isn’t everyone a color?). In my emailed response to SGA and administration leaders, I reminded them that my presentation was about those who are always unheard, always underrepresented and actually unsafe—the unborn.

But let this sink in. Sharing a different perspective (aka speaking truth) made “many” feel “unsafe”. Wheaton, are you teaching students to fear or to think?

Only one of those five people involved in this letter of denouncement even attended the event"Lack of Access" by The Radiance Foundation (Sammie Shields). The presentation was 50 minutes, followed by nearly an hour of Q&A and discussion. How was anyone “unheard” or “underrepresented”?

I asked Philip Ziesemer, the Founder of the College Republicans, his reaction to SGA’s attack. “I’m disappointed by the school’s response because I do not believe Wheaton College wants to restrict students from taking part in open dialogue…I believe free speech is threatened when someone with a different point of view is accused—in print—of making students feel ‘unsafe’ and ‘underrepresented.’ I wish the school would have responded by encouraging students to think critically, discuss the message from both sides, and challenge themselves on the content presented.”

Sadly, it was clear that even on an evangelical Christian campus, truth is anathema to those who deify “diversity”. In a presentation on what Jesse Jackson once called “black genocide”, those who prefer activism over factivism chose to demonize and distort. The talk focused on the hypocrisy of the #BlackLivesMatter movement’s leadership and its announced solidarity with the leading killer in the black community—Planned Parenthood—where 247 black lives are killed by the abortion giant every single day. I pointed out several disturbing policy platform positions (see https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/) that are, inarguably, hostile to Christianity such as the negation of fathers, the promotion of radical LGBTQ ideology, and lack of any call for racial reconciliation.

I refuse to bow to groupthink. And that never goes over well with those who think “diversity” means ideological conformity.

When you can’t prove the content wrong, the tactic is to make things up. I can’t rebut every lie I’ve heard and seen posted on social media since my November 14th presentation. Some have claimed that I said, “no one cares what the KKK believes”, “racism doesn’t exist anymore”, and “women should think twice about reporting sexual assault.” Of course, I never said any of those things. One of the student leaders (Sammie Shields) made the bizarre claim, in order to bolster his false narrative about what I said about the KKK, that “there was a lynching in Mississippi last week”. Really? Wouldn’t there be at least one news article on that? But it doesn’t matter. “Diversity”!

Victimhood is potent.

The story has now become the “hurt” and “grieving” students. It’s not about the slaughter of 2,500 innocent human lives every day in this country through the violence of abortion. This is the dangerous consequence of placing the emotional above the Eternal.

And all the while, the Wheaton administration has chosen to be publicly silent which enables more of the #fakenews to emerge.

"One Human Race" by The Radiance FoundationThe Wheaton Record tried to justify SGA’s irresponsible letter of condemnation. The school paper simply casts me as “controversial”. Being prolife is controversial. Being a Christian is controversial. They referenced my speech at Harvard as an example similar to Wheaton—an event where pro-abortion activists melted down throughout the event because they hate a pro-life worldview. That was nothing like Wheaton. Then they cited my speech at Vicksburg High School where the administration published defamatory statements on Facebook and in a school-wide email to students and parents saying I didn’t deliver the presentation that was approved. The Wheaton Record doesn’t tell you that less than two weeks later the school issued a formal apology for lying about all of it. They praised me for being a “dynamic motivating speaker who touched the hearts of many in the audience.”

Do you see a pattern here at Wheaton? Some want “diversity” and faux “unity” so much they’re willing to sacrifice the truth, no matter who it actually hurts.

Vice President of Student Development, Paul Chelsen, and Provost Margaret Diddams only responded to our communications fifteen days after the presentation. That was only because our third email indicated we’d publish an article about it all. They, then, agreed to discuss this whole matter. When we requested that one of our Board members be able to join the off-the-record conversation, they refused to talk at all.

The school administration chose not to pursue a Matthew 18 model of conflict resolution and allowed a fellow evangelical Christian to be slandered and treated like the enemy. They could’ve made this a powerful learning opportunity for the entire school.

They chose to bow to the Deity of “Diversity” instead.

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Showing 19 comments
  • AndWhoReallyCares?

    Sorry your thoughtful presentation was not received well by some. Thanks for posting. i was surprised in some respects to see the response to your presentation by a few students. I hope that in the great tradition of Wheaton College those seemingly overly sensitive and immature students will be hardened in a way that will allow them to be successful in the real world outside of their protected university experience. After all, those students represent our future culture warriors in a morally deteriorating world. Thanks for your work.

  • David Cooper

    I am a 1968 graduate of Wheaton, a physician who believes every life from conception to natural death is precious. Your talk was creatively delivered with facts that documented the origin of Planned Parenthood in the Eugenics movement.. Why are there 5X as many abortions in the black community as other communities? The negative response of the Record and parts of the administration to you were unjustified. Might I say even unChristian? It seems that “His Kingdom” is now of this world. I wish your foundation the courage to continue to speak the truth in love.

  • Eric Rasmusen

    You need to find out who is on the Board of Trustees for Wheaton, and also see if they have some kind of “club of big donors” like most colleges do. Then send your article to the individuals who are members (NOT the organizations– then they’ll be shredded by administrators). If you cc: the offices of the College President and the administrator in charge of fundraising too, you’ll get an abject apology quickly, I predict.

  • Sam

    It’s not the Wheaton College of 40 years ago. I never attended there but spent plenty of time on campus and attended chapel several times. I wonder, do they even have chapel anymore?

  • John W. Shreve

    And these are my brothers and sisters in Christ? God bless you for standing for the truth.

  • Miss Hannah

    BRAVO!! Never compromise for “their” truth, with great joy stand in THE truth! Colleges are full of whiny kindergartners, insecure and willingly ignorant-which go against everything school is for. Alot of that going around like AIRbnb whose website has a huge “we don’t tolerate discrimination of any kind” policy, while they pull and deny rentals in Israel (Judea and Samaria)!! Keep smiling and keep on keeping on! God Bless!

  • bowie1

    This was the same college that Billy Graham graduated from but it seems they have lost their Christian moorings with this alleged smear.

  • Stacey Denzel Morton

    My son attended Wheaton College for a little over a year. It was a horrible experience for him and our entire family. He left school completely discouraged and his faith was deeply shaken because of the hypocrisy displayed by the student body, the faculty, and by his wrestling coach. His wrestling coach did not even know he had left the school until he had been withdrawn and home for over a week. He is the oldest of our 7 children and we decided that if this is how the kingdom of God displays faith in the One True God at a “Christian” University than the rest of our children would take their faith in Jesus and share the gospel with their peers at secular schools. I heard Franklin Graham speak out against the trends at Wheaton on several occasions and I am not surprised in the least at the un Christ like reaction those at Wheaton had to the truth presented by Mr. Bomberger.

  • X-abian Montsho JAHi

    Never forget Dave Chappelle’s comment about ‘people (females) having so many feelings, you can’t even have rational expressions.’ The aim is not to express a people’s feelings, the aim is to keep open discussions or disagreements from coming to awareness. When the powers which be whine and cry about their efforts to be recognized, do they care what the underprivileged think…..Hell No! Fight ’em by fighting for the least of these: Palestinians, Indigenous Americans, UnReparated Blacks, poor and impoverished.

  • William Thomas

    So sad that you had to confront such hypocrisy Ryan, and thank you for all of your heartfelt efforts

  • urbanvrwcmom

    This isn’t the first time that unChristlike conduct took place at Wheaton College. Over a year ago, a black female professor there, spoke of standing in solidarity with Muslims against “Islamophobia”, insisting that Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians as she wore Islamic garb. I’d like to know where’s her concern for the African Christian teen girls that were abducted from their Christian school by the Muslim-led Boko Harum. Those courageous young ladies could teach that professor a lesson about being steadfast in one’s commitment to Christ.

  • jwbaumann

    My personal experience with leftist organizations (is it too soon to refer to Wheaton as a leftist organization?) and individuals is that it does not matter how factual a presentation is, how fairly or kindly presented, how much research a presenter has done, or how committed the presenter is to the truth. If the narrative doesn’t fit, the leftists will simply lie, minimize, denigrate, twist and demean, without any hint that they care one whit about the truth or even a semblance of dialog. I have personally seen and experienced this on numerous occasions. It’s disheartening. And sadly, it lays the groundwork for violence (if dialog doesn’t work, what’s left?).

  • pablocruize

    Take a slab of gayness and a bucket of abortion, throw in lots of pride and sprinkle with Jesus builds an idol not Christianity.

  • X-abian Montsho JAHi

    So many evil, wicked, structured battles for Blacks with no defenses, even thought they’re daily on TV shows, all concerned about everybody’s issues but Blacks’. Our former enslavers get whatever they demand from the govt, while our Afrikan serf earned revenue gets us nothing. Only ReSegregation & Repatriation will grant us our former, God Anointed civility, sanity. Imagine if we got what apartheid Israel gets in Occupied-Palestine?

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