{"id":400,"date":"2018-11-28T12:21:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T17:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=400"},"modified":"2018-11-28T12:21:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T17:21:28","slug":"colorado-school-sued-requiring-christians-allow-atheist-lead-bible-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2018\/11\/colorado-school-sued-requiring-christians-allow-atheist-lead-bible-studies.html","title":{"rendered":"Colorado School Being Sued After Requiring That Christians Allow Atheist to Lead Bible Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is being sued for demanding that a Christian organization permit \u201catheists or other non-Christians to lead their Bible studies\u201d if they want to be recognized on campus and become a registered club.<\/p>\n

The Alliance Defending Freedom went to federal court in Colorado to defend the students. The group stated that: \u201cThe university refused to grant Ratio Christi registered status because it only allows those who share and personally hold beliefs consistent with the group\u2019s mission to serve as its leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Christian apologetics organization, Ratio Christi seeks to defend the Christian faith and explain how the Bible applies to various current cultural, ethical and political issues. Any student can attend its events. Any student of any faith can become a member of Ratio Christi, as long as he supports the group\u2019s purpose. But Ratio Christi requires that those who lead the Christian organization must share its religious beliefs. As a result, the university has denied it registered status, limiting its access to funding, meeting and event space, and administrative support,\u201d said the legal team.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike any other student group at a public university, religious student organizations should be free to choose their leaders without the government meddling,\u201d said ADF Senior Counsel Travis Barham.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be absurd for the university to require the vegan student group to appoint a meat-lover as its president. Likewise, the University of Colorado shouldn\u2019t force Christian students to let atheist or other non-Christians to lead their Bible studies in order to become a registered club.\u201d<\/p>\n

This lawsuit disputes the school\u2019s belief that it can deny registered status to certain groups if they choose leaders that share the group\u2019s religious perspectives.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also notes other actions by the school against the Christian group, including that \u201cnon-religious groups are allowed to select members who support their purposes. And the university allows fraternities that admit only men and sororities that admit only women to continue as registered student organizations, in contradiction to the university\u2019s policy against \u2018discriminating based on sex.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Director of the ADF Center For Academic Freedom, ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer said that regardless of \u201cclaiming inclusiveness and diversity as its core values, the University of Colorado is failing to foster real diversity of thought and is, instead, discriminating against a Christian group based on its beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The filing explains: \u201cThe First Amendment dictates that the \u2018marketplace of ideas\u2019 on a public university cannot prefer some viewpoints and cannot exile and denigrate others. It dictates that the government cannot force a religious organization to appoint as a leader someone who does not that organization\u2019s beliefs or to accept as a member someone who does not support its mission. Nor can the government force citizens to choose between exercising their constitutional rights on the one hand and participating in government-run programs on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

School officials declined to comment on the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is being sued for demanding that a Christian organization permit \u201catheists or other non-Christians to lead their Bible studies\u201d if they want to be recognized on campus and become a registered club. The Alliance Defending Freedom went to federal court in Colorado to defend the students. The group…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[260,9,10,259],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-news","tag-atheists","tag-bible-study","tag-christian-news","tag-the-university-of-colorado-at-colorado-springs"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado School Being Sued After Requiring That Christians Allow Atheist to Lead Bible Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2018\/11\/colorado-school-sued-requiring-christians-allow-atheist-lead-bible-studies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado School Being Sued After Requiring That Christians Allow Atheist to Lead Bible Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is being sued for demanding that a Christian organization permit \u201catheists or other non-Christians to lead their Bible studies\u201d if they want to be recognized on campus and become a registered club. 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