Taking Ground Bit By Bit
"This is not an isolated situation. Other public higher education institutions have been targeted, some have caved in. This is a strategy supported by the Alliance Defense Fund an evangelical Christian legal organization. This is very important....
FROM: Coalition Against Discrimination[ (ASU Students Faculty and Staff)
The Christian Legal Society (CLS) at ASU Law School Filed a lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, November 18, 2004. In the lawsuit, CLS, a recognized student orgnaization , seeks exemption from the school's nondiscrimination policy. Currently, all school-sponsored student groups must adhere to the university's nondiscrimination policy, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of, among other things, religion and sexual orientation.
CLS claims that, because of its deeply held religious beliefts, it cannot allow non-Christians and people of different sexual orientation to belong to their organization. Specifically, CLS wants to deny non-Christians and people of different sexual orientation the right to membership in the organization and the right to hold leadership positions.
CLS wants to do this AND STILL RECEIVE SCHOOL FUNDING. This is the major problem -- groups are allowed to discriminate about who they allow in their group, but NOT if they receive public funding from a public institution (like the university).
Our argument -- if CLS wants to discriminate, they are free to do so. They just can't discriminate and expect to get public funds from the university at the same time.
CLS is not filing this lawsuit because there's been a threat of a non-Crhistian or non-straight "takeover." In fact, there have been no problems at the law school concerning CLS membership. CLS launched this lawsuit at the urging of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an evangelical Christian legal organization. ADF and CLS are launching these suites across the country. It is part of their agenda, which they call "religious freedom." In reality, they're trying to breakdown the separation of church and state and institute their view about "right" and "wrong" (i.e. non-Christianity and homosexuality are wrong) in public institutions.
The Coalition Against Discrimination (CAD), made up of ASU students, faculty and staff, is asking individuals and community organizations to send a letter to Michael Crow, university president, stressing the importance of nondiscrimination and requesting that ASU not settle this lawsuit, but to fight it." - P
CLS press release:
http://tinyurl.com/6efle
Cross posted from:
http://az-vote.squarespace.com/