Jason Cha is the Dean of Students at Point Loma Nazarene University. During a fall leadership training session, he told colleagues that believing salvation comes through Christ alone — the doctrine that has defined Protestant Christianity for five centuries — is a manifestation of white privilege.
A dean. At a Christian university. Calling Christianity racist.
Point Loma Nazarene isn't some secular state school that happens to have a chapel. It's a private Christian institution in San Diego affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene. Tuition-paying families send their kids there specifically because it markets itself as grounded in the Christian faith. What those families got instead is an administrator whose academic career is built on framing their religion as a racial problem.
Cha's credentials tell the story. His 2023 doctoral dissertation at Azusa Pacific University was titled "Raging Waters of Whiteness: Addressing White Evangelical Racism in Higher Education." His scholarly focus areas include critical race theory, critical white studies, and evangelical postcolonial studies. He's also delivered presentations with titles like "Whiteness as Witness: Re-conceptualizing Diversity in Christian Higher Education." This isn't a man who wandered into critical theory by accident. He built an entire academic identity around applying it to the church.
The doctrine he targeted — sola fide, salvation by faith in Christ alone — isn't some niche theological debate point. It's the central claim of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther nailed it to a door in 1517. It's in the Nicene Creed. It's what makes a Christian university Christian. And the Dean of Students at one of those universities just labeled it a symptom of racial supremacy.
Point Loma's response came from Lora Fleming, Associate Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs, who said the university's mission to "confront racism, love our neighbors, and seek justice is not separate from our Christian discipleship. It flows from it." Notice what's missing from that statement: any defense of the doctrine Cha attacked. No affirmation that salvation through Christ alone is, in fact, what the school teaches. No correction. No distance from the claim. Just PR language about justice and neighbors that could have come from any secular DEI office.
The pattern is familiar enough by now. A Christian institution hires administrators steeped in critical theory. Those administrators reframe foundational Christian beliefs as power structures. The institution's leadership responds with language that sounds spiritual but concedes every inch of theological ground. By the time parents notice, the mission statement is the only Christian thing left.
Cha wasn't quoted criticizing a policy or a campus culture issue. He targeted the doctrinal core — the one belief that distinguishes Christian higher education from a liberal arts college with a cross on the brochure. If "in Christ alone" is white privilege, there is no version of orthodox Christianity that passes his test.
Point Loma Nazarene charges families to provide a Christian education. Jason Cha's dissertation calls the Christianity part racist. He's still the Dean of Students.
