CHICAGO (AP) — A professor at a Christian college who asserted Christians and Muslims worship the same God will leave her post, the school near Chicago announced.
In a statement posted on Wheaton College’s website, the school and Larycia Hawkins said they “have reached a confidential agreement under which they will part ways.” The statement didn’t go into details.
The college had placed Hawkins, a Christian and an associate professor of political science, on leave in December after she posted her views on Facebook. Hawkins also began wearing a hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women, to counter what she called “vitriolic” rhetoric against Muslims.
Shortly afterward, the college began efforts to dismiss her despite objections by some faculty members.
“I appreciate and have great respect for the Christian liberal arts and the ways that Wheaton College exudes that in its mission, programs, and in the caliber of its employees and students,” Hawkins said in the statement posted Saturday on the school’s website.
College officials and Hawkins said in the statement that neither will speak publically about their relationship before a news conference scheduled for Wednesday.
“Wheaton College sincerely appreciates Dr. Hawkins’ contributions to this institution over the last nine years,” President Philip Graham Ryken said in the statement. “We are grateful for her passionate teaching, scholarship, community service and mentorship of our students.”
College officials previously had said Hawkins’ views were inconsistent with the college’s “doctrinal convictions.”
Hawkins had maintained that nothing about her views contradict the college’s statement of faith, which all instructors sign. Among other things it affirms belief in “one sovereign God,” views on Adam and Eve and the existence of Satan.
Nearly 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students attend Wheaton College, which is roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Chicago.
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