First Amendment? Niiiiice Concept, Judge White…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”; that thar statement would be the first line of the First Amendment. Congress can’t get into the business of restricting the free exercise of faith. Apparently, a district court judge thinks that he can:
Court Tells Christian Club Its Mission Not Harmed by Non-Believing Leaders
Okay, let’s parse this for a moment. Perhaps a good argument can be made that this law school (ironic there, ain’t it?) should not be forced to provide funding and recognition for this Christian student club, although denying recognition, at the very least, would seem to amount to viewpoint discrimination; fair enough. But the basis upon which that judgment is reached by this judge is just preposterous: the admission to leadership/voting membership status of those who do not subscribe to the basic Christian tenets of the club does not constitute an incursion upon the club’s free exercise of religion. Incredible.
Assumedly, then, a Jewish student group could not bar Ku Klux Klan sympathizers from membership/leadership, right? An animal-rights group, assumedly, could not bar gun-toting NRA members from membership/leadership (and, theoretically, eventual takeover). We call it freedom when there is no way to regulate the membership/leadership of a given organization in such a way that the goals/beliefs/purposes of the organization are safeguarded? And in this case, the very point of a Christian student club is to do…Christian things! But according to this judge, apparently, there’s no way that such a group should be able to bar, say, a Buddhist from leadership/membership—because it really doesn’t “crimp the club’s style” for this to happen.
Astonishing.
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
2 Responses to “First Amendment? Niiiiice Concept, Judge White…”
This sort of insanity is why we need Christian law schools like the one owned by the Evangelical Free Church. People need to be taught the tuth about law, the Constitution, and basic hermiuetics.
Donald McConnell ~ Apr 27, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Right on, Donald, and it’s also why we have to have constructionists appointed to the courts. For all George W. Bush has gotten wrong, he’s gotten the courts right.
Byron ~ Apr 27, 2006 at 9:00 pm