I grew up Wesleyan and so there will always be a place in my heart for Wesleyans. When I say I grew up Wesleyan, I don’t mean merely that I attended a Wesleyan Church. I mean that Wesleyans were my best friends. I mean Wesleyans shepherded me through some pretty tough adolescent times. I mean Wesleyans took me in as a foster child at age 17 and helped me finish high school. I mean Wesleyans educated me on the first leg of the higher education journey. I mean the first sermon I preached was in a Wesleyan pulpit. I attended their summer camps, I dated their daughters, and I studied their theology. Because of all this and more, I will never cease being grateful to God for the Wesleyans.
I think (at least I hope) that it is this gratitude that every once in a while finds me dipping into their culture to see what is going on as well as prompting me to go after the same kind of stupidity they are pursuing as you find in spades in the “Reformed” world. Recently, that stupidity was brought before me as my wife directed my attention to the Alumni magazine that we receive (and which I almost never look at).
The stupidity of this June 2020 edition of “Triangle” is so jejune that I just had to write something here on Iron Ink. Below find III Roman numerals and my engagement with them.
I.) “Under Vice President Diane McDaniel’s leadership within the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, many important initiatives began or have strengthened in the last six years.”
BLMc responds,
I comment here in order to put into the absolutely ridiculous nature of the titles these people are holding. We are looking at three people here and here are the offices/titles they are associated with putting back to back;
1.) Office of Diversity and Inclusion
2.) Intercultural and Global Office
3.) Executive Director for Inclusive Excellence and International Education
4.) Executive Director of Multicultural Learning & Engagement
The least egregious sin of #1 is that it is redundant. If you have an office of Diversity doesn’t that automatically mean you’re chasing down Inclusion? I mean, how can an Office of Diversity be exclusive at the same time?
All of these offices and Titles are sucking off the Worldview teat of Cultural Marxism and Critical Race Theory. Having an Office of Diversity and Inclusion is just another way of saying, “Office of We Need Fewer White People.” Think about it … How many Universities in Peking, China have an “Office of Diversity and Inclusion?” No… it is only stupid white people swigging away at Marxist hooch who create an “Office of Diversity and Inclusion.”
All of these Offices/Titles suffer from Job Title Inflation. What a resume enhancer it must be to have once been the Executive Director of Multicultural Learning & Engagement of some backwater Wesleyan University who was a Critical Race Theory wannabee.
Next, consider the money that is being bored into the budgets of these nonsensical (make-work) offices and positions. Every year I have my Alma Mater — Indiana Wesleyan University — calling me or sending me junk mail begging me for money. Never once have I called them or sent them junk mail asking them to support the Church I serve. Yet, were I to send them money they would pour it down the rat-hole that is “The Office of Diversity & Inclusion,” or give it to some feminists working in the “Intercultural and Global” Office. You know these people with the titles of “Executive Director” are making 6 figures easy. And yet despite the fact that Indiana Wesleyan University is pursuing an anti-Christian Worldview as part of their University culture (Critical Race Theory), they want the working blue-collar people of the Denomination to send them money to fill their blood money coffers. This goes beyond being criminal to become sacrilege since it is all being done in the name of Jesus.
If you’re a Wesleyan, and you’re sending money to support Indiana Wesleyan University you’re doing the Devil’s work.
II.) “Dr. Joel Olufowote joined IWU Marion’s Intercultural and Global Office in 2018. He serves as the executive director for inclusive excellence and international education.” During his first two years, Dr. Olufowote laid a conceptual foundation for inclusive work that is Kingdom-focused. He helped to systematize aspects of our protocols and culture that reflect the Lord’s color-blind love.
BLMc
The “Lord” is color blind? The “Lord” doesn’t know the color of the people He calls to Himself? Certainly, when it comes to salvation, the “Lord” is no respecter of persons, but to suggest that he’s color blind would suggest some imperfection in the “Lord,” and that I find quite curious.
Alternately, maybe they are saying that God doesn’t care about the color of one’s skin when building the Kingdom. But if God is color blind on these matters shouldn’t His people be as well and so not emphasize color by having an Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence? I mean, what else is the University doing but emphasizing that God does see color by having an office that is all about seeing color and making sure that the color quota on campus is met every year? It seems to me that God indeed is color blind but all the University is seeing is color everywhere.
I mean … understand that Olufowote’s work is to make sure the Campus is not too White. The man was hired to see color … to be “Inclusive.” God may not see color but I guaran-damn-tee you that Olufowote does. If nobody was seeing color nobody would notice that color was lacking and needed to be pursued.
II. B) With the events of this past summer, Joel’s work quickly moved to action. “Because of COVID-19, our students were not here [on campus],” said Dr. Olufowote. “Still, we wanted them to know that we are always here for them. We knew our students were being impacted but they did not have a community to process with, to lament with. At the same time, they were being overwhelmed by the media. We thought ‘we should reach out and listen.’” Through “I Can’t Breathe” forums for students and employees, Dr. Olufowote fostered an opportunity for the residential community to lament, to listen, and to learn. It gave him the chance to arm IWU’s commitment to move along the spectrum of inclusion…. The outflow of these conversations will manifest themselves during this 2020-2021 academic year; one of note is the formation of the Black Student Union.
BLMc responds,
a.) Let me get this straight … students were doing school online at home because of COVID and so not on campus but the poor tender darlings couldn’t cope with the stress of it all? The students — now off-campus — needed some “lament outlet” because the media was bruising them so badly and Joel was there to rescue them by providing a “I Can’t Breath” forum? This is the stuff of a stand-up comedy routine. Who comes up with this drivel? Indiana Wesleyan University is paying this guy six figures to be a hand-holder and wet nurse for adults who can’t find the intestinal fortitude to go on with life because of the pain coming from TV media anchors?
I can only speak for myself but I found myself constantly thinking when I was a student at IWU, “I wish the bureaucrats would just leave me the hell alone.” Apparently, now the students need bureaucrats to help them get through life even when the students are not on campus.
b.) I’m sure it is just coincidental that Dr. Olufowote, who is black, is forming a Black Student Union. I’m wondering which Latino IWU is going to hire now so that he can justify his salary by forming a “Hispanic Student Union.”
III.) Dr. Karen A. Dowling, executive director of multicultural learning &
engagement, collaborated with IWU National & Global leaders to address these same missional interests. As a team, they organized two “Hoping Together” forums for online students and another ten “Growing Together” sessions for employees as a response to the “Sharing Our Hearts” employee forum….move forward in this important work. One faculty member took the initiative to form a task force to evaluate program curricula for more integration of inclusion and equity content.
When is the work done? When Biblical justice and equity is the common culture of our communities, and specifically IWU…
BLMc
a.) I’d bet my retirement that Dr. Karen A. Dowling is a full-blown feminist.
b.) Hoping Together/Growing Together/Sharing Our Hearts? Is this University or is this pre-school? Did she put on her sweater and tennis shoes before getting started like Mr. Rogers used to do?
Honestly, if students really do need this kind of stuff we are in more troubled waters than I even thought we were.
C.) Twice in #3 the word “equity” is used. This is the main tip that we are talking about Critical Race Theory in this whole agenda. Keep in mind that equity is a step beyond equality. (And equality the way Progressives define it is already a step too far.) Equity is about redressing past grievances. Equity says that since perverts, women, and minorities were (allegedly) discriminated against in the past, therefore, it is fitting, proper, and necessary for white people (especially white males) to be discriminated against today. Equity is about settling old scores against the putative way white people treated minorities, perverts, and feminists. When the word “equity” is used it means payback.
Indiana Wesleyan University has now become an arm of the Cultural Marxist movement to marginalize white Christians by reinterpreting Christianity through the prism of Critical Race Theory. I would guess that many of the Professors there who are contributing to this worldview shift are just useful idiots who don’t know what they are doing. I suspect even President David Wright falls into this category. However, you can be sure that there are some people on that campus who know exactly what they are doing. You can also be sure that some people are on campus who are against this but who are too fearful for their professional careers to speak out against this nonsense.
All of this is ubiquitous on Christian campuses of every Denominational stripe.
