Methodist-affiliated Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, hires Muslim community coordinator

Shenandoah University, a United Methodist-affiliated school in Winchester, Virginia, has announced the hiring of Hanaa Unus as its Muslim Community Coordinator. According to the commentary that reported the announcement, the school described her as its first non-Christian chaplain in 150 years.

The school’s dean of spiritual life, who is an ordained United Methodist, said Shenandoah is open to people of all faiths, or no faith, who are exploring their beliefs and seeking to lead “for the greater good.” The dean said the hire gives the university a way to act on its stated value of “a place that cherishes religious diversity.”

The commentary also noted that Emory University, another United Methodist-affiliated school, had recently hired a Unitarian Universalist as its senior chaplain. It described the United Methodist Church as having more than 100 universities and colleges, many of which it said have historically given limited attention to their church affiliation.

The report placed the hiring in the context of the February General Conference, at which the United Methodist Church reaffirmed its traditional Christian sexual standards. The commentary said several church-affiliated schools, including Shenandoah, publicly objected to that decision, and that several schools have formally disaffiliated from the denomination or plan to do so.

In a university news release, Shenandoah said, “We’ve always wanted to be more inclusive and more diverse.” Unus was quoted saying she hoped students who learn about different faiths and cultures would “go out into the diverse world and be the change-makers Shenandoah hopes they will be.”

The commentary’s author raised questions about the diversity of the university’s Office of Spiritual Life, which it said has six listed staff members and includes a cleric from Church Within a Church, an LGBTQ advocacy group. The author also asked how Unus’s views on marriage and gender relate to Islamic teaching and to official United Methodist positions. These questions and the author’s assessments of the school’s direction are the author’s own opinions and were not statements from the university.

Source: Read the original report