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Private, Christian university denies classroom teachings or scholarly activities were grounds for disciplinary action
Pepperdine University is pushing back against allegations that it disciplined a professor after teaching about depictions of a “black Jesus,” pointing instead to what campus leaders contend is her repeated unprofessional conduct.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recently called on Pepperdine to immediately reinstate Professor Christina Littlefield, who was placed on paid professional leave through the 2026-27 school year.
The leave began in May and will run concurrently with a sabbatical she had already planned for this spring.
Administrators are requiring her to undergo a professional development program before she can return to the classroom, alleging in a disciplinary memo she has shown a repeated inability to get along with her peers and has been “observed using unprofessional and derogatory names toward colleagues in public settings.”
The university has also fielded “credible reports that your conduct in the classroom has made students feel uncomfortable,” the memo states.
FIRE, a free speech and academic freedom organization, reported on Sept. 30 that the suspension, according to Littlefield, stems from her criticism of colleagues who “supported censoring an art exhibition as following the ‘fascist playbook’ on art censorship.”
The group also reported the professor received a 2024 parent complaint about her reading assignment from the book “American Jesus,” which examines Jesus through various cultural, racial, and political lenses.
“The book covers depictions of Jesus as an enlightened sage, masculine redeemer, Mormon elder brother, Jewish rabbi, Hindu figure, and black messiah,” FIRE reported.
The free speech group argued professors should “reasonably feel safe to teach even provocative material to students, to challenge their assumptions and expand their worldviews.”
According to FIRE, “Pepperdine suspended Littlefield for more than a year for teaching about how other scholars discuss a black Jesus in her ‘Christianity and Culture’ class, merely because that ‘made students feel uncomfortable.'”
However, Pepperdine said her classroom teachings and scholarly activities were not the basis for her leave.
“While the University does not comment on individual personnel matters, it categorically denies that it has taken any disciplinary action against Dr. Littlefield for her classroom teachings or for exercising her freedom in scholarly engagement, research, or publication,” Pepperdine spokesperson Michael Friel told The College Fix.
The memo to Littlefield about her leave does not mention the “American Jesus” reading assignment or art exhibition dispute, instead citing violations of “Interpersonal Conduct and Professionalism” and “Learning Environment and Student Welfare” as the underlying administrative bases for her leave.
“Pepperdine University is deeply committed to the free exchange of ideas, academic freedom, and the pursuit of truth through rigorous inquiry and open dialogue,” Friel told The Fix. “These principles are central to our mission as a Christian university and to the education we provide our students.”
Littlefield has taught a variety of courses at Pepperdine, including History of Religion in America and Christianity and Culture, according to her faculty bio. Her scholarship has also focused on Christian nationalism, including research examining Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Her book “Christian America and the Kingdom of God,” co-authored with Richard Hughes, examines “how often Christians have behaved in unChristian ways in their pursuit of a Christian America.”
Her academic presentations have included “Live Streaming Christian Nationalism: How Charlie Kirk Launched Turning Point Faith,” and “Dancing on the Knife’s Edge: Violence in the Christian Nationalist Rhetoric of Turning Point Faith’s Founder Charlie Kirk.”
The memo to Littlefield states her faculty appointment will no longer be shared between the religion, philosophy, and communication divisions when she returns in August 2027. Instead, it states, she will work solely in the communication division.
Connor Murnane, FIRE’s campus advocacy chief of staff, told The Fix that private universities “have every right to enforce viewpoint neutral, legitimate professional conduct standards, such as teaching competence and fulfillment of academic duties.”
However, Murnane said that “treating passionate language as punishable ‘unprofessionalism’ gives administrators way too much discretion to decide which criticism is polite enough to deserve protection.”
“We hope the university corrects its error before other faculty members begin to question whether those academic freedom statements will be honored when their own protected expression is deemed controversial,” he said.
Hughes, Littlefield’s co-author, also defended her in an Oct. 11 opinion piece published by Baptist News Global, which did not address Pepperdine’s allegations of unprofessional conduct toward other staff members.
“When Littlefield helped her students envision Jesus as other than white, her university found her guilty of making them feel uncomfortable,” Hughes wrote.
FIRE reports that Littlefield has filed a grievance seeking reinstatement, adding: “Pepperdine should grant it.”
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