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• 1 2025-05-01T13:37:21+00:00 Historical Context of Christianity at Lafayette 23 plain 10081 2025-05-09T14:06:02+00:00

  Founded in 1826, Lafayette College's first board of trustees held no aspirations for the school to affiliate officially with any religious denomination. However, with the 1832 election of the first President, Rev. Dr. George Junkin, a Presbyterian minister and self-proclaimed anti-abolitionist¹, Lafayette College set a precedent for clergy holding great power over the institution. In an article of The Lafayette published in 1916, the author would write that, after Junkin’s election “very soon Lafayette assumed a Presbyterian tone.”² Professor Emeritus Dr. George" A. Clarke – former head of the Philosophy department and worked at the college from 1948 to 1974 – described Junkin as an “Old School Presbyterian who regarded his life work as Christian education for the ministry.”³ In Clarke’s November 1976 address to the Lafayette Philosophy Club, he chastised a religious stipulation in The Laws of Lafayette College adopted in 1834 which states:

  Every student shall morning and evening, in an orderly and reverential manner, attend Prayers, and on the Sabbath Bible Recitation in the College Hall. He shall also attend Church Service twice every Sabbath in such place as he or his parents or Guardians may choose and if he should have conscientious scruples against attending any of the Churches within reach shall make them known to the Faculty at his Entrance into College and be exempted by their special Act.³

  While not especially unusual for the time period, the demand for all students to participate in these religious activities fails to honor the promise of the college showing no religious favoritism. As described in Article VIII of the College Charter, no “person…be refused admittance into [Lafayette College], or denied any of the privileges, immunities, or advantages thereof for or on account of his sentiments in matter of religion.”⁴ Additionally, these actions actively devalue the philosophy of a liberal education which emphasizes the importance of curiosity and dissecting institutions. Abandoned for youth: the intellectual act of questioning in favor of administrative observation of religious doctrine.
  
  In 1847, Lafayette College would strike a deal with the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia as the school was struggling financially – several founders who envisioned the school to be a military college had lost interest when the framework was abandoned.⁵ In return for financial support, this covenant with the Presbyterian Synod removed the remaining lay members of the board of trustees including some founders of the college, allowed for the Synod to control faculty and trustee appointments, as well as required that “the Old and New Testaments were to be worked into the English curriculum”³. Shortly after the agreement was struck, the Synod would fail to meet yearly contributions stipulated in the deal while continuing to hold great control over the college’s atmosphere. Seventeen years into this tumultuous, seemingly exploitative relationship, the Synod would require that “the Bible was to be central to all college studies”³ and the curriculum must adapt to adhere to this new principle. With these administrative actions being in direct opposition to the ethos of a religiously impartial institution, the overwhelming control of the Presbyterian Synod was publicly illuminated. 
  
  As the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia continued to renege on their promises to the institution, commercial sources for funding were sought by the Board of Trustees and legally reduced the influence and control of the Synod in 1885. By this time, Lafayette College had been led by seven Presidents, all of whom were ordained ministers in the Presbyterian tradition. In 1891, the college would elect its first layman President, Ethelbert Warfield – although he would become ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian Church just eight years later. While only one other President afterwards would be ordained as Presbyterian clergy, several others were practicing Presbyterians and Christians. Our current President, Nicole Hurd continues in this lineage of Lafayette College presidents as she holds her PhD in Religious Studies and identifies as Catholic.⁶
  
  While the Presbyterian Synod had lost the majority of its legal power over Lafayette College by the turn of the twentieth century, the assembly had left a lasting impression upon the institution. In 1900, the motto of “Veritas Liberabit” – a shortened translation of John 8:32: “The truth shall make you free” – was adopted to be included on Lafayette College’s seal; a motto Lafayette shares with Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Clarke notes that Warfield, being cut from the same Christian education philosophy as Junkin, adopted this motto identifying the “‘truth’ with the absolute truth of Calvinistic theology” and ‘free’ from Biblical sin³. This seal and motto are present on my own 2025 diploma cover however secular reinterpretation of the phrase has become commonplace. 
  
  Student efforts for the abolition of compulsory chapel attendance had been expressed at least as early as 1894⁷, but would finally bubble to the surface in the 1960s. Students pleaded with faculty for years despite the obvious offensive nature of the practice to those outside of the Christian faith. On May 5, 1964, faculty voted against the president to discontinue the requirement and the board of trustees would affirm this decision in early November of the same year⁸. The college church would remain a place of Presbyterian worship until its dissolution in 1984 as only 6-7% of the student body would identify with the denomination. While the end of compulsory chapel on campus marked a step towards a more inclusive campus, the roots of the college’s Presbyterian history would remain embedded and continue to shape the culture of the college for years to come.  By the time that the first queer student group – the Gay Association – would form in 1974, some resistant to embracing the change would voice their disapproval with Biblical language. The president of the Lafayette Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship would pen a letter to the editor after the establishment of the group titled “A Reply To Gays” which denounced the collective by opening with a passage from Romans and follow by proclaiming homosexuality to be “unnatural” and “the very antithesis of the way God created man." It would be only eight years later that The Princeton Review would implicate Lafayette College as one of the most homophobic college campuses. 
  
  In her Oral History interview, Susan Basow, Professor Emerita, who taught at the college from 1977 to 2020, describes Lafayette as having a “classic Christian country club vibe” [1:03:35]. Basow notes that in her experience as a Jewish female instructor she never felt like anyone was outwardly hostile towards her because of her Jewish identity but she did feel like a “minority person” [1:04:51]. Professor Mary Armstrong, conducting this interview with Basow, insightfully labels Lafayette as “Christian-centric” [1:04:57]. Armstrong continues, noting that, where white supremacy can be more easily identified by those at the college as being historical and institutional, most raised with a Christian background have difficulty recognizing a Christian atmosphere. The values are baked into an institution and it can be hard to imagine a different reality. Oftentimes, it requires learning the historical context to begin recognizing the persisting presence of these structures — or one must simply exist with attributes that conflict with their inherent values. Queer people have fought and continue to fight for this recognition; I have faith our voices will be heard.