Religion: A case of discrimination

Should a religious group be free to discriminate against those who violate its beliefs—even on a public campus? said Tom Krattenmaker in USA Today. That issue was before the Supreme Court this week in a hot-button case that tests the boundaries of separation between church and state. The case arose when the Christian Legal Society, a group of conservative Christian law students, was denied official recognition, including funding, by the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, which said the group’s membership policy is discriminatory. The CLS requires voting members and leaders to affirm a Statement of Faith, promising that they’ll refrain from “sexual conduct outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.” During last week’s arguments, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority scoffed at the idea that religious groups could be compelled to admit anyone, regardless of beliefs. “To require this Christian society to allow atheists not just to join but to conduct Bible classes?” said Justice Antonin Scalia. “That’s crazy.”

Even to those of us not as conservative as Scalia, it’s “a close and difficult case,” said Jonathan Turley in The Washington Post. To prohibit a religious group from discriminating against nonbelievers and those whose behavior it finds objectionable is to “cage faith,” exiling it to a ghetto. Even “as we move toward greater recognition of gay rights,” we must avoid diminishing religious freedom by punishing believers for their views. But punishment is the whole point of the college’s assault on the CLS, said Newt Gingrich and Jim Garlow, also in the Post. The liberals who run Hastings—and society at large—are outraged that Christians would dare to suggest there’s “a truth more compelling than the latest government-dictated cultural doctrine.”

Ah, the victim card, said John Aloysius Farrell in USNews.com. Last time I checked, Christians constituted by far “the majority religion in the US of A,” yet they constantly portray themselves as victims, because they can’t put the Ten Commandments in a courthouse or get government funding to support their repugnance for “sinners.” Have no fear: It’s doubtful that a Supreme Court “dominated by conservatives and Catholics” will rule against the CLS. Still, in balancing the “rights and obligations of 350 million people,” compromises are inevitable, and I see the possibility of one here: Christians win the case; in return, they “stop their unseemly whining.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up