Christian Fraternity's Suit Moves UNC to Revise Nondiscrimination Policy
by Jim Brown
May 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Christian legal alliance says a federal lawsuit has prompted the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to drop its ban on a religious fraternity. UNC officials have reversed course after initially denying recognition to Alpha Iota Omega because the fraternal organization required that its members be Christians. The university originally refused to recognize Alpha Iota Omega because the administration said the Christian fraternity's religious requirement violated UNC's nondiscrimination policy. But after the student group filed a lawsuit against the university, UNC revised its policy to allow political and religious groups to exclude members on the basis of beliefs.
David French is an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, the legal group that represented Alpha Iota Omega in court. He says religious student organizations obviously should have the right to make faith-based decisions, just as other groups make decisions based on their beliefs and values or philosophies.
"What the university is doing," French says, "is like saying to the College Democrats, 'You can't discriminate on the basis of political beliefs,' or saying to an environmentalist group, 'You can't discriminate on the basis of feelings about the environment.' It's just absurd."
But the university persisted in its unreasonable stance, the attorney contends, in part because the University of North Carolina has an extensive record of trying to eject Christian groups from campus. "This is a school with a long history of violating the rights of students and a long history of trying to single out and target Christians," he says.
A judge recently tossed out Alpha Iota Omega's lawsuit, declaring there was no need to proceed since the fraternity has been reinstated and the school had already changed its nondiscrimination policy. However, French feels UNC needs to be continually monitored, despite its apparent compliance with the fraternity's wishes.
"We're going to be watching North Carolina very closely to make sure that they're respecting the rights of their students," the ADF-affiliated lawyer notes. The school officials are respecting the rights of Alpha Iota Omega right now, he adds, "but if that changes at all we will once again, I'm sure, head back into court against UNC Chapel Hill."
French says ADF is pleased that the Christian fraternity's lawsuit has caused UNC-Chapel Hill to revise its policy and change its treatment of religious student organizations on campus. The new anti-discrimination policy is "far from perfect," the attorney admits; however, he says its interpretation by the university is "a vast improvement" over the previous policy that denied religious student groups their constitutional rights.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
