Hang On! Faith and Sexual Ethics

In a recent essay at First Things, Carl Trueman recounts the saga of Bradley Nassif, formerly a professor at North Park University in Chicago, a college affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church. Nassif is an Orthodox theologian who has played a significant role in ecumenical conversations between Orthodoxy and evangelicalism and was, reports Trueman, the “only tenured Orthodox faculty member in the Bible department of an American evangelical institution.”

“Was” being the key word in that sentence, for Nassif is no longer tenured or even employed at North Park, and the story, as summarized by Trueman, is a discouraging one—especially because it represents a broader trend of Christian institutions moving away from doctrinal teachings on sexuality, and in so doing, breaking faith.

In 2021, the university closed down its Christian Studies Department, supposedly because of low enrollments, although the reasons and procedures for closing the department are in dispute. Nassif’s attorney has sworn statements from a former administrator and a faculty member indicating the closing of the department was not financially necessary and violated normal university procedures. (I have read these documents.) As those who have worked at universities know, tenure serves as a stubborn defense for faculty but provides no defense if entire departments or programs are shut down; and, indeed, there can be good reasons for closing departments, which often results in the dismissal of tenured faculty.

What is not in dispute, however, is the following: when North Park discontinued the Christian Studies Department, all four of that department’s tenured faculty were dismissed. Oddly, some months later, three of those same faculty were hired again, with adjuncts taking over the teaching load of the solitary faculty member who was not rehired.

The sole professor left out in the Chicago cold? Bradley Nassif.

Read here