Woke Evangeleftist Mob Attacks Kevin DeYoung for Defending Princeton Statue
Contrary to leftist accusations, DeYoung’s historical clarifications do not defend slavery or white supremacist attitudes
In a continuation of the history-erasing statue protesting movement, woke students at Princeton University recently petitioned the university to remove a statue of former Princeton President John Witherspoon, on the basis that Witherspoon held two slaves. The petitioners rejected the alternative idea of placing a plaque on the statue that clarifies that the statue’s presence is not a university endorsement of slavery, opting instead to bring the matter before Princeton’s Committee on naming, in an effort to bring the statue down. Princeton was originally a Presbyterian School, known for its training of pastors. Since the time of John Witherspoon, the university has devolved from its original mission of Christian scholarship and Pastoral training into a putrid universalist cesspool that produces hordes of brain-dead confused individuals who can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, let alone coherently present the true Gospel.
In the wake of the Witherspoon statue controversy, prominent PCA pastor Kevin DeYoung wrote a piece for Princetonians for Free Speech that sought to clarify the historical significance of John Witherspoon to the university and the nation as a whole. DeYoung completed his PhD at the University of Leicester in 2019 with historical and archival research on the views and significance of Witherspoon. The defense by DeYoung resulted in a firestorm of criticism from woke Big-Eva leftists, including Dwight McKissic, Derwin Gray, and never miss a chance to be traumatized Kyle J Howard, who were all discontent to leave the task of toppling undesirable statues in the hands of their secularist humanist brothers in arms.
Contrary to leftist accusations, DeYoung’s historical clarifications do not defend slavery or white supremacist attitudes but rather contextualize the facts about Witherspoon’s beliefs and actions, as Witherspoon was a man of his times and not a man of modern times. Interestingly, as was common in the 17th and 18th centuries, the first nine presidents of Princeton and ten of the first twelve Presidents of the United States were slaveholders. Despite his status as a slaveholder, Witherspoon was responsible for laying the theological groundwork for the defense of a just war effort against the tyranny of the British by delivering the sermon The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men. A true patriot, Witherspoon was forced to leave the university when the British arrived, losing both possessions and a son in the revolutionary war.
The holier-than-thou attitude of the woke evangeleftists in response to DeYoung’s account of Witherspoon begs the question, “Must Christians abandon the legacy and righteous accomplishments of all those who ever held slaves?”. If slaveholding is an unforgivable sin, are there other unpardonable sins that necessitate the total anathematization of one’s legacy? Megan Basham pointed out that Martin Luther King Jr, an individual revered by the Social Justice movement, was a proponent of the evil actions of Planned Parenthood, receiving the inaugural Margaret Sanger award from Planned Parenthood in 1966.
King’s legacy as a proponent of Planned Parenthood is not his only flaw. King was a serial adulterer who denied the Virgin birth, denied the inerrancy of scripture, and taught a false liberation and social Gospel. King was undeniably a theological liberal. Despite being a proponent of an organization responsible for the murder of millions of children, living an adulterous life, and teaching a heretical false Gospel, social justice advocates continue to revere King for his legacy as a civil rights icon.
Despite this, The Gospel Coalition honored MLK in 2018, making him the namesake and center of a conference that focused on race. It would seem that those in the social justice movement who believe that John Witherspoon’s legacy should be relegated to the garbage heap sit on the high seat of hypocrisy regarding their response to MLK. Then again, social justice advocates like Dwight McKissic, Derwin Gray, and Kyle J Howard have never been known for employing equal weights and measures. These ideologues worship at the altar of social justice pragmatism.