Legal Eagles Mount Up Religious Freedom Defenses for Christian Students
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
May 13, 2004
(AgapePress) - A pro-family law firm is threatening to sue a New Hampshire school board if it refuses to recognize a Christian student club at a high school.
Officials at Spaulding High School in Rochester, New Hampshire, have barred sophomore Jessica Meserve from forming a Christian student club. Meserve was told that her club would violate the alleged "separation of Church and State." Meanwhile, the school allowed another student group, the Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) , to use school facilities for meetings and other events.
Meserve's attorney, Rob Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, says the Rochester School Board is engaging in anti-Christian discrimination, and that this is not the first time it has happened.
"For example," he says, "during this Lenten season [Jessica] wanted to put up posters that said, 'Three nails plus one cross equals forgiveness,' recognizing the sacrifice of Christ during the Easter season around the same time that SAGA had their posters up regarding their National Day of Silence promoting the homosexual agenda."
However, the attorney points out, the school singled out Meserve's Christian posters and forbade her to put them up on school premises. "SAGA's allowed, but she was not allowed -- and that's not right," he says.
Muise says the scenario is all too common across the United States. "By and large," he says, "I think school officials have been fooled mostly by organizations such as the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, that there's this impregnable wall of separation between church and state so anything religious has to be automatically excised from the public square, including the public schools."
The Thomas More Law Center has requested that the Rochester School Board reconsider its stance when it meets on May 13. Muise has sent a demand letter to Spaulding High School, giving the administrators until Monday to reverse their course.
Iowa Campus Group Allowed to Remain Uniquely Christian
Meanwhile, in the nation's heartland, this week the University of Iowa agreed, after an extended dispute, to recognize a Christian Legal Society (CLS) Law Student Ministries chapter while allowing the group to hold onto its religious identity.
If recognized, the campus CLS chapter, which first sought recognition for the 2003-2004 academic year, would receive funding from the University of Iowa and access to its official activities along with other privileges. However, the chapter's application for recognition was rejected three times by the Office of Student Life.
The paperwork was rejected because the group would not add language to its constitution to make it comply with the school's Membership Clause, which states that a student group will not "discriminate" against anyone based on creed, religion, or sexual orientation. The chapter refused to make its constitution reflect that clause because the group wanted to choose members and officers that shared its Christian religious beliefs, including a biblical viewpoint regarding homosexual conduct.
The Center for Law and Religious Freedom intervened, believing the chapter's First Amendment rights were being violated. The Center's counsel met with university officials and their legal representative and, after further legal wrangling, submitted an amended constitution to the school with three conditions designed to safeguard the CLS chapter's identity as an evangelical Christian association.
The amended constitution stipulates that chapter members and officers must agree with the mission and purposes of the group and its Statement of Faith and must endeavor to live their lives in a manner consistent with that statement, including abstaining from all sexual conduct that falls outside the confines of traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Also, CLS chapter officers are subject to a code of conduct outlined in the constitution.
The Center's chief litigation counsel, Steven Aden, remarked that CLS is "pleased that the University of Iowa has recognized that a religious student organization does not 'discriminate' by reserving the right to advocate a holy lifestyle" according to biblical teachings, and by "requiring its members and leaders to do the same." Aden says the chapter's stand and its victory were not for themselves alone, but for every student of faith who seeks to practice a devout lifestyle separate from the mainstream.
