Posted on 12/07/2009 11:07:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Washington - The Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal from a Christian student group in San Francisco which refused to admit gays and lesbians and decide whether the group's right to religious liberty and freedom of association can trump a university's ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The case, to be heard next year, could set new rules for campus groups across the nation.
The University of California's Hastings College of Law says its officially recognized student groups must be open to all of its students. The law school also has a general non-discrimination policy which applies to student groups and programs. It forbids discrimination based on "race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sex or sexual orientation."
Five years ago, the Hastings chapter of the Christian Legal Society was told it could not continue as a recognized student group at the law school if its officers refused to pledge to abide by the non-discrimination rule.
For its part, the leaders of the Christian student's group cited its national policy which said, "In view of the clear dictates of Scripture, unrepentant participation in and advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle is inconsistent with an affirmation of the Statement of Faith" demanded by the Christian Legal Society.
Because the Hastings chapter would not abide by the university's policy, it lost its recognition as an official student group. This is turn meant the campus would not pay travel costs for the group's leaders to attend national meetings. The group also lost its right to use reserved rooms for meetings and, it was excluded from some newsletters or mailings that were sent to students at the law school.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I’m sure the gays don’t want to join these groups at all...it’s all about forcing an issue.Kind of like Shannon Faulkner...remember her?
-Shannon Faulkner was the first female cadet to enter The Citadel. Faulkner enrolled after a successful lawsuit against the military academy. She joined an otherwise all-male class on August 15, 1995. After four hours of the military indoctrination training, she spent the remainder of the first week in the infirmary before voluntarily resigning....-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Faulkner
Hate to say it but, disband and have more of a loose group of “friends”.
If it isn’t formal they can’t tell anyone what to do.
“This is turn meant the campus would not pay travel costs for the group’s leaders to attend national meetings. The group also lost its right to use reserved rooms for meetings and, it was excluded from some newsletters or mailings that were sent to students at the law school.”
Well I don’t think it is a surprise that the university wouldn’t pay travel expenses or include materials from this religous group in university paid newspapers. I think they could at least offer meeting space at token fee to deal with that issue.
That is one main reason why colleges like Grove City College in Pennsylvania and Hillsdale College in Michigan REFUSE to take any Federal money ( not even Federal tuition grants for their students ). The had the foresight to see Uncle Sam butting in on their autonomous affairs.
Grove City College (A Christian College) recently disciplined a Senior majoring in Molecular Biology for actually working as a porn star in violation of the school’s “morality clause”, which every student were required to adhere to.
Had this kid been a recipient of Federal aid or the college been a grantee of Federal aid, this would have been a public affair that would involve the courts in DC.
Sounds like a good move.
“unrepentant participation in and advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle”
This includes more than just being gay. It includes herterosexual couples living together, students having sex prior to marriage, guys that go to strip clubs, and people that view porn on the internet (all of which are, if not openly promoted, at least “tolerated” by mainstream Christians in the USA.)
If they are including all of the above in their definition of immoral lifestyle, then I don’t see how this is a discrimination against gays, as their sexual immoralitly isn’t singled out above any other sexual immorality.
Shanon Faulkner? Oh, yes, I now remember her/him, thanks to your reference.
Considering that the right to free exercise of religion is enshrined in the First Amendment, while the right to homosexuality is defined ...nowhere, this shouldn’t even be a contest.
But it will be.
The University of California’s Hastings College of Law says its officially recognized student groups must be open to all of its students. The law school also has a general non-discrimination policy which applies to student groups and programs. It forbids discrimination based on “race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sex or sexual orientation.”
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So the school violated its own nonn-discrimination policy by discriminating against a group based upon its religous beliefs.
Yeah. O...K...
Sadly, this type of thing has been used quite a bit on campuses across the country as a way to ban conservative and Christian groups.
This includes more than just being gay. It includes herterosexual couples living together, students having sex prior to marriage, guys that go to strip clubs, and people that view porn on the internet (all of which are, if not openly promoted, at least “tolerated” by mainstream Christians in the USA.)
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I think you meant to say “mainline” not “mainstream”.
Mainstream Christians, such as Evangelical groups do not promote or tolerate such behavior. I know my church certainly does not, nor any other Evangelical churches I know either.
However, some of the mainline churches (so call because they were near the railroad tracks), Episcopalian, Methodists, Presbyterians, ELCA, do currently subscribe to a more liberal moral theology.
Be careful what you wish for. If these students are successful in this case, the University is going to be forced to fund the Islamic Jihad Society.
“The University of California’s Hastings College of Law says its officially recognized student groups must be open to all of its students.”
Tell it to the Muslim Students Association.
I meant mainstream Christians (including those that attend evangelical churches), not mainstream churches.
I think you can make a legit case that the beliefs (as practised in the real world) of even evangelicals is often laxer than what is taught in the church they attend.
The divorce rate among evangelicals is the same as the population as a whole. I suspect you’ll find the percentage of evangelicals that commit adultery, have sex outside of marrige (before and after), and who view porn is a long, long way from zero (it probably isn’t as high as the population in generaly, but zero? No.)
My point was that the group wasn’t discriminating against gays, but had set a standard that many Christians don’t meet also.
That’s not very Christian.
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