Campus Attack on Christianity

From: Gary L. Bauer

Campus Attack On Christianity

Everyone knows that the Left has a stranglehold on higher education. Most university professors lean to the Left, and many are avowed communists. Christian parents are relieved if their children leave college with their faith and values intact.

A U.S. Supreme Court case being argued this week highlights the hostility Christian students face. The court is considering whether a Christian student group at Hasting College of the Law in San Francisco (part of the University of California) has the right to bar openly homosexual students from leadership positions. The student group, The Christian Legal Society (CLS), disallows “unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle,” which it says includes “homosexual conduct.” The college, a public law school, decided to withdraw recognition of the group (and funding) after it refused to comply with the school’s “anti-discrimination” policy.

Let me be clear: CLS does not bar students from attending meetings and other activities. All are welcome to do so. But they exclude those who do not follow its moral code—not just homosexuals but also fornicators, adulterers, non-Christians and others—from being voting members of the group and from holding leadership positions.

All groups discriminate in some ways. Could a non-Muslim head a Muslim student organization? No. Would it make sense for a male student to hold a leadership role in a campus woman’s group? Of course not. That the school would expel a Christian group exposes the larger problem of intolerance for disfavored views in our university system.

As you might expect, the court is sharply split over the case. New Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that no group should be allowed to discriminate for any reason. But conservative Justice Antonin Scalia asked whether a campus Republican club must admit Democrats or whether a Christian group must allow atheists to join and even conduct Bible classes. “That’s crazy,” Scalia said.

Court watchers believe this case is a proxy battle for a Supreme Court debate over same-sex “marriage” sometime in the next couple years. This case will probably be a 5-to-4 decision, and it’s impossible to tell how the court will rule. Either way, the case underscores how no court appointment—especially those to the U.S. Supreme Court—should be taken lightly by men and women of faith.