Christian students barred from using their university's facilities because of their refusal to accept gay rights rules have launched a High Court case against the ban.
The battle over the rights and status of the Christian Union at Exeter University will now be decided by a judge.
Their legal move set up a test case likely to decide a series of arguments in a number of universities between Christian societies which believe that homosexual practice is wrong, and student unions and universities which demand they accept gay equality.
Similar rows over attempts to censor students who profess traditional Christian beliefs have broken out at universities in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Read more
Friday 5 January 2007
Christian group in legal fight over politically correct campus ban
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3 comments:
I'm afraid you are confusing the issue with Edinburgh. There the issue is on of gay rights, but in Exeter it is one of Christian rights.
The Christian Union at Exeter bans Christians from non-evangelical backgrounds from standing on its committee or speaking at meetings.
Christians are being banned from full participation in the Christian Union. This is discrimination, plain and simple.
It should be pointed out that news reports like this one on the CAM website are simply 'cut and pasted' from elsewhere. If there is an error in this item, it is not ours but the Daily Mail's.
As far as I am aware, IVF/UCCF-affiliated Christian Unions have had a "membership clause" virtually since their inception, early last century. What also seems to have been forgotten, however, is that the original full name of the IVF (later UCCF) was the Intervarsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions. Exeter CU shouldn't worry too much in this regard if they've had to change their name to Exeter Evangelical CU. IVF did not pretend to represent all Christians - on the contrary, the split from SCM reflected the fact that they knew they did not.
However, CUs have existed for almost a hundred years with such membership clauses without anyone seeking to ban them from campuses or force them to have open-membership. When Oi were a lad, which was admittedly a long time ago, Universities typically had several Christian groups, ranging from CU, through AngSoc, MethSoc and CathSoc, to SCM. You joined whichever you fancied (sometimes more than one), and didn't get your knickers in a twist about the fact that you couldn't join them all.
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