Wednesday, December 6, 2006

When being against discrimination is being for it

Phi Beta Cons at NRO note the increasing institutional hostility to campus Christian groups. It would be nice if the universities' commitment to diversity included a commitment to diversity of viewpoint.
Yesterday, the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against officials at the University of Georgia challenging the university's refusal to recognize a Christian fraternity because - yes, you guessed it - the fraternity requires that its members be Christian....

Universities insist that the wave of derecognitions has nothing to do with anti-Christian animus and has everything to do with "defending students from discrimination." ....

Yet who is suffering when Christian groups reserve leadership and membership for Christian students? Are there thousands (or hundreds or dozens or even a couple) of Hindu and Muslim students who are frustrated in their efforts to join Christian groups? Of course not. In reality, universities are not interested in protecting students from religious discrimination.... Instead, they are striking at the heart of what these Christian groups teach and believe. The universities want to "protect" their student bodies from dissent - especially on matters of personal morality. And it is so much easier to silence dissent when that speech and the groups that support that speech are branded as "discriminators."
Source: Phi Beta Cons on National Review Online

Update: 12/8/06, from Phi Beta Cons:
Within a day after the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit to protect the rights of a Christian fraternity at the University of Georgia, the school reversed course, recognized the fraternity, and pledged to study its policies.

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