Monday, February 6, 2012
Vanderbilt is wrong
Justin Gunter explains, here, why Vanderbilt is wrong to insist that recognized religious student organizations not take religion into account for purposes of membership and leadership.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/02/vanderbilt-is-wrong.html
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I found this while googling the topic:
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So far, four Christian organizations on campus have been told by the university that they are in violation of the policy, and they are in danger of losing their registered student group status. This comes after Vanderbilt University conducted an investigation of a Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi, and found the organization discriminated against a student based on sexual orientation. Additionally, another group, the Christian Legal Society, was asked to remove Bible verses and the words, “Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior” from their constitution.
http://www.frcblog.com/2012/02/vanderbilt-university-defends-crackdown-on-religious-groups/
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It seems to go beyond establishing an "all-comers" policy.
But the incident that precipitated the changes seems to me to raise questions. Two young men were booted from Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian fraternity, for being gay. From the little I have been able to find, they weren't expelled because of their behavior, but rather for simply being gay. It seems to me a Christian organization could have a code of conduct for its members requiring no sex outside of marriage. That would not be discrimination and would apply to all members equally. But to oust someone from a Christian fraternity because of his orientation alone seems like invidious discrimination to me (and not very Christian).
Also, some of the coverage I have read descends to the ridiculous in saying Vanderbilt's policy could result in a Jewish student leading a Muslim student group. Surely an "all-comers" policy is highly unlikely to have such a bizarre result. Of course, if Vanderbilt is going beyond an "all-comers" policy and making organizations change the religious nature of their charters, then it is difficult to see how there can actually be Jewish or Muslim organizations.
I am reminded a little of Tom Lehrer's introduction to "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier," when he says: "The usual jokes about the army aside, one of the many fine things one has to admit is the way that the army has carried the American democratic ideal to its logical conclusion in the sense that not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed, and color, but also on the grounds of ability." Nondiscrimination can be carried too far.