Free Republic

(Liberty Counsel) A recent study by a pro-life research group has revealed that nearly 10 percent of colleges and universities affiliated with Christian churches, which publicly claim a historical Christian faith in their founding, have maintained a relationship with the abortion industry or have publicly expressed support for abortion. The study, conducted by Students for Life of America’s (SFLA) Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, stated the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 forced Christian colleges into a “decision year” regarding taking an official stance on abortion. The results showed that 76 out of the 767 Christian colleges investigated...

The College of the Ozarks, a private Christian college in Point Lookout, Missouri, is continuing to fight a government policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity after a judge dismissed its lawsuit.The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has agreed to expedite arguments in the case and schedule a hearing date in November. The college says the government policy is a violation of their First Amendment rights. In their complaint filed in April, officials at College of the Ozarks asked a judge to set aside a Feb. 11 memorandum from the U.S. Department of...

A Missouri Christian university is suing the Biden administration over a federal directive that its lawsuit claims requires religious schools to open their dormitories and showers based on "gender identity.” The College of the Ozarks, a four-year liberal arts college in Point Lookout, filed a lawsuit in response to a February order from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that forces any entities that receive federal dollars covered by the Fair Housing Act to place transgender-identified biological males into female dormitories and assign them as females’ roommates. The lawsuit argues that the rule forces religious schools to violate their...

When several Christian colleges sued to stop the Obama administration's proposed contraceptive mandate in 2013, their trade association briefly had their back. Forcing faith-based institutions to cover abortifacient drugs under the Affordable Care Act threatens "the religious liberty of all people and the entire nation," Edward Blews, then-president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, told the feds. When the final rule was released a few months later, however, the CCCU was reportedly silent. Several years later, not only the CCCU but some of its highest profile members are staying quiet about another potential infringement of their religious liberty:...

Dordt University, a Christian college in Sioux Center, is requiring students to sign a COVID-19-updated covenant prior to beginning the academic year. In addition to an email that requests students not attend a local church (except for virtual services), the covenant says Dordt “may require” a flu vaccine along with a COVID vaccine and leaves the door open to anything else Dordt may see fit during the year. Students will also receive a handstamp if they pass random temperature checks entering Dordt buildings. “In my opinion, the university has blatantly overstepped its boundaries and seeks to bind students’ consciences by...

Transgender son (Daughter)of strict religious missionaries reveals he was kicked out of his Christian college and left HOMELESS after the school found out he'd undergone top surgery A Tennessee student who had gender reassignment surgery when his parents were out of the country was expelled from his religious private school. Yanna Awtrey, 21, who was born female but now identities as male, was a student at Welch College, a four-year Free Will Baptist school in Nashville. However just hours after undergoing top surgery to remove his breast tissue in early August, he received an email informing him he had been...

AUSTIN, Texas — Some Christian schools have encountered hospitals and schools that refuse to accept their nursing and education students for jobs and internships, Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, told The Christian Post. The students are being turned away due to the colleges' understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman. The problem is not widespread, Hoogstra explained, but it is an issue that the CCCU has been dealing with and is concerned about for the future. "There have been small pockets in the United States where Christian colleges that have held...

A private Christian college in Pennsylvania is under fire after a former student took to Facebook to explain how he was turned away from finishing his degree because he is gay. Clarks Summit University, formerly known as Baptist Bible College, has defended its decision not to readmit a former student Gary Campbell. Campbell applied to be re-enrolled at the school this fall so that he could finally finish his last six credits and earn a degree 15 years after he left the university and eventually joined the U.S. Navy. At the end of August, Campbell asked his friends on Facebook...

Two months after Canada’s Supreme Court ruled against what would have been the country’s first Christian law school, Trinity Western University (TWU) has dropped its controversial community covenant. TWU’s quest to open a law school had stalled in court for years after several provincial law societies refused to accredit would-be graduates, citing the covenant’s prohibition of sex outside of traditional marriage. Canadian law schools require the approval of provincial law societies to operate. Last Thursday, TWU’s board of governors decided to drop the covenant altogether. "Let there be no confusion regarding the board of governors’ resolution; our mission remains the...

A federal court has ruled that four Christian universities based in Oklahoma will not be penalized for refusing to provide health care coverage for the birth control services they consider contrary to their religious beliefs. In 2013, Mid-America Christian University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, and Southern Nazarene University filed suit against the Obama administration over their mandate that forced most employers, regardless of religious convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and contraception. A decision released Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma granted relief for the four universities, in large part...

You know those stories that make you roll your eyes so far back in your head you think they might get stuck there? This hot mess from POLITICO is one of those stories:From POLITICO (sorry!): Maybe you’ve never heard of Hillsdale. Or maybe you hadn’t heard about the school before it precipitated a floor fight in the Senate during tax bill negotiations last fall. But the tiny Christian college with a graduate school in statesmanship, a strong conservative bent and roots in an anti-slavery Baptist church, has long been a treasured institution in right-of-center circles—known for its required classical liberal...

You’ve waffled on the issue too long, dissident leader tells CCCUShe saw the warning signs, but didn’t act until it was too late.Nearly a year after taking the reins of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities – following the messy and expensive firing of its last chief – President Shirley Hoogstra is dealing with a potential revolt of its members.Because CCCU took no action after two of its members recently changed their hiring policies to allow same-sex married couples as faculty and staff, the organization lost a high-profile member, Tennessee’s Union University.For almost two years CCCU has known of...

Two Christian colleges located in states that had their same-sex marriage bans struck down by the United States Supreme Court's June 26 decision that nationally legalized same-sex marriage are offering employment benefits to legally recognized same-sex spouses of school employees. The employment practices of Hope College, a small Reformed liberal arts school in Holland, Michigan, and the nondenominational Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, will both comply with their states' new legal definitions on marriage after the high court's ruling. On Monday, Hope College President John Knapp sent an email to the Hope community explaining that while Hope will continue to...

Title shortened because of space limitation. Complete title: Christian Colleges' Right to Deny Married Housing for Gay Couples Is 'on the Edge of the Indefensible,' Barry Lynn Asserts WASHINGTON — Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced Monday the launch of an "aggressive" initiative to combat any state or federal legislation, or court ruling seeking to protect religious objectors of same-sex marriage from government consequence for living according to their religious convictions. The organization, which advocates a strict separation view of the religious freedom clauses of the First Amendment, has started the "Protect Thy Neighbor" project, which will...

Myron Guiler wept. I held the telephone receiver in my hand and listened as the Ohio pastor became overwhelmed with emotion. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “I can’t stand to see these 120 children go. It’s my heart. I’ve poured my life into it.” Guiler is the president of Marietta Bible College, a small unaccredited school that provides Bible training mostly for impoverished international students. The college is a ministry of the Marietta Bible Center Church. On Sunday – Pastor Guiler delivered the bad news to his congregation – the federal government had denied their recertification for a program that allows...

In a decision that drew an unusually fierce dissent from the three female justices, the Supreme Court sided Thursday with religiously affiliated nonprofit groups in a clash between religious freedom and women’s rights. The decision temporarily bars the government from enforcing against a Christian college part of the regulations that provide contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The court’s order was brief, provisional and unsigned, but it drew a furious reaction from the three female justices — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan — who said the court had betrayed a promise it made on Monday...

A federal court has blocked the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing its birth control mandate on two Christian colleges, Dordt College in Iowa and Cornerstone University in Michigan, while their cases move forward. The preliminary injunction was granted for three reasons, U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett wrote: 1) The plaintiffs, Dordt and Cornerstone, "may suffer irreparable harm" because "they would be forced to comply" with the birth control mandate "to the detriment of their religious exercise." 2) On balance, the plaintiffs would suffer more than the defendants. The worst that could happen if the government...

FORT WORTH – The chaplain at a Christian university in Texas on Tuesday defended the university’s decision to set aside a room on campus for Muslim students to pray, saying it was the Biblical thing do to. The Rev. Dr. Robert Kenji Flowers, chaplain at Texas Wesleyan University and also an adjunct world religion professor there, said in an interview with The College Fix that recent controversy over the room – which is a little over 1-years-old - came as a surprise to him. Debate over the room flared after a campus news report about the room was published last...

Last October, news broke that Shorter University, a Christian college in Rome, Georgia, had decided to ask its employees to sign a controversial pledge that affirms that they are not engaging in homosexuality, among other forbidden activities. Now, after scores of employees refused to sign the document, the college, which is affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention, has reportedly received a massive number of resignations

Thats Dr. Glenn Beck —Thanks to Liberty University Saturday morning in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty University conveyed an honorary doctorate in humanities and scientists on Mormon conservative media heavyweight Glenn Beck. Breaking into his trademark tears, Beck told the stadium of 8,000 Liberty University grads and 20,000 friends and family members, "as a man who was never able to go to college—I went for one semester but I couldnt afford any more than that---I am humbled and honored." This was such an inspiring speech, gave me chills. My sister will graduate from Liberty next year, it is truly a great place....