Ariz. State Forcing Group to 'Dilute' Its Christian Identity, Says Lawsuit

by Jim Brown
November 29, 2004

(AgapePress) - A Christian group at Arizona State University says it should be allowed to bar non-Christians and practicing homosexuals from membership and officer positions.

The ASU chapter of the Christian Legal Society has filed suit, seeking recognition as an official campus organization without having to comply with the school's non-discrimination policy. The CLS objects to a portion of that policy that would require the group to admit non-Christians and homosexuals as members and leaders.

Attorney Joshua Carden is with the Alliance Defense Fund, which joined CLS in filing the case. He says anti-Christian discrimination has become a trend on college campuses.

"Universities around the country, including Arizona State University, are starting to reject and remove from the marketplace of ideas the notion that Christian groups should be allowed to stay Christian," Carden says. In this case, he notes, ASU is requiring the Christian Legal Society chapter to "open its membership and its leadership to everyone, regardless of their religious preference or their sexual orientation."

According to Carden, the school is forcing an autonomous religious group to dilute its identity.

"You don't tell a vegetarian club that they have to allow meat-eaters or hunters as part of their group. You don't tell the communist club that they have to allow capitalists to be leaders and officers of their group," he points out. "So here in the university setting, only the Christian group is being told they can't require their members and officers to adhere to a set of beliefs."

The lawsuit is one of several filed against universities across the country by the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense fund. In a similar case, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill recently withdrew recognition from a male Christian fraternity over its requirement that members and officers be Christians.