I came across a Fox News article today about how Rollins College in Winter Park, FL shut down a four person dorm room Bible study being led by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. The college states the Bible study was only shut down because of a rule where groups can’t meet in the resident halls, but can meet in other parts of the campus. The bigger story though is that InterVarsity was (quoting the article) de-recognized as an official campus organization after they refused to comply with the college’s non-discrimination policy.
While InterVarsity welcomes all students and faculty to join their group, they require leaders to be followers of Christ. The college maintains that requirement is a violation of their non-discrimination policy.
I am not normally one to go up in arms over the 10 Commandments being taken down from court houses, prayer being taken out of schools, or losing sleep over the conspiracy-theory photos passed around the Internet of American concentration camps that are “being prepared for Christians.” But this story about Rollins College is so ridiculous in its logic and hypocrisy I had to say something about it.
Saying that it is discrimination to not allow a non-Christian to lead a Christian group is like saying it’s discrimination to not allow a Christian to lead an atheist group. A Christian at Rollins College needs to try this. Can you imagine the meeting agenda: “Ok group, today we are going to pray and worship God, talk about how we’ve seen God work in our lives, then go tell people about Jesus. Is that cool with everyone? And by the way, thanks letting me lead your group, you wouldn’t want to be accused of discriminating now would you?”
Is it discrimination to not allow a Democrat to lead a Republican group, or vice versa? Or to not allow a pacifist to lead a military group, or vice versa?
Rollins College is the one who looks discriminatory in this story: against Christians! Can you imagine them de-recognizing the Muslim student group or the Hindu student group because these groups wouldn’t allow Christians to lead their groups? Rollins would be instantly labeled as discriminatory and would likely be plastered with lawsuits.
My post is not meant to be an outcry against non-Christians. It’s meant make people aware that decisions like this push our country away from the freedoms we all value and push us toward something we hope we never become. Consider this great idea: Let’s get rid of every belief system. Let’s make everyone the same. And let’s force it on everyone to believe in nothing! And we’ll banish anyone if they decide to believe in anything!
Hmmm….this sounds eerily familiar…
I am all for being anti-discriminatory, but let’s separate the definition of discrimination from letting people be unique and actually have beliefs. To those people who say, “A religion shouldn’t exclude others, that’s judgmental”, you have to realize you just judged and excluded everyone (e.g. Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc.) who doesn’t believe that, which is a ton of people! And most of these religious groups still allow anyone in to their buildings and events who are interested in exploring their beliefs and/or just hanging out. In fact, most welcome it.
I hope that people see the double standard against Christians that Rollins College is enforcing. That they are discriminating against Christians, which is no better than discriminating against any other people group. My hope is that this pattern stops now, rather than becoming the pattern our entire country adopts.
Because it won’t stop with Christians. It will eventually turn everyone into thoughtless, belief-less conformists to the grey soup of institutionalized uniformity.
It is okay to stand for something. Lest we all stand for nothing.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
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