Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned amid mounting criticism over her response to antisemitism on campus and allegations of plagiarism. Gay, formerly a professor of government and African and African American studies, faced scrutiny for her handling of Hamas's attacks on Israel and received criticism for equivocal responses. Additionally, she was accused of plagiarizing other academics in multiple instances across academic papers and her Ph.D. dissertation, which the Harvard Corporation previously dismissed as “inadequate citation not reaching the level of misconduct”. On Monday, additional plagiarism accusations were circulated by the Washington Free Beacon. Gay's resignation comes after a statement of support from the governing board. Read her letter of resignation here.

Remnant Response

Harvard is an institution that originally “shielded” itself with the claim that truth was at the center of their purpose, a claim which is much easier to aspire to than it is to actually live out. (Proverbs 20:6) This tendency of committing to one thing only to be later found doing another is often referred to as “mission drift”, and it is a problem today we find universally existing in much more than Ivy League Universities. (Matthew 15:18)

Founded in 1636, Harvard’s original mission was to serve its students by committing: “To be plainly instructed and consider well that the main end of your life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ. The school “originally employed exclusively Christian professors, emphasized character formation in its students above all else, and rooted all its policies and practices in a Christian worldview… Harvard began as a school to equip ministers to share the Good News.” (Quote from, Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches) Today, Harvard, and its rival Yale, which ironically was founded 80 years later by a group of pastors who saw and were concerned by the increasing secularization of the school in Cambridge, have both been swallowed up by a “way which seems right to man but leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

Recent graduates may still find the words on their Harvard diploma which read, Christo et Ecclesiae around the word Veritas, translated, “Truth for Christ and the Church” but because there is so little truth being taught for Christ by the church we have a country that is increasingly universally secular. The solution is for the remnant to be consistently “plagiarizing” the Scriptures in word and deed (1 John 3:18) and to be found “trusting in the Lord and doing good” (Psalm 37:3) instead of “fretting because of evildoers” (Psalm 37:1). While we have an ever growing number of leaders who need to step down because they are not living lives worthy of their position, the remnant needs to step up and proclaim the Truth worthy of theirs. (Ezekiel 22:30, Romans 10:14)

By Todd Wagner