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Students Protest School Library’s Rejection of Christian Books on Homosexuality

By Shea Connelly Cavalier Daily Editor's Note: Shea Connelly is a writer for the Cavalier Daily, the leading news source for the University of Virginia. This article was brought to CNN.com by UWIRE, the leading provider of student-generated content. UWIRE aims to identify and promote the brightest young content creators and deliver their work to a larger audience via professional media partners such as CNN.com. Visit UWIRE.com to learn more. Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. kicked off the voter drive by urging students to register locally. (UWIRE) -- The commonwealth of Virginia has traditionally been a Republican stronghold -- the last...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking. Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no...

A senior at Missouri State University, studying social work, she’d already helped found a Christian sorority, and was investing a lot of her free time in a place called ‘The Potter’s House,” a local Christian outreach barely disguised as a coffee shop. She was excited about her growing faith, but increasingly eager to put that faith into action. “I kept asking God, ‘Why aren’t You using me?’” she remembers. “Is there something wrong with me? Am I not strong enough?” And yet, by her own admission, Emily was not exactly the type to find a fray and fling herself into...

Shippensburg group claims rights violated Thursday, May 08, 2008 BY JOHN BEAUGE For The Patriot-News A campus religious group claims Shippensburg University is violating its right to free speech by threatening its student organization status, in part because the group requires its president to be a man. The Christian Fellowship of Shippensburg University, in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, accused the school of violating terms of a 2004 settlement in a different case that also involved the right to free speech. In that case, two students claimed the university's student code of conduct improperly barred students from such activities as...

Students at the Mount Vernon, Ohio, school district have called a 'take-your-Bible-to-school day" tomorrow in support of a popular teacher who has been ordered to keep his Bible hidden while students are in his classroom. Coach Dave Daubenmire of Pass The Salt Ministries and Minutemen United, who is acting as a spokesman for teacher John Freshwater, told WND the campaign has been organized by students using cell phones, text messaging and e-mails. WND reported just one day earlier when the dispute arose, with orders from school officials for Freshwater to hide his Bible from students and Freshwater's decision to not...

court in Wisconsin has been asked to suspend immediately a policy in the Tomah Area School District that bans Christian symbols in students' artwork, but allows Hindu, Buddhist and satanic representations. The motion was filed yesterday by the Alliance Defense Fund, which has taken on the case of a student identified by the initials A.P. The ADF launched a lawsuit on the student's behalf after a teacher refused to give him a grade on a project because his work included "John 3:16" as well as "As sign of love." The school district, however, openly acknowledged and publicized various pieces of...

The annual "Day of Silence," sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), will be celebrated in many public schools next week. This event encourages students to remain silent on April 25. GLSEN claims the event counteracts bullying, but it is merely promoting an anti-heterosexual viewpoint. Schools can teach students the value of respect without accepting GLSEN’s propaganda event. Many states, like Florida, for example, have laws that require abstinence-based education when sexuality is discussed. In those states the school cannot recognize the Day of Silence without promoting abstinence. Liberty Counsel is encouraging students to mount a counter-celebration to...

A community college in New York has been presented with a demand letter from the American Center for Law and Justice to halt a professor's classroom practices that allegedly have damaged at least one student – so far. The letter from the ACLJ targets Suffolk County Community College and will be the prelude to a federal lawsuit if the issue isn't resolved, the organization said. At issue is a professor's demand that students "change their own personal viewpoints or state that they are unsure of whether their own personal beliefs are correct" on religious issues, according to the letter. That...

During an era when two-thirds of young Catholics say they can be good Catholics without going to mass and many believe in a woman's right to choose abortion and view premarital sex as morally acceptable, Karen and David Hickey might be considered renegades - because they are so devout. The lives of the suburban couple and their five young children revolve around the Catholic Church, and they stand out as devoted because so many others do not follow the teachings of their church to the letter. For the Hickeys and a community of young, conservative Catholics who piously follow the...

Washington, DC) – The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), focusing on constitutional law, said today it is demanding that a community college in New York end its hostility toward a Christian student who has been punished because of her religious beliefs. The ACLJ represents Gina DeLuca, a student at Suffolk County Community College (SCCC), who has received lower grades and has been labeled “closed-minded” by a professor who requires students to acknowledge the possibility that God does not exist in order to participate in a philosophy class. The ACLJ has sent a letter demanding that the school end...

A pair of Albany teenagers suspended for "gang-related behavior" because they were wearing crucifixes say they were only wearing gifts from their mothers. Jaime Salazar, 14, his friend Marco Castro, 16, were suspended from South Albany High School recently after they refused to put away the crucifixes they were wearing around their necks. Salazar said Principal Chris Equinoa saw his necklace and told him to put it away. "I was like, why?" Salazar said. "He says it's related to gangs." Salazar said he argued and was sent to the office. Instead, he went home. Later, he received a note saying...

Persistence helps student pro-lifer make impact Ed Thomas - OneNewsNow - 2/9/2008 12:00:00 PM A student will drop her lawsuit against Westmont High School of San Jose, California, after the school agreed to give a pro-life student club the same recognition and privileges of other clubs on campus. An attorney for the student says her written request to the school to start the "Live Action - Pro-Life Club'' and receive standard rights and benefits was denied on the basis that it was too controversial -- even though other clubs granted recognition status included a Gay Straight Alliance club. David Cortman...

He's played all but 20 snaps for a team competing for a national championship, but on the night he proved how much he truly means to his school, LSU's 317-pound left tackle wasn't on the football field. --snip-- I am the left tackle for the LSU Tigers football team. I'm also number 70 and I saw you wearing that jersey number, that's a great number by the way :). You know some people see us as heroes because of how we play but the truth is people like yourself are the real heroes. I see all the small problems I...

Two state lawmakers have introduced similar measures designed to protect students from religious discrimination. But critics say no such protections are needed. ...The legislation would require that an expression by a student of a religious viewpoint be treated in the same way as an expression of any secular viewpoint. Both measures would prohibit school districts from discriminating against students based on religious viewpoints and would require every district in the state to adopt a written policy to prohibit such discrimination...

DENVER - A gunman walked into a training center for young Christian missionaries in a Denver suburb early Sunday and opened fire, wounding at least four people. ADVERTISEMENT The shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Youth With a Mission center, Arvada Police spokeswoman Susan Medina said. The extent of the injuries was not clear, and the gunman was still at large Sunday morning. According to its Web site, Youth With a Mission has about 1,000 locations worldwide and trains people to become missionaries. About 50 people were inside the Arvada site when the gunman opened fire.

The 2007 Heisman Trophy goes to Florida's Tim Tebow...

The December 3rd 2007 issue of Sports Illustrated will be of special interest to education reformers. Next to the cover photo of Chase Daniel, the University of Missouri’s plucky quarterback, is a smaller photo of Tim Tebow. Tebow is also a QB, but he conducts his business, not on the plains but in “the Swamp,” the football stadium at the University of Florida in Gainesville. All of 20 years old, he is a serious contender for this year’s coveted Heisman Trophy, the annual award given to the most outstanding collegiate football player in the nation. If the strapping 6’3” 235...

BATON ROUGE, La. After Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, school officials decided that an immediate course correction was in order. They have now agreed to permit a Christian student to use school buses for a field trip for her One Way Club, just like her classmates in the Arabic Club or the Gay-Straight Alliance can. According to its official website, the school is "[a] Celebration in Excellence and Creativity and Individuality . . ." As their initial decision was a clear denial of granting equal access to all students, that celebration of "Individuality"...

Raging ideological battles in both California and Iowa reached new levels last week when students packed up their backpacks and left their public schools. In California, parents staged a two-day boycott, pulling students from state schools in protest of SB 777, a bill force-feeding children perverse material and videos vile enough to garner an R-rating in the local multiplex. Meanwhile in Iowa, distressed parents removed up to 200 students after one public high school sponsored an event encouraging students to bend their gender by cross-dressing. Evidently, some are beginning to wake up to the fact that their children are no...

Bowden accused of imposing religious beliefs on players ACLU wants Clemson to stop coach's annual team trip to local church The American Civil Liberties Union has accused Clemson head football coach Tommy Bowden of abusing his authority by imposing his religious beliefs on his players, and it has asked the university to discontinue the coach’s practice of strongly recommending players to participate in an annual team visit to a local church. The university on Wednesday denied the ACLU’s claim that Bowden, who is a state employee in a supervisory position, has violated the players’ constitutional rights of separation of church...

Bowden's worship event voluntary, Clemson lawyer says Tommy Bowden CLEMSON — Tommy Bowden has drawn the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union for conducting an annual "Church Day" for his football players.In correspondence obtained Wednesday by The Post and Courier, the ACLU alleged Bowden "has abused his authority as Clemson University's head football coach by imposing his strong personal religious beliefs upon student-athletes under his charge."Neil Caesar, vice president of the ACLU's South Carolina chapter, voiced those objections in a letter dated Aug. 31 to Clemson President James Barker, saying the state-run school is violating the constitutional principle of...

One of the primary advocates in an annual campaign to keep the word "Christmas" in the public square says it has donated 1,000 Christmas buttons to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) club at a high school in Maryland. The American Family Association (AFA) says the FCA chapter at Glenelg High School in Howard County was told by the school's principal that signs posted by members around campus -- for their "Operation Christmas Child" project -- needed to be changed. He allegedly forced them to cover the word "Christmas" and replace it with "Holiday." School officials did not immediately...

LINCOLN, Neb. — A Christian student group's latest attempt to show middle school students how fun the group could be was too much for school administrators to swallow. snip

Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, removed a senior as student ministries director because of theological views that some at the college called "hyper-dispensational." "The matters of concern raised were viewed as being potentially divisive and not accurately representing the theological interpretation of Northwestern College," said an August e-mail announcing Josh Strelecki's removal. Strelecki holds to three controversial beliefs: that the book of James was written for Israel and not for the church; that the church started with Paul and not at Pentecost; and that Israel was saved by faith and works, not by faith alone. Dean Paulson, Northwestern's director...

WORCHESTER, Massachusetts, September 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jesuit-run Holy Cross, the oldest Catholic college in New England, is hosting the 2007 Teen Pregnancy Institute with Planned Parenthood promoting teenage contraception. The Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy presents the conference every year, but by hosting the conference the Holy Cross Jesuits are sending the message that they have no qualms with its promotion of contraception and the presence of Planned Parenthood, which are intrinsically inimical to the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church. At this year's conference - scheduled October 24, from 8AM - 4 PM - "Messages that Matter: Strengthening...

Another absolutely disgusting example of pre-emptive dhimmitude, in the name of tolerance and multiculturalism, right here in the US: First Jell-O, now Santa. So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa’s gift shop. The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students. Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122’s five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said. Parents expect that the announcement is going to add to the tension that has been building since...

See You at the Pole™ is a student-initiated, student organized, and student-led event. That means this is all about students meeting at their school flagpole to pray—for their school, friends teachers, government, and their nation. See You at the Pole™ is not a demonstration, political rally, nor a stand for or against anything. See You at the Pole™ is scheduled annually on the fourth Wednesday in September, which is September 26 in 2007. The suggested starting time is 7 a.m. If that doesn't work for your school, choose a time that will work for your school, but let everyone at...

Snapped Shot has an update on the situation at George Mason University, where the Muslim Student Association has basically taken over a “shared meditation room” and is intimidating Christian students who try to use it:

FARMINGTON, September 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm today announced that United States District Judge Victoria A. Roberts has entered a permanent injunction granting equal rights to a Bible club and its members at Farmington High School in Farmington, Michigan. The Law Center represents ALIVE, a voluntary student Bible club, its president and co-founder, Aaron Grider, and his parents. In 2006, Grider had requested that ALIVE be recognized by the school as a noncurriculum-related student group and receive the same treatment and benefits that other noncurriculum-related student groups receive at Farmington...

So according to the wisdom of the public education establishment, a high-school valedictorian should lose her diploma for – not cheating, not plagiarism, but 30 seconds of telling her classmates about her faith in Jesus. The U.S. Constitution compels them, you see. It's clearly there under the Separation Clause that everyone in education knows about. Funny thing about that, though... But first, here's what happened. There were 15 valedictorians in the graduating class of 2006 at Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument, Colorado, and Erica Corder was one of them. With so many top students and so little time, the school...

An evangelical Christian campus group that was expelled from Savannah State University is in a legal battle with the college over the question of whether the practice of foot-washing can be considered hazing. On Aug. 24, a federal judge denied efforts by the Georgia school to have the entire case dismissed. The student group, Commissioned II Love, was recognized as an official organization in 2003 but was later suspended and then expelled in 2006, after some students complained to university police that its members engaged in "practices that are not unlike (that) of a cult," such as "foot washings" and...

An article in my local newspaper recently covered the story of a young 14-year old Muslim girl, Yasmeen Flamra from Cliffside Park, N.J., with a heading "Schools become Muslim friendly." Yasmeen had a simple request: All she wanted to do was to go off by herself for a few moments to pray. I checked with Google and found that this story had been covered pretty much throughout the nation. Her family contacted a Muslim advocacy group, The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which asked the school district to reconsider its initial denial of the request. When Christian children cannot bend their...

DENVER — A student who said she was told she wouldn't get her diploma unless she apologized for a commencement speech in which she mentioned Jesus has filed a lawsuit alleging her free speech rights were violated. The school district contends its actions were "constitutionally appropriate." Erica Corder was one of 15 valedictorians at Lewis-Palmer High School in 2006. All were invited to speak for 30 seconds at the graduation ceremony. When it was Corder's turn, she encouraged the audience to get to know Jesus Christ. Corder had not included those remarks during rehearsals. [snip] The lawsuit said Brewer would...

Convinced that God has been erased from public schools, Southern Baptists are now working to open their own schools, where Jesus is writ large and Bible study is part of the daily curriculum. Church leaders are not calling for a wholesale exodus from public schools, which would be a monumental hit, considering that Southern Baptists make up the nation's largest Protestant denomination with 16 million members. Rather, they talk about alternatives to public schools capable of educating a new generation ready and willing to advocate for biblical principles rather than popular culture. "In the public schools, you don't just have...

Christians take stand against university By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent Last Updated: 4:01am BST 20/08/2007 A Christian student society is going to the High Court to overturn a ruling requiring it to admit non-Christians. The Christian Union at Exeter said the ruling by an independent adjudicator would mean Muslims or atheists could become its leaders. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is backing the organisation. His successor, Dr Rowan Williams, has criticised the "suppression" of Christian groups on campuses. The 350-strong Union was told by the Students' Guild, which regulates student bodies, last year that it may lose its...

David French has known for years that college campuses are bastions of anti-evangelical bias. He knew it when he served on the admissions committee at Cornell Law School and watched his colleagues ridicule evangelical applicants as "Bible thumpers" or members of the "God squad." He knew it during his tenure with an education watchdog organization that routinely challenged university speech codes bent on silencing evangelical viewpoints. He knew it when he shifted into his current role as director of the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom, a position from which he's filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of victimized evangelical...

Virginia Students Prepare for 28th Year of Student-Initiated Sidewalk Counseling/Prayer By John JalsevacFRONT ROYAL, Virginia, August 8, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - College students are not exactly renowned for their ability to wake up at the crack of dawn, especially on Saturday mornings, when they typically catch up on a week's lost sleep and recover from a hard night of partying the night before.Yet, at one small college in Virginia, for almost three decades now, students have woken up as early as 6:30am every single Saturday morning when school is in session, to attend 7:00 Mass and then travel the hour and...

University of Colorado police are investigating a series of threatening messages and documents e-mailed to and slipped under the door of evolutionary biology labs on the Boulder campus. The messages included the name of a religious-themed group and addressed the debate between evolution and creationism, CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said. Wiesley would not identify the group named because police are still investigating. "There were no overt threats to anybody specifically by name," Wiesley said. "It basically said anybody who doesn't believe in our religious belief is wrong and should be taken care of." The first threat was e-mailed to...

Young America’s Foundation is pleased to release its third annual “Top Ten Conservative College” list in response to the frequently asked question of which colleges we recommend to those seeking conservative colleges. Each year, hundreds of thousands of students begin their college search. Admission guides, seminars, advice from friends, and help from advisors all offer different perspectives. Presented with so many options, confusion often clouds this important decision-making process. Given the requests for Young America’s Foundation’s recommendations, and to aid in making the right decision, we are proud to release our third annual “Top Ten Conservative Colleges” list. A wide...

As many Townhall readers may remember, I spent last week blogging from Grove City College’s Center for Vision and Values conference on “The De-Christianization of Europe: From Nicea to Nietzsche”. It was a privilege to be a part of this highly philosophical, conservatively intellectual examination into the decomposition of Christian values that’s taking place across the world. Grove City truly is a bastion for principled education and it was refreshing to observe the students as they interacted with some of the brightest minds in modern religious studies. Following the Virginia Tech travesty, I reflected again on my experience at Grove...

Giuliani gets a standing ovation at Pat Robertson's university. It was June 26, and Rudy Giuliani was surprised. This was his first visit to Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the headquarters of televangelist and onetime GOP presidential candidate Pat Robertson's media and education efforts. The Regent campus was much larger than Giuliani had expected. The former New York City mayor was at Regent to participate in the school's executive leadership speaking series. For the pro-choice Giuliani, the speech at Regent demonstrated his willingness to campaign anywhere, including before religious conservatives, for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Robertson, the host...

Yesterday, New York City Council Member Tony Avella introduced his Department of Education Holiday Display Resolution (Reso. 930/2007).  Avella’s bill calls for a nativity scene to appear alongside the menorah and crescent and star in New York City schools.  Currently, the schools allow only a Christmas tree, a secular symbol of the Christian holiday, to stand in its winter holiday displays.  On Sunday, Avella held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to discuss this resolution.  He was joined by Catholic League president Bill Donohue, Brian Rooney of the Thomas More Law Center, representatives from the Ladies Ancient...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Mayor Giuliani's battle to win over social conservatives in the Republican Party may not be the impossible task that many political pundits have predicted. That certainly appeared to be the case yesterday at Regent University, the Christian college founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, where Mr. Giuliani's message of leadership and strength on terrorism met with a standing ovation. In a 30-minute address to more than 650 students and business leaders, Mr. Giuliani never uttered the word abortion, nor did he make any other direct reference to the social issues on which his moderate positions are largely...

Did you feel the huge atmospheric gust that just surged across the United States? Public school bureaucrats exhaled a collective sigh of relief as springtime graduations concluded, and with them those dreaded valedictory speeches. Concluded, that is, until next year’s crop of valedictorians ripen, and skittish administrators feel compelled to vet students’ graduation remarks. It’s nerve-wracking for public school officials - especially if those brainiacs are believers. Like dandelions, they are, those pesky Christian kids who pop up to spoil a perfectly secularized landscape. Worse yet; if those religious seedlings excel academically, they earn the privilege of speaking at their...

Lydia Playfoot wanted to wear a ring to school—a ring that symbolized her commitment to remain chaste until marriage. But school authorities said no—and punished her for wearing it. It’s an example of the growing hostility to the Christian faith in the public schools—both in Great Britain and in America. Lydia Playfoot belongs to an organization called The Silver Ring Thing, similar to the American True Love Waits program. The ring is engraved with a verse from 1 Thessalonians, warning believers to avoid sexual sin. But Lydia’s high school in South London has a rule against jewelry—and forbade her to...

A Christian schoolgirl who was banned from wearing a "purity ring" by her school is taking her case to the High Court. Lydia Playfoot, 16, is one of a group of Christians at the Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, who wear the ring. They are engraved with a Biblical verse as a sign of the wearer's belief in abstinence from sex until marriage. She claims her secondary school, which allows Muslim and Sikh students to wear headscarfs and religious bracelets, is breaching her human rights. Miss Playfoot will argue her right to express her religious beliefs under Article Nine...

San Diego public school students may have some time set aside in their school day to invoke Allah's blessings, ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, or praise the Lord -- if Christian and Jewish students have religious rights equal to those of Muslims. In the early 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited state sponsorship of prayers in public schools. But now the question has a new slant as some schools have taken steps to accommodate Muslim students’ strict obligation to pray five times a day towards Mecca. Should schools accommodate the rights of Christians, Jews, and other believers as...

As a girl in Catholic school, Khadijah Rivera told religion writer Anthony Chiorazzi, she dreamed of becoming a nun despite the fact she feared Jesus. She was frightened by her church’s bloodied statue of Christ. Years later, as an adult, she says she has now gotten over those fears and learned to love Jesus more. The reason for her change of heart? Rivera converted to Islam. According to Chiorazzi, who writes for Busted Halo, "an online magazine for spiritual seekers," Latino Muslims in the U.S. may number close to 100,000, more than doubling their numbers in less than a decade....

SCHOOL chiefs are today under fire for banning pupils from wearing crosses in class while allowing the jewel­lery of other faiths. Christian groups and politicians condemned the education bosses and accused them of ­“double standards”. The officials have told headteachers to ban jewellery except in “exceptional circumstances” when schools need to be “sensitive” towards other faiths. The “exceptions” include lockets worn by Muslims and Hindu bracelets. But even Muslim leaders have join­ed the condemnation, arguing that all religious groups, including Christian­s, should be treated the same. The guidance, issued to headteachers in Croydon, south London, has echoes of the row...