Wheaton College fires chaplain for conduct
Wheaton College announced Friday it has dismissed the school’s chaplain for “inappropriate comments and actions of a racial and sexual nature” toward staff members.
In an email to students, staff and faculty of the evangelical Christian college, the school’s president said the action was taken against Tim Blackmon after an outside review of his conduct.
“While Reverend Blackmon did not engage in sexually immoral relationships or physical sexual misconduct, the investigation revealed conduct inconsistent with Wheaton’s policies and commitments,” college President Philip Ryken wrote. “Following this investigation and adjudication, as well as a trustee review process, Tim Blackmon is no longer employed at Wheaton College.”
Ryken’s email provided no further specifics about the nature of the alleged comments and actions.
The behavior dates to late last year, with a more than four-month investigation concluding in April. Blackmon was fired May 26, but the college held off on making an announcement for more than a month.
It did not explain the delay.
Blackmon continued to serve as chaplain during the investigation. On March 19, he wrote a pastoral letter to the campus community about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don’t know a single person for whom the pandemic has been easy,” Blackmon wrote in a letter posted on Wheaton’s website. “To make matters worse, we do not know the answers to all the human ‘what, when, where, why, how and now what’ questions. Considering all our uncertainties, I’ve been taking life and ministry one day at a time.”
Blackmon did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
He is a native of the Netherlands and a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Blackmon was hired as chaplain in 2015 after serving as senior pastor and head of staff at the American Protestant Church of The Hague in the Netherlands. He previously had been pastor at River Rock Church in Folsom, California.