Christians kicked off campus at Brown University
Pastor Dale Morgan
Christians kicked off campus at Brown University
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Civil rights group challenging decision to eject Presbyterian fellowship
Posted: November 19, 2006
FIRE
A civil rights organization has joined forces with a Christian student
group at Brown University in an attempt to find out why the school has
banned the Christians from meeting on its campus.
"A university that respects its students cannot capriciously suspend
student groups," said Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education. "Suspension of any student group is
a serious matter and should be accompanied by a serious explanation. Yet
Brown has consistently skirted questions about the suspension, calling
into question both the university's motives and the legitimacy of the
punishment."
FIRE said the members of the Trinity Presbyterian Church campus
fellowship had sought from school officials an explanation for the
punishment. After being offered varying and shifting reasons, they
sought help from FIRE in trying to obtain the information.
The move by Brown comes just weeks after Georgetown University notified
a group of evangelical Christian organizations, such as InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship, they would no longer be allowed to operate on
campus. The university said it was going in another "direction" but
never explained more fully.
The Alliance Defense Fund wrote a letter to Georgetown asking for
reconsideration of its ban on several Christian groups. Officials said
no response was received.
Those in a position to know have reported that the Christian groups were
booted from campus for being too evangelical, because student clubs
promoting Muslim and Jewish beliefs were allowed to continue existing
within the formal campus structure.
Now comes the move by Brown to eject the meetings involving nearly 100
students, and the varying explanations the school has offered, according
to FIRE.
The first apparent word of trouble was in September when Janet Cooper
Nelson, of the school's Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life, sent
the fellowship's leaders an e-mail explaining it was suspended because
of "non-compliance with University policy and procedure."
She alleged Trinity Presbyterian Church, the sponsoring body, "has
withdrawn its sponsorship."
The difficulty there was that Trinity Senior Pastor David Sherwood
immediately responded that the church "has not, in any sense, withdrawn
its sponsorship." In fact, he said, the group's leaders and students "do
a fantastic job of equipping the rising generation of student leaders."
Then Allen Callahan, an associate chaplain at the school, explained that
a form that was submitted late meant that the group "had not been a
'recognized student organization' since the fall of last year."
However, officials also noted there was no suspension in place at that
time, and in fact the group retained the right to reserve meeting space
throughout the school year.
Callahan then offered the accusation that the group "had become
possessed of a leadership culture of contempt and dishonesty that has
rendered all collegial relations with my office impossible."
So the students asked for an explanation of the "culture of contempt and
dishonesty" but did not get a response.
On the FIRE website, Tara Sweeney wrote that student groups "should not
exist at the mercy of administrative caprice… Brown University
encourages its students to forge their own path, famously telling them
that at Brown, 'you will be challenged to define liberal education for
yourself.' But students whose definition includes membership in this
evangelical Christian fellowship are just out of luck."
When FIRE got involved, the civil rights group got a statement from
Russell Carey, an interim vice president of campus life, that he would
personally "mediate" the issues, "with the goal of ending the suspension.:
"Over the years FIRE has seen too many examples of administrators
treating religious groups in an unjust manner. All students – religious
and otherwise – deserve fair treatment," said Samantha Harris, the
organization's director of legal and public advocacy.
"We hope that Brown will take seriously its promise to revisit the
suspension and reach a decision that shows respect for students of faith."
"It's the students who lose out in this situation," said Pastor
Sherwood. "It's hard to imagine that anyone's involvement in this
organization could be anything but beneficial."
A number of other universities also have taken action to dismiss various
Christian organizations, and have faced legal action because of their
decisions. Most of those cases have had to do with the Christian
organizations failing to follow school "diversity" plans because they
require their leaders to be Christian.
FIRE is a nonprofit education foundation. It works with civil rights and
civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists and others on behalf of
individual rights, due process, freedom of expression and academic
freedom at colleges and universities across the country.