After threat of lawsuit, Princeton seminary excused student from ‘whiteness is sin’ anti-racism training

The student, Timothy Keiderling, was able to negotiate a compromise that got him out of the anti-racism training, which teaches that being white is “something to repent for” and “whiteness is a form of structural sin,” Real Clear Investigations reported this week.

Keiderling complained the mandatory trainings did not allow for debate or disagreement, which stood in contrast to the private seminary’s promotional literature and student handbook pledging free speech — grounds for litigation.

Keiderling asked the seminary president for “an exemption from all upcoming trainings,” calling them “antithetical to PTS’s mission and vision” and saying they “will impinge upon our freedom of thought, and … present a profound threat to freedom of conscience.”

He added: “As fellow followers of Jesus, we have no business treating each other differently based on our race. Don’t we remember that in Christ, these distinctions have no place anymore? Or what else did the Apostle mean when he wrote that ‘in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free’? The problem of racial injustice cries to heaven. But dividing us from each other is not the way to right the wrongs.”

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“[M]y point that the training to which I object violates representations of academic freedom made by PTS on which I relied in accepting admission, and which I believe represent legally enforceable terms of the contractual relationship between PTS and me,” Keiderling responded.