Wyoming Catholic College, of which I serve as president, recently determined that it has a duty to abstain from federal student-loan and grant programs. As a new college that received the accreditation necessary for federal funding only this year, Wyoming Catholic faced a stark choice for or against. Other Catholic colleges, of longer standing, already have their finances entangled in funding of this kind. We saw abstention as necessary to preserve our institution’s religious liberty. Let me explain the hazards we foresaw, which other religious colleges will have to confront before long.
Whether it is taken as cause for rejoicing or cause for lament, everyone agrees that the culture has shifted against Christians—quickly. In prominent journals such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, we find faculty members of esteemed universities mounting critiques such as this one, by University of Pennsylvania professor Peter Conn: Religious colleges are “intellectually compromised institutions,” in that they “erect religious tests for truth,” and so should be denied accreditation.
There have been dramatic public episodes. Gordon College, a Christian school in Massachusetts, became controversial last year when its president appeared among the signatories of an open letter raising religious-liberty concerns on behalf of federal contractors. Headlines and petitions ensued. Activists highlighted a clause of Gordon’s conduct policy prohibiting “homosexual practice” among students and employees.
