Whether you understand a “Trojan Horse” to be malware that damages your computer by means of a “harmless” download, or if you go all the way back to the archetypal Trojan Horse of ancient literature both concepts are essentially the same. Both are destructive machines that destroy their host after gaining access to the victim-environment. They destroy from within.
Enter the institutional diversity committee or diversity officer at institutions of higher learning in Christian Education. Today Christian liberal arts colleges, universities, and seminaries have been infected with critical theory and intersectionality. From Wheaton, Illinois to Santa Barbara (Westmont), California, to AZUSA, California the emerging problem is the same. While Critical Theory and Intersectionality are old news in secular academia they are new to unsuspecting administrators and faculty members in Higher Christian Education. What is Critical Theory? What is Intersectionality? You can listen to an explanation of Critical Theory and Intersectionality here in a sermon entitled “Imagine a God, Part 2.
These days, one of the tell-tale signs that trouble is ahead is the creation or arrival of a Diversity Committee or Diversity Officer. Like all trojan horses, these appear to be harmless gifts of love to a student body in need of nurture, encouragement, and protection. They begin informally, then they become formal and established. Budgets are developed. People are hired. Resources are committed. Inevitably, they begin to metastasize and morph into something harmful (if not deadly) to the academic and religious integrity of the Christian institution.
At some point, you’ll begin to hear about triggers and microaggressions. The microaggressions that trigger committee intervention are based upon subjectivity or the “lived experience” of the student-complainant. If you, as a professor or instructor, do or say something in class that hurts a student’s feelings, then you are responsible as an educator for an act of oppression or aggression. Your words may seem innocent enough (to you and perhaps others). Nevertheless, you are guilty until proven innocent. For Christian Institutions accepting students of other religious backgrounds (Islam, Hinduism, et al) the exclusivity of the Gospel can be either a macro-aggression (think large hurtful insult or assault) or a microaggression (a smaller hurt). If you protest your innocence, depending on your race, you may be told that your “white privilege,” blinds you to the reality and impact of your infraction. You may be told that your “whiteness (for example)” renders you insensitive to the needs and hurts of others. You may be forced to avoid the Gospel because it is divisive—or at least water it down.
Talk about the exclusivity of Christ for salvation and you’ve committed an offense of some kind and since the classroom is yours, you are held accountable in some way for not being careful enough, sensitive enough, or loving enough. Use the wrong terminology in giving a public assessment or critique of a classroom presentation and you could be guilty of oppression. Critique a paper, or grade an essay, in a way that a student doesn’t like, you may find yourself accused of a microaggression. And if the student has typically received higher grades in the past (for better work) then you are definitely suspect. If the microaggression is real to the student then it is considered real and you are at fault.
The problem for a Christian educational environment becomes more problematic because the Bible is absolute truth and what is says about the human condition cannot really be challenged. Enter someone struggling with gender dysphoria, LGBTQ issues, or some other group perceived as a minority and if they are offended by what is taught, then the professor (or instructor) must be guilty of something. Given the redefinition of terms of race and racism (only Caucasians can be racists) and that race, now, is said to be a social construct and things become exponentially more complex.
Enter the diversity committee and the Diversity Director / Officer / Administrator. They exist to find, discover, or ferret out microaggressions, incipient racism, and oppression in any form. How is their effectiveness measured? By discovering subtle racism, clueless racism, white privilege, and oppressors (real or imagined). Ultimately, they fall this trap: they find themselves needing to justify their continued existence. How is their effectiveness to be measured? They must receive and act on credible accusations. How is an accusation evaluated? “Lived experience.” Lived experience means “it was real to me.” A presupposition of Critical Theory and Intersectionality is that if you felt it, then it is real. Objectivity and logic are by definition tools of oppression. The department or committee’s effectiveness is predicated on discovering offenses. They must do so to survive and receive resources and funding. They must go beyond training. Creating awareness must result in referrals. Awareness must mean detection. Detection must result in referrals. Complaints and referrals must involve action. This necessitates almost an environment fostering self-fulfilling prophecies.
That’s why I used the Trojan Horse metaphor. Inside the horse are helpful sounding diversity training courses and sensitivity courses that well-meaning presidents and provosts readily approve. Regrettably, they do not closely examine the horse they are buying. They seldom convene a control committee to review the proposed curriculum or ask for definitions of terms. In the name of love (forgetting that sometimes love is tough) and “dialogue” they make unfortunate miscalculations and ever so gradually things begin to get out of hand. Diversity officers (and students) attempt to dictate what teachers may or may not say or teach. For many, the very role of a teacher implies built-in oppression. Diversity Officers, Diversity Committees and student sometimes attempt to first influence and then dictate to administrators and presidents how the institution is to be run. When someone tries to reign things in, they are branded an oppressor. Once opened, Pandora’s Box is difficult to close. Things gradually go from bad to worse when the Trojan Horses are naively accepted and embrace—even by those who have the best interests of the students at heart. They fail to see it for what it is: an instrument of harm. Pray for our Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries. For many, the cat is already out of the bag because the Trojan Horse is now inside the camp.