Christian Colleges Under Fire Over LGBTQ Restrictions

Christian Colleges all over the North America are now faced with closure or various other penalties if they do not bow to pressure to embrace transgenders, homosexuals, and other similar practices prohibited by God in the Bible. 

A recent publication in thecollegefix.com authored by William Nardi pointed out that two bills are being prepared to this effect. The aim of the state-sponsored bills is to force California Christian colleges to embrace LGBTQ's - lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and queers - in the name of preventing discrimination, yet no consideration has been given to how the rights of the colleges themselves are being violated.

Critics say that the real end-game of these two bills - AB 1888 and SB 1146 - is actually more sinister: they are intended to cripple the state's Christian colleges. The two bills would "essentially cripple colleges by forcing them to implement gay-friendly protections on campus or lose state and federal financial aid for students," according to a news release from the conservative law firm Advocates for Faith and Freedom.

"The punitive laws would undermine federal protections that have long exempted religious colleges from adopting anti-discrimination laws that violate the tenets of their faith," the law firm stated in a news release. 

"...If these bills are successful, Christian colleges, for instance, would have to allow a male student who perceives his gender as being 'female' to live in the women's dorm to avoid the risk of a lawsuit or the loss of financial aid options for students. Similar consequences could also become a reality if a Christian university dismisses a professor or staff member after discovering they were living with a same-sex partner."

Nardi pointed out that Bill AB-1888 if approved, would disqualify Christian colleges from receiving state-funded student financial aid if the institutions deny students on the basis of their "sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression." What's more, the bill would disallow colleges from obtaining waivers from the U.S. Department of Education on the issue.

The Bill would not force all-male or women's schools to accept applicants of other genders, but rather, if approved, would force such institutions to admit students based on their gender self-identity rather than biological sex, and regardless of their sexual orientation.

The companion Bill, SB 1146, would mandate Christian schools tell prospective students their institutions are discriminatory. A Religious Liberty reported stated that the bill is designed to "provide a legal remedy for students, for instance, who are admitted to a religious institution before revealing that they are LGBT and are later denied re-admission or housing or face harassment."

 The Religious Liberty report continued: "On the other hand, the California Catholic Conference (CCC) warns that the bill is vague and creates a state-level 'civil cause of action for violation of the Equal Protection Clause and provisions of the Due Process' clause even if an institution is in compliance with federal law. According to the CCC, 'this coercive mandate to waive federally-protected statutory and constitutional rights is simply indefensible.'"

The full implications of the bills remain unclear and open to controversy. As Nardi points out, it could mean that biological males who choose to identify as females may end up rooming with biological females. Any school that refuses to comply would then be accused of discriminating, resulting in loss of their Cal Grant funding.

A couple of months back, Bob Unruh for wnd.com reported on the same developments, also separately described as an "Armageddon" for Christian colleges. Unruh explained that the Department of Education (DOE) under the leadership of Barack Obama, whose pro-homosexual agenda has been unparalleled, has launched a website that critics say is dedicated to the "shaming" of Christian colleges that follow Biblical principles rather than a leftist social agenda.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins reacted:  "It looks like the Department of Education got a new boss: the Human Rights Campaign...Although it's none of the HRC's business, the organization has made a point of sticking its nose in the First Amendment debate blazing through college campuses. Like most pockets of society, the clash between religious freedom and sexuality has landed on the doorstep of higher education, which is especially problematic for schools with a conservative worldview."

He continued, "Late last week, the group coaxed the Department of Education to expose hundreds of universities with a 'Shame List' of anyone who asked to be excused from an ideology that the American College of Pediatricians calls 'child abuse.'"

The "shame list" already has generated negative responses to the schools defending their First Amendment rights.

Perkins noted that it's not the only way HRC is trying to undermine those who follow Biblical principles. "Hoping to heap pressure on the schools, HRC tried to lean on the NCAA to do its bidding. If the sports association would 'divest from all religious-based campuses' like the groups wanted, then more colleges might reconsider. Sound familiar? It should. These are the very same tactics the LGBT lobby is using in places like North Carolina and Mississippi to demand special privileges (which also happen to be wildly unpopular and unsafe)."

Perkins wrote: "The bottom line is this: No one should have to get a waiver to exercise their First Amendment rights! The fact that the government is even using these intimidation tactics is cause for congressional action."

The report included a comment from John Jackson of William Jessup University in Rocklin, California, one of the institutions targeted by the DOE. "We're committed to Biblical authority and we're committed to teaching in a God-honoring environment," he said. "At the federal level, the Department of Education has become increasingly aggressive in some areas of human sexuality - and then also the sanctity of life."

At the Red Alert Politics blog, Rebecca Downs reportedly noted more than 200 schools have been granted exemptions, with more applications pending.

In a separate but related article for wnd.com, Bob Unruh quoted the Advocates for Faith and Freedom: "It is clear that the agenda of California's progressive legislature, including the openly gay authors of these two bills, goes well beyond their original mantra of seeking equality. Their sights are now firmly set on destroying and dismantling all faith-based entities that disagree with their lifestyle."

Advocates for Faith and Freedom also reportedly added that California Christian colleges and universities "are the next target of state legislators who are systematically forcing the LGBT agenda on the public....The latest attempt involves two bills that would essentially cripple colleges by forcing them to implement gay-friendly protections on campus or lose state and federal financial aid for students."

The group said the "punitive laws would undermine federal protections that have long exempted religious colleges from adopting anti-discrimination laws that violate the tenets of their faith....The consequences of these bills are so dire that one pro-family watchdog group has warned that their passage would usher in Armageddon for those seeking higher education from a Biblical perspective."

WND columnist Cheryl Chumley also weighed in:  ".... think about this: Selling the people on a lie about what constitutes gender is a dangerous step in the obliteration of God's creations, both male and female, and then marriage and family.

And what happens after the lie is complete, after the once-obvious definition of male and female have been trashed and replaced with other, fuzzier definitions - ones that leave the interpretation open to the whims of society at-large? Society's definition of humanity crumbles, and so, too the bulwarks of society, the family unit."

Chumley cited a description from Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to the Federalist:

"What we are really talking about [with transgender movement] is the abolition of sex. And it is sex that the Trans project is serving to abolish legally, under the guise of something called the 'gender binary.' Its endgame is a society in which everyone is legally de-sexed. No longer legally male or female."

A recent Christian Post article by Michael Gryboski illustrates the impact of the fight from the case of Trinity Western University (TWU), a Christian university in Canada. TWU is appealing a court ruling banning its accreditation because the school opposes homosexuality.

TWU argued before the British Columbia Court of Appeal that the province's Law Society should not ban the school from accreditation over its Biblical stance on issues such as homosexuality. TWU is being represented in part by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Christian Higher Education Canada. 

EFC President Bruce Clemenger told The Christian Post that he and his organization "are very concerned about the implications of this case for religious freedom in Canada."

"We believe the stakes are very high," said Clemenger. "The law society is not concerned about the academic requirements. TWU has a reputation for scholastic excellence and their proposed law school meets the Federation of Canadian Law Societies' rigorous academic requirements."

Their objection is that TWU is a Christian school and that students and staff are required to abide by a Biblically-informed 'Community Covenant.' The issue is about beliefs, not abilities. It is the faith orientation, not the academic qualifications, that is being challenged."

At specific issue is the university's Community Covenant, which requires students and faculty to "voluntarily abstain" from "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman."

"The university's mission, core values, curriculum and community life are formed by a firm commitment to the person and work of Jesus Christ as declared in the Bible," reads the covenant.

Last year, TWU's legal efforts had mixed results. In January of 2015, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in favor the university against that province's Law Society.

Justice Jamie S. Campbell, author of that opinion, concluded that the Law Society's "resolution and regulation infringe on the freedom of religion of TWU and its students in a way that cannot be justified."

Last July, however, a three-judge Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled against TWU, labeling its Community Covenant "discriminatory."

"The fact remains that the effect of the Community Covenant is to exclude certain persons from eligibility for all of the spaces available at TWU's law school.... That reduces their opportunities for acceptance to law school in comparison with all other persons, and it does so on a discriminatory basis," read that ruling.

The university's ongoing legal battles come as popular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed support for proposed legislation that would criminalize anti-transgender speech.

"As a society, we have taken many important steps toward recognizing and protecting the legal rights for the LGBTQ2 community -- from enshrining equality rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the passage of the Civil Marriage Act," said Trudeau in a speech last month. "There remains much to be done, though. Far too many people still face harassment, discrimination, and violence for being who they are. This is unacceptable."

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that Trudeaus observation is correct. How, then, is it acceptable to violate the "legal rights" of "far too many Christian organizations and institutions, causing them, by government fiat, to face harassment, discrimination and violence for being who they are"?