PRESS RELEASE: Progressive Christians Keep DEI Alive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

October 27, 2025

Contact: Rev. Jim Burklo, Executive Director 

ZOE Progressive Christian Life on Campus 

zoeprogressivechristianlife@gmail.com | zoeoncampus.org | 415-847-8997

PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS KEEP DIVERSITY AND FREE SPEECH ALIVE ON CAMPUS

Progressive Christian campus ministries are rescuing diversity and inclusion programs that are being eliminated at colleges and universities around the country. And in other ways, affiliate ministries of the ZOEoncampus.org network are responding proactively to the current “culture war” against higher education.

ZOE-affiliated Christian clubs are usually the only ones on their campuses that are explicitly affirming of LGBTQIA+ identity and relationships. As registered student clubs, they have a protected status that enables them to carry on work that colleges and universities themselves are being pressured to abandon. These ministries have professional staff provided by local churches and denominations.

• The Vine campus ministry at Iowa State University at Ames stepped up when the campus LGBTQIA+ and ethnic centers were threatened with political pressure. The ministry is sponsored by the Collegiate Presbyterian Church. Jen Hibben, the campus minister, invited the students, faculty, and staff associated with the centers to use the church as a base for activism. “Hey, we’re across the street!” Jen told the campus activists. “We don’t work for the university. We’re able to do things that you’re not able to – how can we help?” Students now use the building for meetings, and Ames Pride now has an office in the church. (See this short video interview with Jen.)

• Synergy Wesley Foundation at the University of Texas, Dallas, took action when the campus diversity, equity, and inclusion office was shut down. Britt Melrose, the campus minister, invited the office to cart its files and materials across the street to the campus ministry’s office, so that its work could be preserved.

• The Lutheran campus ministry directly across the street from Kennesaw State University in Georgia is now the home of the Pride Center for the campus. Kat Folk, the vicar, invited the Kennesaw State Pride Alliance to move into an upstairs space in the church that sponsors the ministry. This required abandoning potential income from paying tenants. To church leaders and members, Kat asked: “Are we a rental agency, or are we a church?” And the church agreed to continue the arrangement. (See this short video interview with Kat.)

• The Student Christian Center at SUNY New Palz, which operates a major food and meals program for students, offers “The Table” on Wednesdays. Over a free dinner, it invites students to engage in civil discourse on controversial subjects. All.together campus ministry at Wayne State in Michigan is doing the same – covering topics such as gun violence, immigration, creation care, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Similar programs are underway at other ZOE affiliates around the country. In a time when Turning Point USA chapters are proliferating on campuses, promoting so-called “debates” on controversial issues that are primed for pre-ordained outcomes, progressive campus ministries are modeling honest and open dialogues across difference.

In response to the current “culture war” being waged by state governments and the federal government against higher education, the board of directors of ZOE has issued this statement:

Free Speech and Academic Integrity on Campus: 

Progressive Christian Campus Ministries Take a Stand

We are leaders of progressive Christian ministries at colleges and universities around the United States, deeply concerned with assaults against free speech and academic integrity at the institutions we serve. Many colleges and universities were founded by our progressive Christian forebears, who believed in the mission of secular higher education, believed in academic freedom and integrity, and released control of the institutions they started as the country became more religiously and culturally diverse. We honor that legacy and, alongside others, we commit ourselves to carrying it forward.

On our campuses, we defend and encourage:

Academic speech spaces: classroom dialogue that reflects the academic rigor of peer-review and basis in evidence, in pursuit of broad consensus, free from dogma. We support shared governance between faculty and administration. We oppose the efforts of politicians who are trying to impose their ideological agendas on our colleges and universities.

Free speech spaces:  free expression, except for direct incitement to physical harm, in public spaces on campus - making room for obnoxious or offensive speech. We will either ignore bad speech or respond to it with good speech.

Brave speech spaces: environments on campus where difficult differences can be explored through respectful dialogue, where skills in constructive communication and listening can be honed. Following Jesus' way of unconditional love, our ministries are committed to creating and supporting such spaces, in cooperation with other groups on campus. What is learned in brave speech spaces will humanize and enrich academic speech and free speech on campus. 

Safe speech spaces: environments on campus where particular communities with common interests gather, where students can express their concerns freely in an atmosphere of mutual support and encouragement. Our ministries offer such spaces and support other groups in doing the same. We are committed to offer sanctuary to LGBTQIA+, ethnic, and other diversity programs that are being shuttered due to the present “culture war” against higher education.

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