Anti-bias policies drive some religious groups off campuses

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*Leaders of Vanderbilt Catholic, which has 500 members, says the rule make no sense. P.J. Jedlovec, the group’s president, says their meetings are open to all students, but only people who share the group’s beliefs can be leaders. … Vanderbilt Provost Richard McCarty says religious groups are free to choose their leaders but must allow any student to be a member and to run for office, no matter their beliefs.*Full story at USA Today.
 
Only in academia. And politics. Is there really a difference…
 
*Leaders of Vanderbilt Catholic, which has 500 members, says the rule make no sense. P.J. Jedlovec, the group’s president, says their meetings are open to all students, but only people who share the group’s beliefs can be leaders. … Vanderbilt Provost Richard McCarty says religious groups are free to choose their leaders but must allow any student to be a member and to run for office, no matter their beliefs.*Full story at USA Today.
Do Societies at Colleges/Universities have to be ratified in America? At my University they wont ratify any Political Group (Conservatives/Liberals/Socialist/Communist/Anarchist/Fascist ectect), however they are free to meet on Campus and use Campus facilities, they just wont be formally recognized.
 
the groups can still choose their leaders, theyre just not allowing overt discrimination. doesnt seem like thered be much risk of a catholic group electing a non catholic as their leader. whats the big deal?
 
the groups can still choose their leaders, theyre just not allowing overt discrimination. doesnt seem like thered be much risk of a catholic group electing a non catholic as their leader. whats the big deal?
Suppose a large number of atheists decide to join the Catholic group and then run for office. You mght end up with atheist leaders of a Catholic organization. Or skinhead leaders of a Jewish organization. Or Jack Chick heading up the Catholic youth group. It makes no sense.
 
if folks are being disruptive, thats an issue that can be addressed without banning folks from competing against others based on their beliefs. its a liability to allow discrimination.
 
if folks are being disruptive, thats an issue that can be addressed without banning folks from competing against others based on their beliefs. its a liability to allow discrimination.
It’s not about disruption. It’s about having a group of like minded people–a Catholic group, a Jewish group, an atheist group. Sometimes discrimination is a good thing. Does the Knights of Columbus accept atheist members? Do atheist groups accept committed evangelicals as members? Does the NAACP wish to have all white members for its leadership? At my parish the Ladies Auxiliary does not accept males as members, nor does the Men’s Club accept women. Discrimination. It’s a good thing.
 
Suppose a large number of atheists decide to join the Catholic group and then run for office. You mght end up with atheist leaders of a Catholic organization. Or skinhead leaders of a Jewish organization. Or Jack Chick heading up the Catholic youth group. It makes no sense.
Exactly. Say there’s a large liberal campus and it has a thriving LGBTQIA organization with hundreds of members and a small Catholic organization with 20 members. Some members of the LGBTQIA group who might not be find of Catholics due to their stance on gay marriage could come together, join the Catholic group with twice the numbers, and completely take it over and change everything about it.

The same could easily be done vice-versa if the Catholic group was the one with superior numbers. Or take a fundamentalist evangelical group - they’d see it as a moral obligation to attempt a coup.
 
Why is it that it seems that so many colleges and universities these days are so politically correct and liberal in nature? I just don’t understand it.
 
*Leaders of Vanderbilt Catholic, which has 500 members, says the rule make no sense. P.J. Jedlovec, the group’s president, says their meetings are open to all students, but only people who share the group’s beliefs can be leaders. … Vanderbilt Provost Richard McCarty says religious groups are free to choose their leaders but must allow any student to be a member and to run for office, no matter their beliefs.*Full story at USA Today.
More secular insanity from academia.

Or, put another way---------“All religions are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

In deed. Through the prayers of the Mother Of God, have mercy on us and Save us. Amen.
 
It’s not about disruption. It’s about having a group of like minded people–a Catholic group, a Jewish group, an atheist group. Sometimes discrimination is a good thing. Does the Knights of Columbus accept atheist members? Do atheist groups accept committed evangelicals as members? Does the NAACP wish to have all white members for its leadership? At my parish the Ladies Auxiliary does not accept males as members, nor does the Men’s Club accept women. Discrimination. It’s a good thing.
This is in my Diocese. Vanderbilt University is a private university across the street from our Cathedral. Fr. John Sims Baker; the priest that heads Vandy Catholic, argued that many organization at colleges and universities are already discriminatory by their nature. The most discriminatory are the social sororities and fraternaties. Unless you have been selected to belong to that organization; you cannot hold office and you must be a member in good standing. The other are the ‘professional’ societies related to a particular major - you cannot be a member unless you are pursuing a degree in that area or have a particular GPA; thus you cannot hold office. The reasoning behind being recognized by the private university is to be able to recieve some of the student activity funds. Vandy Catholic’s facility is in a house that sits on Cathedral property.

Part of the issue is that the state universities don’t have this problem. About 35 miles east of Vanderbilt is MTSU. MTSU is a public university and they have several religious organizations that are recognized by the university, including MTSU Catholic. The membership is open to all but by state law; the organization is allowed to form their own regulations as to who is able to hold a leadership position. There is a movement afoot in the Tennessee legislature that would incorporate the private colleges and universities into the same state law as the public universities. This can be done by those private institutions that recieve the state lottery scholarship dollars.
 
There was a very interesting SCOTUS case about this very thing. Colleges can ban discriminatory practices when it comes to student groups because those groups are not only funded by all of the students but taxpayers. And yes, even private schools get tax dollars.
 
There was a very interesting SCOTUS case about this very thing. Colleges can ban discriminatory practices when it comes to student groups because those groups are not only funded by all of the students but taxpayers. And yes, even private schools get tax dollars.
And another interesting and recent case by the supreme court that concluded the opposite.
 
What case was this? The one I’m talking about was 2010.
Can’t recall the name of the case. Never was good at that, but it was earlier this year, I believe, and it was a unanimous decision by the supreme court, which many pointed to as evidence that they would also shoot down the HHS mandate. It pertained to religious groups’ right to “discriminate” based on religion and adherence to said religion’s precepts.
 
Can’t recall the name of the case. Never was good at that, but it was earlier this year, I believe, and it was a unanimous decision by the supreme court, which many pointed to as evidence that they would also shoot down the HHS mandate. It pertained to religious groups’ right to “discriminate” based on religion and adherence to said religion’s precepts.
Look up Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.

The one you’re talking about pertained to employment and was a far different legal question than a student group taking tax dollars and using campus resources to discriminate.

States do have the right to ban discriminatory student groups.
 
Look up Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.

The one you’re talking about pertained to employment and was a far different legal question than a student group taking tax dollars and using campus resources to discriminate.

States do have the right to ban discriminatory student groups.
So? They can still get tax dollars. What, logistically, is different between a student group and a workplace in this context? Both groups get government money. Both groups limit membership and leadership based on religion.

Also, I would argue rather strongly that it is not actually discrimination. The Knights of Columbus don’t allow women because it’s a fraternal organization. Allowing women to join defeats one of the core purposes of the group. I cannot call that discrimination. Nor can I call discrimination keeping boys out of the girl scouts. Discrimination is excluding someone because they are considered somehow deficient by virtue of their traits. Women are not excluded from the KofC because they are deficient or lesser than men. It’s just because it’s a men’s group. Girl scouts don’t exclude boys from joining because they think them lesser. It’s just that it’s a club for girls, and they’re not girls.

If I want to form a group of Catholic men because I enjoy the company of like-minded people, I have that right. I also have the right to not have the group I made taken from me in a coup by a bunch of angry gay people who think I’m scum of the earth just for being Catholic, or to have the newly elected southern Baptist treasurer for the group to clean out the bank account after getting his baptist buddies to elect him to that position.

You cannot possibly not see the ****storm such a policy creates.
 
Perhaps this is more of an issue at Catholic universities since they admit students of diverse religious beliefs, though the majority are Catholic, unlike, for example, certain Evangelical institutions, which admit only those who profess similar beliefs. Is there an important tenet of Catholic belief that requires this kind of universal outreach? If so, then ANY discriminatory practice, even as it applies to student religious groups, may create an uneasy tension among some members of Catholic institutions.
 
It’s not about disruption. It’s about having a group of like minded people–a Catholic group, a Jewish group, an atheist group. Sometimes discrimination is a good thing. Does the Knights of Columbus accept atheist members? Do atheist groups accept committed evangelicals as members? Does the NAACP wish to have all white members for its leadership? At my parish the Ladies Auxiliary does not accept males as members, nor does the Men’s Club accept women. Discrimination. It’s a good thing.
you cant force a university to change its policies for you–the world does not revolve around you. “school’s non-discrimination policy that bars student groups from requiring their leaders to hold specific beliefs.” this would apply to an atheist group as well. whining about something like this makes people look petty, and bigoted.
 
you cant force a university to change its policies for you–the world does not revolve around you. “school’s non-discrimination policy that bars student groups from requiring their leaders to hold specific beliefs.” this would apply to an atheist group as well. whining about something like this makes people look petty, and bigoted.
If you hadn’t noticed, we are taking issue with the policy itself, arguing that it inadvertently encourages true discrimination against minorities on campus. We’re not just complaining about it’s effect on us, but on any group.
 
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