ADF Helps Christian Bible Club Fight High School for Equal Access
by Jim Brown
August 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The controversial Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether a school Bible club in Kent, Washington, should be banned or given equal access. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit recently heard oral arguments in a federal civil rights lawsuit involving Truth, a student club at Kentridge High School that wants to limit its membership to Christians. Kentridge High School has twice denied the Bible club's application for a charter and barred the group from being a part of the Associated Student Body, all because of the club's requirement that its members be Christians. The school says Truth should be denied funding and access to the school's public address system because the group is promoting religious discrimination.
But Tim Chandler, a litigation counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says it is the school that is engaging in religious discrimination. The legal group has noted that the Kent Public School District allows many other student clubs, including a Gay-Straight Alliance, but wants to ban a Bible club, based on its "so-called 'non-discrimination' policy."
The two students who founded the Bible club, Sarice Undis and Julianne Stewart, first applied for a club charter in 2001. At that time the school refused the request and told the students to apply again in February of 2003, but school officials rejected that application as well. ADF is representing Undis and Stewart in their federal civil rights lawsuit against the school district.
Chandler says the ADF has been involved in many similar cases nationwide. "What we see a lot of schools doing," he notes, "both high schools and universities, is using these nondiscrimination policies to basically shut out religious groups or force them to allow non-Christians to come in and be a part of the club as well."
The Alliance-affiliated lawyer says during the hearing on the case in Kent, the Ninth Circuit panel was receptive to his argument that the Bible club is simply trying to maintain its faith-based identity. He believes the court understood that clubs have a right to restrict their membership to individuals who share their values or their belief systems.
"It's common sense that you can understand the difference between a Christian group wanting to limit itself to Christians in the same way that, say, the Young Republicans Club is going to limit itself to Republicans," Chandler contends. He says most people comprehend that a Christian club seeking to exclude non-Christians "is not invidious the same way as, say, if the chess club wanted to keep all Hindus out."
Commenting on the case, ADF senior counsel Nate Kellum observes that non-discrimination policies are supposed to prevent all kinds of discrimination. But in this case, he asserts, "The problem is, school officials are wrongfully discriminating against this Christian student group. Christians should not be treated as second-class citizens on campus."
The Alliance Defense Fund is expecting a decision from the Ninth Circuit on the case of Truth v. Kent Public School District in the next three to six months.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
