Evangelical Taylor U community in uproar over Pence speech: "Deeply at odds with following Christ"
Evangelical Taylor U community in uproar over Pence speech: "Deeply at odds with following Christ"
Mike Pence's selection as commencement speaker "blindsided" many in the Taylor community, sources tell Salon
RACHEL LEAH at Salon
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Taylor University, a private evangelical Christian college in rural Indiana, has selected Vice President Mike Pence as its featured commencement speaker this May, and many from the Taylor community are deeply upset and alarmed. For those on the outside, the news that a largely white evangelical Christian school in Pence's home state of Indiana would invite him as its graduation speaker seems hardly surprising, considering that for decades white evangelical Christians have constituted the largest religious bloc in the Republican Party, according to the Washington Post. But as Taylor alumni, faculty and students have told Salon — some of whom asked not to be named — the invitation has been met with substantial dissent and backlash.
"I was taken aback, I felt blindsided," a tenured associate professor who has taught at Taylor for nearly a decade told Salon. "I immediately became angry and cynical, thinking that our dear seniors were being sold out, that the administration was hedging its bets that they could turn graduation into a political statement and, furthermore, a revenue stream — that this move would please people with deep pockets with whom the administration would like to partner — and that that outcome was more desirable to them than whatever the faculty and student body wanted."
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The petition — which amplified multiple ways for participants to make their voices heard, by responding to Taylor's announcement on social media, by listing the contact information for school officials responsible for the invitation — currently has more than 2,300 signatures and counting, which is significant momentum coming from a small liberal arts college with about 1,900 enrolled students.
A graduating senior who identifies as queer told Salon that the petition "has been a huge encouragement and way of solidifying our community."
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