Monday, September 08, 2014

"Not persecution"? InterVarsity "derecognized" as student organization on Cal State campuses

Ed Stetzer, "InterVarsity "Derecognized" at California State University's 23 Campuses: Some Analysis and Reflections" (Christianity Today, September 6, 2014):
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) has been, in modern campus terminology, “derecognized” by California State University schools. Basically, they will no longer be a recognized campus organization on any of the 23 schools in that system. IVCF has been derecognized because they require their leaders to have Christian beliefs.

It's not just InterVarsity that will be impacted. Following the same logic, any group that insists on requiring its leaders to follow an agreed upon set of guiding beliefs is no longer kosher (irony intended) at California's state universities. This will impact many other faith-based organizations with actual, well, faith-based beliefs. Presumably, even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals would have to allow Oscar Meyer to lead their campus chapters.

Only in a modern American university would this make any sense.

Now, it’s not persecution. Christians are not banned. People can share their faith. But, now, what we once called “equal access” has taken another hit—people of faith do not have equal access to the university community, like the environmentalist club, the LGBT organization, or the chess club.
Read the details here >>

1 comment:

JM said...

Will U.S. Catholic student groups fall under the axe? Look at Dolan's verdict on the St. Pat's parade. Following the lead of people like him, Pope Francis and Cardinal Schonborn, I'd seriously doubt it. It is a shame, but in my observation the single doctrinal or moral point that AmChurch stands fast on is opposition to abortion. Other beliefs that distinguish us from everyone else... well, there really can't be any important ones if we are all already brothers and sisters and targets of God's salvific will, correct? The outworking of Vatican II's undergirding assumptions, versus its vague affirmations, will leave the Church paralyzed in accommodation to the noble modern society. Or God will intervene with leadership that is "more Catholic than the Pope," or at least moreso than that being offered at the this moment by our current Pope. Maybe his hobnobbing with Evangelicals will have some positive side effect to hasten such a change?