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Christian commentator says the school is failing future ministers and their flocks
A divinity school affiliated with Texas Christian University wants to examine the Bible through a “queer” and “womanist” lens, according to a job opening.
The Brite Divinity School is currently seeking a full-time professor in the “Hebrew Bible” who is knowledgeable about “gender and sexuality studies, womanist, feminist, queer, postcolonial, postmodern, and racial/cultural studies.”
In addition to being able to “engage texts critically” through “hermeneutical approaches,” it also helps to not be a white male.
“Scholars from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply,” the job posting also states.
The Brite Divinity School did not respond to an email and phone call from The College Fix in the past several weeks that sought comment on the job posting.
Texas Christian University said while the seminary is on its campus, it is not directly connected.”“Brite Divinity School is an independent theological seminary,” Holly Ellman, the associate director of communications, told The Fix via email. “While the school is located within the boundaries of TCU’s campus, since 1914 the seminary has operated under its own governance and board of trustees.”
Still, the job posting says the divinity school is “affiliated with Texas Christian University” and offers “collaborative degrees” with the college.
A statement on the “relationship with TCU” explains the school has an agreement with Brite “to provide essential administrative support, operational and maintenance services, and the vision of both institutions to assure a continuing spirit of mutual involvement, cooperation, and support for the benefit of students, staff, and faculty.”
‘Divinity schools should exist to train pastors, not produce progressive academics’
The job opening drew criticism from Charisma Peoples, a spokeswoman for Project 21.
The group, part of the National Center for Public Policy Research, promotes conservative values in the black community. Peoples has a bachelor’s degree in theology from Moody Bible Institute and finished a graduate degree in divinity from Howard University in December.
The job posting reminds her of her experience at Howard.
“Divinity schools should exist to train pastors, not produce progressive academics, and that is what I got at Howard University,” Peoples told The Fix on a phone interview.
The job posting “is exactly what they were teaching over at Howard. Very progressive. There was no room for any traditional, Orthodox or even classical Christian hermeneutics.”
At Howard, Peoples noted that the Christian theology classes “would combine Christian doctrine [and other folk beliefs like] African spirituality… It was just a lot of syncretism there. I wouldn’t even label them as Christians.”
Syncretism refers to combining various religions and beliefs into one ostensible unified idea. This causes more confusion, Peoples said.
She explained the problems when “future pastors and ministers” are trained this way.
“If they’re being trained like this, their congregations are screwed, because they’re going to accept the ideology that, [they] can just live any type of way,” she said.
Supporters of syncretism “would say that believing in Christ and having love in our heart is all that we need.”
“But we know that that is deception,” Peoples said.
She told The Fix: “The Bible is very clear of the standards that we must uphold as Christian believers.”
