Hi it’s Leslie Harris filling in for Mitch Michaels. A 64 year old plaque is being replaced at Wheaton College. The plaque refers to indigenous people as savages.

Students and staff were concerned about the term according to the president of Wheaton college. The plaque has been hanging in the foyer of the college’s main chapel, and it commemorates five missionaries who were killed in Ecuador in 1956, including three alumni of Wheaton college. School officials will most likely be replacing the plaque and the new wording will be carefully considered.

Wheaton College president Philip Ryken said in a letter to the students and staff:

“he word Savage is regarded as pejorative and has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat indigenous peoples around the world. Any descriptions on our campus of people or people groups should reflect the full dignity of human beings made in the image of God.”