Thursday, August 14, 2008

Sneaky Christians

Although the decision was handed down on August 8th, it took me an additional 6 days to find a violin small enough for this one. In Association of Christian Schools International v. Stearns, a California federal district court upheld the University of California's refusal to recognize certain high school courses offered by Christian schools in making admissions decisions. This coalition of Christians challenged the University of California's policy to reject courses that are taught from a religious viewpoint. They claimed that Christian values were being unfairly discriminated against, and they invoked the religious-establishment clause in the constitution.

Thank the black empty sky that the court had enough sense to hand down this decision. Although given the argument in question, it would be hard not to do so. One the dumb hand, religious people should be free to express themselves. On the other hand, California's public universities should be able to make their own decisions about what they will accept and credit in their own institutions.

Let's be real here. These "Christian" courses are just that- they teach religion. They boast titles such as, "Christianity's Influence on American History”, an English course titled “Christianity and Morality in American Literature” and a government course titled “Special Providence: American Government”.When these courses actually do touch upon academic topics, they teach them in the context of religion for the purpose of religious study. If you want to learn in this way, that's fine, but don't expect a public facility of higher education to accept and endorse it.

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