Faith-Based Initiative

By Perry Bacon

Does a Christian student organization have the right to insist that its leaders be Christians? Several universities say no, and a growing legal battle has resulted. The InterVarsity Multiethnic Christian Fellowship at Rutgers filed suit last week after the university eliminated the group's $1,200 in funding. Rutgers claimed that the group was violating the university's anti-discrimination rules, which stipulate that an organization may not discriminate on the basis of religious beliefs when choosing its leaders. The group says the decision violates its freedom of religion and association.

Christian groups at the University of North Carolina and Harvard are fighting similar efforts to strip them of funding unless they embrace nondiscrimination clauses. The schools claim that they are simply adhering to anti-discrimination policies. The students say it makes no sense to forbid a Christian fellowship to require its leaders to agree with certain tenets of Christianity. "We're not trying to exclude," says Laura Vellenga, New Jersey area director for InterVarsity, which has fellowships on 560 campuses across the U.S. "But we want to reserve leadership positions to what the fellowship is about." --By Perry Bacon