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Christian group kicked off campus for requiring its leaders to be Christian
Washington Examiner ^ | 8/9/18 | Nicole Russell

Posted on 08/10/2018 3:59:53 PM PDT by markomalley

Another student-led group is suing a university because the school kicked the group off campus for requiring student leaders to agree with their faith tenets. The University of Iowa told InterVarsity Christian Fellowship they weren’t allowed to hold their meetings on campus because they require their members to hold to specific faith standards and kicked them out — in response, InterVarsity sued.

The University of Iowa did the same thing last year with Business Leaders in Christ, or BLinC. This kind of blatant discrimination — one that infringes on religious freedom via the pretense of protecting other kids’ feelings — is happening regularly among secular universities and it needs to stop.

College administrators need to realize that collegiate groups who form and require their members to meet specific standards is hardly discrimination. The University of Iowa appears to be so bent on political correctness they are punishing all kinds of organizations that do this, including the Sikh Awareness Club, the Chinese Student Christian Fellowship, the Imam Mahdi Organization, and the Latter-day Saint Student Association, and banned those groups too. Fraternities and sororities have similar specific standards (unrelated to faith of course), yet they are allowed to continue to meet per usual.

InterVarsity has been a part of campus life for more than two decades. All students are welcome, but just like the 500-plus other student groups on campus, it has a distinct mission and asks its leaders to embrace their specific faith tenets. Despite this history, in June, the university abruptly ordered the group to drop its religious leadership standards within two weeks. They said the leaders of the groups could not even be “strongly encouraged” to share its faith. In July, after InterVarsity explained why it couldn’t ask its members to quiet their conscience, the university officially deregistered the group, along with several other groups with specific ideological faith requirements.

Kristina Schrock, student president of InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship, is disappointed at the university’s blatant attempt to squelch religious freedom in the name of feigned concern over discrimination to others. “We’re grateful to have been part of the University community for 25 years, and we think that the University has been a richer place for having Sikh, Muslim, Mormon, Catholic, Jewish, atheist, and Christian groups. Because we love our school, we hope it reconsiders and lets religious groups continue to authentically reflect their religious roots,” she said in a statement provided by Becket, the legal organization representing InterVarsity.

Political correctness in society at large is taking root and propagating at the collegiate level, and this kind of religious discrimination is an example. It’s not only unconstitutional, but it’s an attempt to bend to the whims of social justice warriors and it needs to stop.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: ac; academicbias; aclu; antichristianbigotry; christianstudents; faithandphilosophy; gramsci; intervarsity; mediawingofthednc; partisanmediashills; persecution; pfaw; presstitutes; religiousliberty; smearmachine
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1 posted on 08/10/2018 3:59:53 PM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley

Do the muslim groups permit their chef to fix non-halal meals?


2 posted on 08/10/2018 4:02:27 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
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To: markomalley

Maybe the white kids should start an “African American” club, with white executives.

It’ll have white membership, and any black members who want to join.


3 posted on 08/10/2018 4:04:07 PM PDT by Maceman (We need a temporary ban on Muslims just until churches and synagogues can be built in Mecca.)
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To: markomalley

I bet they wouldn’t demand that the Muslim Students Union let in Christians, Jews , Buddhists and atheists in or kick THEM off campus.

OR require the Black Student Union allow in whiteys and asians.


4 posted on 08/10/2018 4:05:02 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: markomalley

FIRE(Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). Thomas More Law Center.


5 posted on 08/10/2018 4:06:19 PM PDT by omega4412
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To: Maceman; a fool in paradise

You guys beat me to it.


6 posted on 08/10/2018 4:06:29 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: markomalley

Now that Universities across America have become nothing more than Communist indoctrination camps, there really is no excuse to continue any federal aid or support whatsoever.


7 posted on 08/10/2018 4:08:45 PM PDT by Dogbert41 (When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. -Luke 11:21)
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To: markomalley

.... I wonder if the “Student Body President has to be a Student or would that be discriminatory?


8 posted on 08/10/2018 4:08:53 PM PDT by R_Kangel (BTW)
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To: markomalley

Oh my!! Kids acting like angry, power elite, spoiled kids who are used to having their way.. by parents who set them up for disappointments they can’t handle.


9 posted on 08/10/2018 4:09:10 PM PDT by frnewsjunkie
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To: R_Kangel

Non-student agitators on campuses in the 60s were a big thing.

They don’t want to be elected class president, they want to seize whole buildings by threat and brute force.


10 posted on 08/10/2018 4:12:39 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
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To: markomalley

Why would anyone send their kid to a place like that? Deny them your money, and write your legislators and tell them you will not patronize them.
Then last, burn jerseys and other Iowa crap on youtube if you have it.


11 posted on 08/10/2018 4:18:12 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: frnewsjunkie

Do you mean the Christian kids, or the others?

Christianity is a strange thing to the world when done to the uttermost. The world can put up with a lot of ceremony. It can’t put up with the love mandates of Christianity which by nature have to disagree with evil and with faux loves.


12 posted on 08/10/2018 4:19:16 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Tryin' hard to win the No-Bull Prize.)
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To: markomalley
Another student-led group is suing a university...

Keep it up. Universities despise going to court. They're used to being prosecutor, judge, and jury. They hate separation of powers.
13 posted on 08/10/2018 4:20:00 PM PDT by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: markomalley

What kind of sick person even wants to lead a religous group for a religion they don’t have faith in? What about groups that share views on secular matters? Should an modeen art appreciation club, for example, be forced to allow leaders who maintain all modern art is garbage?


14 posted on 08/10/2018 4:20:02 PM PDT by AndyTheBear
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To: markomalley

So...the university leadership established a fixed moral requirement that student groups’ leadership position have no fixed moral requirement.


15 posted on 08/10/2018 4:31:06 PM PDT by ameribbean expat (Socialism is like a nude beach - - sounds great til you actually get there. -- David Burge.)
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To: markomalley

Appears overall there is more and more discrimination and repression bubbling to the surface
that targets groups ‘progressive’ entities disapprove of and want to crush.


16 posted on 08/10/2018 4:36:01 PM PDT by kanawa (Trump Loves a Great Deal)
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To: AndyTheBear

Some sick sick persons. Spiritual trouble causers.


17 posted on 08/10/2018 4:45:58 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Tryin' hard to win the No-Bull Prize.)
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To: LegendHasIt

The campus muslims are laughing, and wringing their hands.


18 posted on 08/10/2018 4:50:58 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: markomalley

Many years ago I belonged to The Mothers Club. Guess it’s full of men now.


19 posted on 08/10/2018 4:53:18 PM PDT by ryderann
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To: markomalley

.
Was the Muslim club kicked off too?


20 posted on 08/10/2018 4:55:40 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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