Dinesh D'Souza, Divorce and the Collapse of Christian Higher Education

     Dinesh D’Souza has been in the news a lot lately.  He has been writing best sellers, directed and produced the second highest grossing political documentary of all time, and even bested Bill Mahr on his HBO show rather frequently in the past few years.  He even paid for the Nigerian brother of president Obama to get some much needed medical attention for his son.  Things have generally been looking up for Dinesh.

     There has been more going on in Dinesh's life though.  In recent years he has joined the parade of previously secular conservative pundits who have sought to rebrand themselves as not merely conservative, but Evangelical Christian social conservatives. But the odd thing is that D'Souza never really embraced or at least appeared to embrace evangelical Christianity.  In one of the most baffling interviews ever given on the topic of personal religious beliefs, D'Souza refused to renounce Roman Catholocism, yet claimed to embrace reformed theology and claimed to comfortable with and part of the Evangelical world.  To appropriate a saying of Ron Jaworski, "if a team says they have two quarterbacks capable of starting  that means they don't have one." I have to wonder if a man who claims to have two diametrically opposing theological outlooks has any at all.  I don't know, nor do I claim to know the condition of his heart, but I do know that someone who is unwilling to make a clear profession of faith in Christ alone for salvation (thereby separating from the church of Rome's doctrine of salvation through works and merit) should not be employed by, let lone tapped to lead,   a Christian college or university.

     Yet D'Souza was named president of The King's College in 2010, an ostensibly Evangelical college located in New York City and closely associated with Cru (the ministry formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ), which according to its mission statement is committed to the truths of Christianity and a biblical world view. (I would see if this is reflected in their doctrinal statement, but if it exists it is no where to be found on their website.)  How can an organization dedicated to the truths of Christianity be led by a man who won't say what they are?

     As sad as his hiring was, the circumstances of his firing are even worse.  Not only is D'Souza unwilling to articulate a biblical world view he doesn't live one either.  This is not a wild accusation, the circumstances that surround The King's College accepting his resignation yesterday are simply scandalous.

     D'Souza, was the key note speaker at an apologetics conference hosted by First Baptist North church of Spartanburg South Carolina.  Other speakers included noted christian biographer Eric Metaxas and eminent apologist Josh McDowell, but D'souza managed to set himself apart.  He was the only married speaker to show up with his fiance!  Despite being married (for 20 years) D'Souza attended the conference with a young woman (reportedly also married) and introduced her to conference attendees as his fiance.  This would be scandal enough, and blindingly bright evidence that a Christian College should never be led by an unbeliever, because invariably the name of Christ will be defamed (the atheist/leftist blogosphere is awash in glee over this scandal), but it was D'Souza's response that was the real black eye to The King's College.  He showed himself to be completely ignorant of biblical Christianity and the content of the bible.

     In response to the World magazine article that exposed his sin, he published this baffling response on the Fox News website.  While he denies some of the details of the World account (notably that he shared a hotel room with his mistress) he doesn't seen to understand why people were shocked at his behavior.  He writes:

"I sought out advice about whether it is legal to be engaged prior to being divorced and I was informed that it is. Denise and I were trying to do the right thing. I had no idea that it is considered wrong in Christian circles to be engaged prior to being divorced, even though in a state of separation and in divorce proceedings.  Obviously I would not have introduced Denise as my fiancé at a Christian apologetics conference if I had thought or known I was doing something wrong. But as a result of all this, and to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, Denise and I have decided to suspend our engagement."

     He clearly didn't seek the counsel of Scripture or faithful men otherwise he would have run into these truths:  God hates divorce; whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; What God has joined together no man may separate.  It is utterly impossible that someone with even a cursory connection to the Christian community, let alone some one who has read the Bible  (or even just the Gospels) just once would be unaware that actual Christians would be outraged that a married man, who they paid to hear speak, who has claimed Christ (sort of) would bring his (likely married) mistress with him to an apologetics conference and introduced her as his fiance.  

     The only thing more shocking to me than his behavior and indignation at the response to it, is that a "Christian" college would name a man as president who is so ignorant of the content of the Bible.  How could this ignorance not become glaringly apparent during the interview process?

    Sadly this is shocking, but not surprising.  Real Christian higher education is rapidly disappearing.  Sure there are some faithful institutions, but they are the extreme exception and few and far in between.  Historic stalwarts of christian education now embrace ecumenism, sexual immorality, evolution, higher criticism, and seemingly every other attack on the authority of Scripture, in an effort to be "relevant" or to be embraced by the culture, or to acquire the veneer of academic respectability they so desperately desire.  What they fail to understand is that there is no way to be faithful to Christ and to appeal to the world.  As Christ said, "If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you."

     Sadly The King's College is not unique, they just went all the way.  They hired a man who made no credible profession of faith, and who apparently has no knowledge of the content of the Bible to be their leader, just because he was popular with the world.  And predictably they did not become more relevant, or important or respectable, they became a laughing stock, and dragged the name of the King they claim to serve through the mud in the process.  Pray that other institutions learn from this failure, and return to the truth and authority of Scripture while there is still time.