A non-discrimination lawsuit against Cal State Long Beach and San Diego State University has resurfaced after the former campus Christian group, Every Nation Campus Ministries, filed an appeal almost five years later.
In 2005 Every Nation Campus Ministries, a non-university backed Christian group, filed a civil rights suit at the United States District Court for the district of Southern California against both SDSU and CSULB. Both universities follow codes laid out by the California State University system that have zero tolerance for discrimination on campus.
Every Nation Campus Ministries had wanted to obtain recognition as a university-supported group or club, which can provide numerous benefits. Groups receive funding from the school, can congregate on campus, as well as access various channels for communicating its message.
The CSU code, Executive Order 1006, entails that any club or organization on campus is required to open membership and leadership positions to all students without regard to religion, sexual orientation, marital status, race, gender or disability.
The Christian group was not approved to access any of these benefits because of their membership requirements, which banned homosexuals from the club.
The current situation involves Every Nation Campus Ministries’ appeal of the Feb. 6, 2005 ruling by District Judge Larry A. Burns in favor of SDSU and CSULB. Burns ruled that the nondiscrimination policy was proposed to regulate conduct, not to control speech or association, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The case is over for CSULB, as only the SDSU plaintiffs have chosen to participate in the appeal.
“This case began over three years ago and we are pleased with the recent progress,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander in an e-mail. “We continue to stand behind our legal right and CSU nondiscrimination statutes that allow us to refrain from providing public funds to student organizations that discriminate against other students whether that is based on race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.”
Members and officers who were in the club were required to profess their faith in Jesus Christ, as well as follow a biblical code of conduct that prohibits sexual conduct outside the bounds of marriage specifically defined as between a man and a woman. Those who were open about their sexuality were immediately banned from the organization purely based on sexual orientation.
The Christian group felt its First Amendment rights were being violated by the two universities while having to compromise their thoughts and beliefs of Orthodox Christianity.
Alliance Defense Fund is representing the group. According to its website, the alliance focuses on cases that involve “religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and marriage and the family.”
Every Nation Campus Ministries sought not only to force an injunction in order to be recognized as a university-funded organization, but also aimed to win preliminary and permanent relief of injury to enjoin defense to cover fees and any nominal damage.
Jeremy Tedesco, Alliance Defense Fund attorney and litigation-staff councilman, argued, “University officials would never require that the student vegetarian club allow meat-eaters or hunters to lead their organization. The ultimate impact of this [non-discrimination] policy will be either to eliminate Christian clubs from campus or dilute them to the point to where they are no longer Christian,” as attributed by the Alliance Defense Fund website.
Among the universities themselves, the CSU system board of trustees was also included in the lawsuit, along with select members of both universities, including state officials Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
Jeremy Tedesco told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “[The policy] doesn’t respect a Christian group’s ability to make membership decisions.”
Campuses are allowed to shape their own environment, and groups essentially have the same right, therefore the case served to be a double-edged sword.
“The law is tricky,” said Craig Smith, a professor and director of the First Amendment Center at CSULB, in regards to the case. “If a public campus provides a facility for a group to meet, one of the general rules is that if you provide the services, facilities and funds to one group, you have to provide them to all groups, as long as the group’s message is not libel or slanderous.”
Fellow professor David Stewart, who specializes in religious studies, added, “It seems apathetical to bar [homosexuals] from a Christian group when you must preach the Christian message to all creatures, including homosexuals.”
Stewart continued to explain that the Bible has 2,000 verses pertaining to caring for the poor, and maybe six that might deal with homosexuality.
“One is clearly more important than the other,” Stewart said.
Stewart said he believes the group’s take on homosexual participation is unwarranted.
“Every Nation Campus Ministries has had an unsupportable reading of the Bible’s take on homosexuality,” Stewart said. “If they truly are a Christian group, they should know the great commission is for all Christians to preach the gospel to all creatures. On biblical grounds, religious grounds and in civil society, they are wrong.”
Almost all of this article is aggregate. Shouldn’t the 49er concentrate on doing original research occasionally? “This website said this” and “This website said that” isn’t original reporting. The only things original are Alexander’s canned commentary and Stewart’s overt bias (odd coming from a First Amendment advocate that obviously doesn’t know the meaning between rights and responsibilities. Anybody could have gleaned the rest of this article from the internet, 49er, which you did. How about doing some reporting on such important topics by leaving the computer stations in your newsroom? Lazy!