The University of North Carolina-Greensboro Christian club called “Make Up Your Own Mind” was ordered to allow non-Christians lead their organization. The club has filed a federal lawsuit claiming UNC has violated First Amendment rights.
For background, read Supreme Court Ends Christian Witness on Campus - Christian College Clubs Must Accept Atheists and also read Stripping Freedom of Religion from Vanderbilt as well as Buffalo University Favors Gays, Suspends Christian Organization
-- From "Lawsuit: University Ordered Christian Club to Allow Non-Christian Leaders" by Todd Starnes, FOXnews.com 3/1/12
[Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund,] said “Make Up Your Own Mind” has a clear religious mission and purpose and requires its members and leaders to agree with its statement of faith and beliefs about the value of innocent human life.
“Saying that a Christian club isn’t religious is flatly absurd, especially when the university has granted its belief-based exception to numerous other clubs,” he said. “The First Amendment forbids the government from determining what is and what is not ‘religious,’ yet the university is doing exactly this by telling a Christian group that it is not religious.”
However, the university contends that the club is not affiliated with a church – and therefore doesn’t meet their criteria for exemption.
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From "UNC-Greensboro: Christian club isn’t religious" posted at Alliance Defense Fund 3/1/12
UNC-Greensboro’s nondiscrimination policy contains an exemption for student groups that select their members based on a shared set of beliefs. The exemption states, “Student groups that select their members on the basis of commitment to a set of beliefs (e.g., religious or political beliefs) may limit membership and participation in the group to students who, upon individual inquiry, affirm that they support the group’s goals and agree with its beliefs.”
The “Make Up Your Own Mind” club at UNC-Greensboro applied for recognition under this exemption, but university officials denied the request, saying that the club is not religious even though the club has a clear religious mission and purpose and requires its members and leaders to agree with its statement of faith and beliefs about the value of innocent human life.
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From "Schools work to balance gay, religious rights" by The Associated Press 2/22/12
In the past 18 months, at least 41 public and private schools have reviewed the practices of Christian ministries whose policies require their leaders to have the same faith, according to the Christian campus group InterVarsity . . . after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed a law school to deny funding to a Christian group that would not admit gays.
The University of North Carolina is reviewing its student organizations after a Christian singing group expelled a gay member. And at Vanderbilt University, a private college in Tennessee, Christian groups were asked to change requirements that their leaders also be Christian. Administrators say that requirement is discriminatory.
Kim Colby, senior counsel for the Christian Legal Society, said Christian groups shouldn't be asked, and the ruling doesn't require them, to essentially erase their religious identities to comply with nondiscrimination codes.
True all comers policies are rare because they're often impractical and can lead to absurd results, said Robert Shibley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which monitors free speech issues on campuses and has criticized Vanderbilt.
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