Evangelicals Collide With Colleges on Discrimination Policies
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
WASHINGTON D.C. (Worthy News)– For the first time in 40 years, evangelicals at Bowdoin College will no longer meet as a student club to study the Bible, pray and worship.
That’s because the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship will no longer be officially recognized by the college in a growing campus dispute between religious freedoms and government mandated anti-discrimination policies.
In spite of mandated policies, some student college clubs have refused to agree to demands that any student, regardless of his religious beliefs — or lack thereof — should be eligible to be elected as the leader of any group, especially Christian clubs.
Today, many universities demand that religious clubs don’t discriminate against gays and lesbians as well as atheists and adherents of other faiths. But as many religious clubs elect leaders who often oversee group prayer, it’s only reasonable that they be allowed to require some basic Christian credentials, e.g., an avowed agreement that Jesus is divine and rose from the dead.
The consequences for members of religious clubs that refuse to agree to nondiscrimination policies can vary. Although these clubs can still meet informally on campus, they may lose access to student activity fee funds and school bulletin boards, space for meetings and even the use of the school’s name.