This Government High School Tried to Bully Christian Students into Disavowing the Definition of Marriage

Chick-fil-A recently cut off charitable giving to organizations that defend marriage as the God-ordained union between one man and one woman like the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).

A high school in Montana doesn’t like the FCA’s stance on marriage, either.

Christian Headlines reported what sounds like bullying on the part of Bozeman High School’s administration. After some disgruntled students told the administration about the national organization’s view of marriage, the school essentially told Christian students in a chapter of FCA to disavow that view in order to remain an official club.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the FCA club, threatened to sue the school if it doesn’t allow the group to become an officially recognized organization with the same privileges as other groups:

“Your actions violate federal law under the Equal Access Act and ignore 30-year Supreme Court precedent protecting the rights of religious student clubs to be treated equally with other student clubs,” the ADF letter says. “Refusing to recognize FCA as a school-sponsored club because of its religious mission and denying it the same privileges as other non-curricular clubs is illegal.”

The high school currently recognizes 34 clubs, including the Environmental Awareness Club, the Sexuality and Gender Alliance, the Human Rights Club and the Key Club. FCA, though, is not one of them.

Because of its unofficial status, the local FCA is prohibited from making schoolwide announcements or meeting on campus during non-instructional hours. Additionally, its flyers must bear a yellow sticker (which signifies that it is not school-sponsored). [emphasis added]

The ADF alleged that Bozeman High School is violating the U.S. Constitution and the federal Equal Access Act, which bars the government from denying equal access and fair opportunity or discriminating against students based on religion, political viewpoint, and other content protected by the First Amendment.

Photo credit: Bozeman High School