You Won’t Believe Why the University of Iowa Kicked Almost 40 Student Groups Off Campus

Earlier this year, a court told the University of Iowa to stop discriminating against a Christian student group, Business Leaders In Christ, which requires leaders to support a statement of faith that includes the Bible’s teachings on sexual immorality.

Such a requirement wouldn’t be a big deal ordinarily. But “sexual immorality” includes homosexuality, so seeing an opportunity to demand special rights, a homosexual student complained to the school about this group’s requirements for people calling themselves Christian leaders.

The school, in American’s heartland, apparently believes homosexuals have greater rights than Christians, kicked the group off campus.

But a federal court told the school to reinstate the group in time for a recruitment fair. The judge noted the school’s hypocrisy. The University of Iowa didn’t remove a Muslim student group (or others) over leadership requirements. The school said it takes action only when someone complains. But how likely is it that a non-Muslim would complain that a Muslim group required him to be Muslim to be a leader?

Now the University of Iowa is discriminating against students again, but this time without the religious hypocrisy. The school booted the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA off campus. But there’s more. From Becket Law (emphasis added):

Almost 40 other student groups —including the Sikh Awareness Club, the Chinese Student Christian Fellowship, the Imam Mahdi Organization, and the Latter-day Saint Student Association—were also expelled by the University at the same time. Becket will file the lawsuit today on behalf of InterVarsity, seeking to get the group back on campus in time for the fall semester.
…
In June, the University abruptly ordered the group to drop its religious leadership standards within two weeks, stating that leaders could not even be “strongly encouraged” to share its faith. And in late July, after InterVarsity explained why it couldn’t eliminate its leadership standards, the University officially deregistered the group, along with dozens of other religious and ideological student groups.

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