activism-promotion, usa, education, atheist-outreachFor a brief, I will refer to the Disriminatory group’s spin page:
Unfortunately, other student groups sometimes actively pressure a law school to deny [Christian Legal Society] the same recognition they enjoy. In 2003, a member of the Outlaw chapter at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law filed a formal complaint demanding that the law school derecognize the CLS chapter because its officers and members signed a statement of faith agreeing, among other things, to comply with scriptural standards of sexual morality… When university officials threatened to withdraw recognition, CLS filed suit. Christian Legal Soc’y Chapter of the Ohio State Univ. v. Holbrook, No. 04-197 (S.D. Ohio 2004). In response, the university amended its policy to allow religious student groups to “adopt a nondiscrimination statement that is consistent” with their sincerely held religious beliefs.
According to the AU, this may change. Apparently, “This week, an advisory council that includes representatives from OSU’s undergraduate, professional and graduate schools plans to ask the vice president for Student Life to drop the exemption Ohio State created when it caved to the CLS’s demands in 2004.”
What are some techniques way as a student, taxpayer, and neighbor to petition my school to follow suit? How can I argue the point that these kind of groups should have equal access (at least, that is the standard in the US), but that they cannot discriminate based on the morality they use to undergird their charters?
I think there are a couple of potential actions. And, at the most basic of levels, it ties in with the university’s official “recognition” of the group. As a state institution, there are serious constitutional questions surrounding the recognition of a blatantly christian organization, as the state is officially not supposed to appear to be supporting one religion over another.
I would begin by publicly asking why this group is even seeking university recognition in the first place. What benefits does recognition confer upon the group? A post office box? The group is free to meet on-campus following any other protocols for finding meeting places as any other group, officially sanctioned or otherwise. This might be sufficient to call out the real reasons why they’re seeking recognition. The university won’t take a position about any groups of students who meet to do something for any reason as long as it’s not outwardly illegal (so the OSU Drug Running, Prostitution, and Money Laundering Student Group wouldn’t be able to continue with its activities no matter what). Recognition does not really give that much more of a benefit, so it’s not a question of the free speech to which they’re entitled.
If they insist upon seeking recognition, then a reasonable response would be to create a new student group ostensibly based upon a religion that this other group would consider antithetical to their own views. Satanism actually serves this purpose quite nicely. If the Satanist group is rejected in its petition for recognition, you have a legitimate grievance against the university in that it permitted one religious group but not yours. If it is approved in its petition for recognition, stick to the group’s charter but allow its actions to follow the movements of the Christian group.
The simple truth of the matter is that freedom of religion applies to all religions or none at all. Ditto for free speech. If someone wants to proclaim their faith loudly and publicly, that’s certainly their prerogative, but that just sets the stage for others of opposite views to do the same thing.
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