California State University: an odd decision on student orgs

(The Christian Institute) - Christian groups at California State University have been stripped of recognition because they refused to sign a policy which would require them to open their membership and leadership to all students, including non-Christians.

Groups that do not sign the new policy lose free access to meeting rooms, are barred from student fairs and cannot receive funding from student associations.

The move has been heavily criticised by members of a nationwide campus ministry and a legal expert.

Ironic

Greg Jao, National Field Director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said that leaders of religious organisations cannot be expected to sign the policy because their beliefs form a central part of their identity.

He said: “It’s an irony for us that, in the name of inclusion, they’re eliminating religious groups because of their religious beliefs.

“My understanding of an inclusive, welcoming university is to accept people based on their own beliefs.”

’Absurd’

Edward Whelan, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington DC, also raised concerns.

He said: “What we’re seeing more broadly is part of an assault of secular progressivism on the classical liberal understanding of American society.”

Previously such a policy would have been viewed as “absurd”, he commented, as it would involve telling student political bodies to appoint leaders from an opposite political stance.

’Assault’

In 2006, The University of Birmingham Christian Union in the UK was ejected from the Guild of Students for refusing to have non-Christians in leadership.

The Christian Union had its bank accounts frozen and was prevented from having free room hire in the university.

However, last year it was readmitted to the Guild of Students and is permitted to have a leadership team made up of students who are in sympathy and agreement with the Christian Union’s Basis of Faith.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 6, 2014 at 12:08 PM

    So now, Christian groups can't get this secular university to pay their expenses anymore. They're still allowed to exist; in most universities, unrecognized student organizations can even use university facilities (though one of the students would have to reserve them in his or her own name, or they could just take their chances with unreserved spaces). When I was in college about ten years ago, I was part of several unrecognized student groups, including one Christian one; we never had any trouble, though we never did grow beyond about ten people.

    This policy would also affect Jewish, Islamic, Pagan, &c. student groups, though I haven't heard them complaining as much so far.

    ReplyDelete

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