From Fox News:
A “Christ-centered” legal group has filed a federal lawsuit against a high school in New York, accusing it of religious discrimination after it disbanded a student Christian club while leaving dozens of other clubs active. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund claims the Christian club, called Ichthus, was cancelled without notice after being in operation for four years. ADF filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Islip on behalf of a student at Half Hollow Hills High School East in the Long Island town of Dix Hills. ADF attorney David Cortman said Ichthus was disbanded even though there was student interest in keeping it going. “This is pure and simple a case of viewpoint discrimination against Christian students,” Cortman told Fox News. “This is a school that has 60 student clubs. They have, of course, a gay-straight alliance; they have a fashion club, which is important because we all have to look good; they have a future lawyers of America, which it is obvious why they didn’t cancel their club. “They also have a club that deals with the Constitution, which is probably a good club for school officials to take. “But what is interesting here is that [of] all those clubs, they decide to deny the Christian club.” But Dr. Sheldon Karnilow, the district superintendent, denies that disbanding the club was a discrimination issue. He said the decision was strictly budgetary.
Sarcasm from the ADF attorney aside, we need to be careful before drawing hasty conclusions about this case (I know that cuz I just finished two weeks of jury duty). 🙂 On first blush, however, it does make one wonder what is going on. If budgetary considerations really drove this decision, why did not this apply to all the other clubs so that the budgetary pain could be distributed equitably? What kinds of resources did this Christian club need as opposed to others that would mark them to be cut because of budgetary considerations? Assuming this club’s purpose was benign and participation voluntary, why would they be singled out?
Jesus warned us in the beatitudes that his followers would be subject to persecution. I do not have enough evidence to say conclusively that this is a case of persecution, but that does not mean we should not shine some light on it to see what is really going on. The good news, of course, is that if this is an example of persecution, it will not cause the light of Christ to be extinguished. We know this because our Lord himself promised us that this would be the case.
What do you think about this?