Wheaton College, a 143-year-old evangelical institution in the Chicago suburbs that may be best known as the alma mater of the Rev. Billy Graham, has “lifted a longtime ban on drinking and smoking in private for faculty. [College president Duane] Litfin said a key factor in that change, along with [the dropping of a former rule against dancing], was the 1991 Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, which some feared left the college vulnerable to a lawsuit. The law prohibits discrimination against employees who drink or smoke off the job unless there is a strong religious belief against the practice.” The college said it wasn’t sure its policy would stand up in court given the lack of a specific passage in the Bible proscribing alcohol use. (Meg McSherry Breslin, “It’ll be dancing by the Book”, Chicago Tribune , Oct. 24)(via Vice Squad, a new site devoted to “public policy concerning alcohol, nicotine, other drugs, proxtitution, gambling, porbography”, Oct. 24). Vice Squad in turn points to an Apr. 6 Crescat Sententia commentary in which Will Baude doubts that the college would actually have lost such a suit.
Another diversity triumph
Wheaton College, a 143-year-old evangelical institution in the Chicago suburbs that may be best known as the alma mater of the Rev. Billy Graham, has “lifted a longtime ban on drinking and smoking in private for faculty. [College president Duane] Litfin said a key factor in that change, along with [the dropping of a former […]
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