Religion

Religions Institutions and Student Groups

I agree with Rick that it "is not the kind of discrimination the state should care about when a religious institutions makes decisions about membership on the basis of that institution's religious commitments.  My question in the context of the University of Montana law school situation is whether that means the school has to fund the organization with no regard for what is contained in the Statement of Faith required to be adhered to as a condition of membership? 

In this situation, we are not talking about the decision of a religious institution.  Rather, presumably the current student leaders of the CLS have adopted a Statement of Faith that captures their understanding and interpretation of the Christian faith.  (And a different group of students leaders might very well have come up with a Statement of Faith that was not identical to the one adopted.) There may be any number of students who call themselves Christian who share some but not all articles of the Statement of Faith. 

I have no hesitation in saying that a university should provide funding to a CLS that restricts its membership to Christians.  But while I'm not prepared to express a firm disagreement with Rick and Steve on this matter, I have to confess that I pause a little here, where we are talking about protecting restrictions based on some group of students' interpretation of Christianity, which interpretation excludes others who are Christians.  Isn't there a difference between saying the state should not interfere with a religious organization's determination of what is required for its faith and the protection on religious grounds of whatever the current group of students in charge determines Christianity means? 

From Mirror of Justice posted 2008-01-01.