One thing I found out after a teaching at two Christian colleges (one as an adjunct and the other as a professor), is that the powers-that-be do not want faculty to stand out. Whereas a secular institution is generally happy if faculty are out there making news, the leaders of many Christian colleges don’t want faculty angering anyone who might withhold donations as a result.
So if you wonder why so many faculty at Christian colleges appear to be a bland lot, that’s why. Outspoken folks like Karen Swallow Prior (formerly at Liberty University, now at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) are rare. Prior never got fired from Liberty but others of us weren’t so lucky,
The list of Christian faculty kicked out of their institutions now includes philosopher James Spiegel, a newly dismissed professor from the evangelical Taylor University in Indiana. We’ll start with Emily McFarlan Miller’s RNS story to get the basics:
A longtime faculty member at Taylor University no longer has a job at the Christian school, reportedly after posting a video of a song he’d written titled “Little Hitler” on YouTube.
An email sent Tuesday (Sept. 1) to the “Taylor University Family” from the school’s president, provost, dean and board chair confirmed James Spiegel, a professor of philosophy and religion, no longer is employed by the university in Upland, Indiana.
Spiegel, who had been employed by the university since 1993, according to his curriculum vitae, is a controversial figure on campus.
He wrote a petition opposing plans to bring Starbucks to campus because of its “stands on the sanctity of life and human sexuality” and signed onto another supporting Vice President Mike Pence’s invitation to speak last year at graduation. Taylor's president resigned a month after Pence's visit, which sparked sharp disagreement on campus.
So here’s a conservative guy who’s been on campus 27 years and they only now decide they don’t want him? Did he change or did the campus change?
Spiegel told Taylor’s student newspaper, The Echo, that he was fired after he posted and declined to remove a YouTube video two weeks ago in which he performed an original song titled “Little Hitler." The professor claimed the school had received a harassment complaint about the video. He also said he previously had performed the song at chapel and at a faculty retreat, according to The Echo.
The song includes the lyrics: “We’re appalled at injustice and oppression and every atrocity that makes the nightly news, but just give it a thought: If you knew you’d never get caught, you’d be thieving and raping and murdering, too.”
In other words, there is a “little Hitler” hiding in every human heart.
This sounds, to me, like basic Christian theology about the depravity of sinful mankind. The student newspaper’s account of the firing made it clear that it was Spiegel’s activism on behalf of several conservative causes that led to his dismissal. After all, the song had been around for 10 years.
“I have performed it numerous times in various places, including in a Taylor chapel in October 2010 and at a Taylor Colleagues College faculty retreat to about 120 faculty,” Spiegel wrote. “There were no complaints in either case.”
Spiegel has also been in the limelight for recent controversial actions, such as the authorship of the “Excalibur” newsletter in early 2018, and for authorship of the petition in spring of 2019 against an on-campus Starbucks which never materialized on campus.
When asked if these controversies added to the decision for his termination, Spiegel wrote that “many people believe that is the case.”
Reporting on this sort of thing is harder than it looks. There are many layers, including privacy issues on private-school campuses.
While looking at various blogs that were commenting on the issue, one by John Fea struck my eye. Read this paragraph closely:
Should he be fired for “Little Hitler”? I can’t answer that question. I would need to know more about the local culture on campus at Taylor and the way Spiegel and his song fit into that culture. Perhaps there is a larger story here. Maybe this is more than just an academic freedom issue.
Some of you might be surprised to know that Christian universities closely guard the idea of their institutions having a “culture” that cannot be disturbed. This is not just an idea from the cultural right. You’ve no doubt read about how college campuses tend to have almost zero conservative and/or Republican faculty because the liberal mindset of these places doesn’t want anyone clashing with the zeitgeist.
In Spiegel’s case, he seemed more conservative than today’s Taylor leadership or key members of the faculty. His problem is that he was prophetically calling the university to account for its actions. Unfortunately, true prophets don’t tend to last long in almost any setting. Unlike in biblical times when they were simply killed, today they are killed professionally.
Taylor’s decision to dump Spiegel got some attention, including a Rod Dreher column (be sure to read the comments) and an opinion piece by a New York Post columnist who mused that no one is immune to cancel culture, even Christian colleges. The columnist, Justin Lee, managed to get an interview with Spiegel who revealed many more details about his heated closed-door meetings with Taylor administrators.
(Provost Michael) Hammond accused him of “insubordination” and claimed that his “lack of regard for how [his] words are perceived and may affect others … demonstrate [his] lack of interest in participation in the spiritual community of Taylor University.”
The termination letter also asserts that “a formal harassment complaint” had been filed against Spiegel by another faculty member — the incident being the video upload. The university hasn’t informed Spiegel of his accuser’s identity, contrary to all norms of due process.
Harassment? What? The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes, among others, the right to know who your accusers are. Being a private university, however, Taylor leaders must have felt the Constitution doesn’t apply to them, and it could entertain whatever anonymous accusations it wanted.
Hammond’s justification for firing Spiegel is specious and post hoc. Plus, under the school’s “Life Together Covenant,” the faculty member who took issue with the video was obliged to pursue reconciliation privately before filing a formal complaint. Hammond thus participated in and sanctioned the violation of his university’s code of conduct.
More important, Taylor University defines harassment as “inappropriate conduct directed toward an individual.” As the video and song aren’t directed toward any individual, the harassment complaint is groundless.
As some of us know all too well, when a university such as Taylor decides you’re a nuisance to have around, anything having to do with ethics and due process goes out the window. Ministry Watch has posted a piece saying more about this covenant violation by the university.
There is no excuse, the Post analysis concluded, with firing a professor without cause and stripping his family of health insurance during a pandemic on baseless charges. It sounds like they didn’t even offer him a non-disclosure agreement along with a year’s salary, which is the more common way many institutions handle faculty they dislike. Pay them off so they don’t go to the media.
It’s tough to get to the real story at a university that hides behind a policy of not discussing personnel matters. Last week, Christianity Today came out with a piece about Christian colleges being “in crisis” because of declining enrollment and the resulting layoffs. It makes a good argument for why Christian educational institutions are undergirding the church by producing literature, scholars, spiritually alive students and keeping the culture of the faith alive.
Sadly, the article doesn’t get at the real monstrosity eating away at Christian colleges: The petty criticism of any professor who stands out; the slavish catering to the wishes of donors and the evisceration –- even by means that go against the very written policies of that institution –- of professors who are just too much trouble.
Some faculty don’t want to work at a place that doesn’t have their backs. At the various newspapers I’ve worked at, the top brass usually had your back as a reporter, so when the mayor –- or whoever –- showed up to complain about your story, that person was politely told off. But in Christian academia today, the attacks will often be inside jobs.
Just remember that when you read about or report on Christian colleges. The truth is out there, but it will take a lot of digging to get to the truth in this kind of story.