A perspective on Princeton’s Abraham Kuyper Prize controversy
By the Rev. Kadin J.G. Williams
In March, Princeton Theological Seminary reversed its decision to award the Abraham Kuyper Prize to the Rev. Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Manhattan. Announced by the college’s president, M. Craig Barnes, the decision followed widespread protests from students, faculty and alumni.
Because I am a member of a small group of American Baptist pastors who attended Princeton, it seems valuable to offer my perspective on this decision with the larger American Baptist world, particularly given that the decision has been reported by Christianity Today, Sojourners, Religion News Service and The Washington Times.
Some commentators have opined on a lack of openness to theological diversity within institutions like Princeton. However, it is important to note that Keller did speak at Princeton on April 6. The petition that I and many other graduates, faculty and students signed was not an attempt to silence a voice within the diversity of Christianity, but a signal that Princeton should not endorse the views of a pastor who does not believe in the ordination of women or LGBTQ individuals.
I consider myself a progressive Mainline American Baptist. But it is that identity, which I try to root in Christ’s sense of compassion, that propels me to believe that Mainliners can respect our conservative brothers and sisters without giving the impression that we endorse the exclusionary ideologies that they preach.
I signed the petition to reverse the decision to award the Kuyper Prize to Keller precisely because I do not want my alma mater to be associated with a theology that excludes women and LGBTQ persons. We already live in a society where the Gospel is seen as an oppressive force, intent on repression and exclusion. Christians committed to justice and progressive causes should not feel obligated to blur the lines between those who endorse those ideologies and those who do not.
American Evangelicalism has already started to feel the weight of dechristianization. The results of that process will be evident in time, and there is no need to fight Christians whose views differ from our own. Such a tactic is fruitless. We are all facing a common specter — a phantom of European ambivalence — that is becoming increasingly tangible in the fabric of our changing culture. The millennial zeitgeist is already post-Christian.
It is this fact that makes our commitment to our values so important. Progressive Christians should guard the distinctiveness of their identity precisely because it is that identity that can survive the progress of dechristianization. A post-Christian America is not going to turn toward Keller’s message. It will, instead, turn toward a far more robust post-Christendom faith of inclusiveness. Refusing to endorse Keller is important precisely because it is his Christendom that must fall for Christianity to be reborn.
Dechristianization is but one of many phenomena within the metacrisis of modernity. No easy answers exist when we look ahead and see the weight of momentum’s hammer. However, we can keep two things in mind. First, we should never let go of the faithfulness to which the Gospel calls us. The first task of discipleship is to be faithful to our Lord, who took up a cross for the salvation of our cosmos. Faithfulness requires us to serve even when things are tough. But faithfulness also requires us to look toward salvation in a way that recognizes God’s continuing commitment to recreate and heal all that He has made. We participate in that through our acts of charity and our efforts to effect justice.
One of my former classmates recently published an article on Patheos.com that addresses the issue of psychopathic pastors and psychopathic church cultures. After reading it, I decided to preach on the relationship between Jesus’ denunciation of the scribes in Mark 12:38–40 and the widow’s offering in Mark 12:41–44. This point, however, brings me back to my second reminder. Faith without works is dead. We live in a culture in which Christians have justified nearly every type of discrimination, oppression and exclusion with the name of Christ. Little can be done about these people. However, we can never be separate from our call to pray and fight for change. Our witness matters. Identifying as a progressive Mainline Protestant without compromise matters.
When the hammer of time falls, and millennials have grey hair, who will be left to rebuild? It will be the disciples who have committed their lives to God’s justice and grace, the disciples who inclusively embrace the other, and the disciples who empower and commend their brothers and sisters of all genders and sexual orientations. That is the reason that Princeton should not endorse a leader whose ministry, however remarkable, perpetuates a culture of silence and oppression.
The Rev. Kadin J.G. Williams is pastor of Exton (Pa.) Community Baptist Church. He earned an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The views expressed are those of the author or authors alone, and not those of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
