Separation of church and state has long been an issue that has caused a strain on the relationship between public universities and religious and spiritual clubs and organizations. For private institutions of higher education, however, those relationships do not experience the same constraints as their public counterparts. Public institutions are held accountable for enforcing federal, state and local laws; private institutions are not.
Recently Vanderbilt University began to take a proactive role in managing their religious clubs and organizations. Some are saying that the actions are Vanderbilt’s way of attacking religious groups. It started with Vanderbilt asking the Christian Legal Society to remove the requirement that their officers lead a bible study, worship and prayer. The justification of this requirement, it ensures that the officer’s beliefs are in line with the organization’s beliefs. Although the group allows students to be member of the group regardless of beliefs, leadership roles are strictly monitored to ensure no alternative beliefs are being promoted at the Christian Legal Society’s expense.
The changes at Vanderbilt have occurred in response to a gay student being dismissed from the Christian Fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi. According to Vanderbilt, the institution is only trying to enforce its anti discrimination policy, in order to promote diversity in student groups, and the institution’s response has been felt in a multitude of ways through the university.
Not only did the university have issues with the requirements of leadership for the Christian Legal Society; the university also asked them to rewrite their constitution, finding issues with the citation of Romans 1: 21-32, defending the organizations stance that homosexuality is a punishment from God. Another Christian organization at Vanderbilt, InterVarsity, is also feeling tension from the university.
Those opposed to allowing diversity in religious clubs on campus, state that it protects them from being overrun by people who hold different beliefs and values in order to change the nature of the clubs. Many religious and spiritual clubs and organizations receive funding from sponsors at the local and national level, and it is the desire of those sponsors to keep their money doing the work that they intended it to do; the easiest way to ensure this is to limit the alternatives options presented to the students spending the money. However, Vanderbilt feels it is important students do feel discriminated against and it is a campus that promotes diversity everywhere, including within its student groups; even though legally it is not required to do so.
I personally have been involved in different chapters of the same religious organization for almost six years now, and I believe that it is one the major catalysts I have encountered in my adult life. It was because that group encouraged questioning and diverse beliefs. This past year, one of the members of the club leadership was a devout atheist. Allowing this student to lead discussions on morality, ethics and spirituality provided in valuable experiences for students to understand multiple perspectives (a keep part of student development).
Religious and spiritual student groups are usually founded around one central belief system, and members of those groups cater to that set of beliefs. How are their students supposed to really understand their own individual beliefs and support their decisions to follow the path they have chosen, if they have never been exposed to alternatives?
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI read this article with interest from a different and conflicted perspective. While I understand that "mainstream" Christianity holds somewhat varied views on homosexuality, I find it sad that a group would allow a gay individual who feels that he or she is being punished by God remain as an active group member whereas a proud gay man or lesbian would be considered unfit for service to the group. (After all, the group in question stated that they ask the openly gay student to resign due to sexual orientation. If he had been shamed into keeping his sexual orientation hidden, he would have been allowed to stay in the organization.)
I attended a Roman Catholic grade school and am painfully aware of the Catholic Church’s position on homosexuality (and their role of women as subservient, for that matter). However, there seem to be much more open and affirming Christian organizations out there such as the United Church of Christ. BUX does not indicate an affiliation with a particular church (from what I saw online via a brief search), so I find odd that they believe that a gay man cannot serve Christ in the same manner that his straight brothers can.
Follow-up to my recent post: it turns out that I read about the same type of situation at UNC, not Vanderbilt. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-north-carolina-upholds-christian-singing-group%e2%80%99s-dismissal-of-gay-student/37259. The student was dismissed for his beliefs about homosexuality (which, hopefully, were positive given that he is an openly gay man), not for his sexual orientation. The school could find no evidence to the contrary. Hmm...so again, if I am gay but believe that it is because I am being punished by God, then that is okay. But if I am proud to be who I am, then I do not fit into these Christian student groups.
ReplyDeleteInteresting issue. We've dealt with this a little bit at CSU with a religous group on campus. This particular group didn't line up with the mission/values of the institution and so we haven't let them be part of our Campus Multi-faith Roundtable. Although we are a "marketplace of ideas" ultimately our value of education takes precedent.
ReplyDeleteVanderbilt probably acknowledges that they aren't going to change the culture of the group (i.e. the student probably isn't going to feel welcome there anytime soon), but if a group is to be affiliated with the institution they should adhere to the same principles as the institution.
The student's comment in the article that Vanderbilt has lauched an "assault" on them is unfounded. Vanderbilt looked at all 300 organizations constitutions. Now, I think they missed the boat in saying that the group can't require officers to do certain practices. Can't the football team have a requirement that it's members have to go on an early morning run, or show up to football practice? Can't the book club require that it's president read the required book? I'd be interested to talk more about the consequences and issues of entering into formal relationships with outside groups, including religious groups.
This is a very interesting topic. If the issue at hand came down to distribution of funding for the clubs, then their could be major issues if the university discriminated based on beliefs. However, my understanding is that the problem here is that members of the clubs feel like they are being treated unfairly because of their beleifs. All I have to say is that if a club is founded and organized on certain beliefs, and members of that club do not agree with those beliefs, then why would they want to be part of that club in the first place. It is not like there are not other options. Any student on campus can form their own club or organization and make whatever rules they want. People really need to quit whining about things they do not agree with simply to draw attention to it. If you do not like the club, do not be part of it. Join a different club or form your own.
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