Judge Sides with Christian Student Group Kicked Off Campus and Calls Out College’s Hypocrisy

A Christian student group at the University of Iowa requires leaders of the group to believe the Bible. Business Leaders In Christ (BLinC) allows the unsaved to be members, but leaders have to be Christians who support its statement of faith.

A homosexual student wanted a leadership position in BLinC and refused to agree to the group’s statement of faith, which reiterates what the Bible teaches about sexual morality.

After the student filed a complaint, the taxpayer-supported school removed BLinC from campus.

The group sued the school and sought a preliminary injunction to be allowed back on campus. In what the Washington Examiner calls a “surprising break for religious liberty issues,” the court granted the group’s request, a ruling that should be the norm, not the exception.

An excerpt:

Membership in BLinC is open to all university students, but to preserve its mission — not unlike groups on campus with other, different visions — BLinC asks its leaders to affirm that they abide by specific religious beliefs. A gay student sought a leadership position and was declined, so he complained about BLinC’s leadership requirements and its beliefs concerning Christian beliefs about marriage. In response, university administrators responded by kicking BLinC off campus and told it to “revise” its Statement of Faith and submit an “acceptable plan” for selecting leaders if it wanted back on.

The judge in the case, Life Site noted, said that the school wasn’t consistently enforcing its so-called anti-discrimination policy. For example, the Muslim student group that excludes non-Muslims is still campus. As mentioned before, BLinC allows non-Christians to join.

“BLinC’s motion is granted based solely upon the university’s selective enforcement of an otherwise reasonable and viewpoint neutral nondiscrimination policy,” the judge wrote. More from Life Site:

When Judge Rose asked why UI hadn’t punished the Muslim group or others that limit leadership, the school’s lawyer said enforcement of its anti-discrimination policy is in response to complaints, and UI hadn’t received any other complaints.

Even Marcus Miller’s [the student who complained] own gay religious organization requires executive officers to “sign and agree to (its) Mission and Statement of Core Beliefs.”

Photo credit: By Vkulikov – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link