Wheaton College restricts use of preferred pronouns

One of the nation’s leading evangelical colleges has weighed in on politically correct speech. Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill, recently updated its student and employee handbooks to restrict the ability to designate personal pronouns and to elaborate on the school’s position on trans/nonbinary students and faculty.

“The college does not permit the statement of preferred personal pronouns by employees when conducting college business, when on a platform where they are publicly identified as college employees and/or when using the college brand in print or digital media, except when employees are required to submit such pronouns when registering for a conference or for membership in a professional organization,” new language in the student handbook says.

READ: Is it a sin for Christians to used someone’s “preferred” pronouns?

Updates to the handbook, which were approved in October and shared with employees in December and students in January, clarify that the college does not endorse the statement of preferred pronouns by employees or students of Wheaton. Although the handbook exclusively recognizes the pronouns he/him/his and she/her/hers as reflective of the “created biological binary,” it does not appear to explicitly prohibit students from using or stating preferred pronouns, including they/them pronouns.

“Although it had been more than a decade since the policy was last updated, substantive changes to the policy were minimal,” a Wheaton spokesperson said. “The biblical principles and theological convictions on gender and sexuality articulated in the college’s Statement of Faith and Community Covenant have not changed.”

Both the previous and current versions of the student handbook make clear that the college believes God created sex to occur in the context of a marriage between a man and a woman and prohibit “same-sex sexual behavior,” including marriages, civil unions or dating relationships. The handbook also has and continues to clarify that Wheaton hopes to be a loving community that respects and cares for all members, including those who “experience incongruity between birth sex and gender identity.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice

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