Administration officials at the University of Iowa sparked a national scandal and a lawsuit after being caught blatantly discriminating against Christians. The university’s bigotry was so extreme that school officials even demanded that a Christian organization revise its religious beliefs to be allowed on campus. Obviously, the Christians refused.
The student group in question, Business Leaders in Christ, also known as BLinC, does accept anyone as members in the organization. However, the organization also asks that leaders embrace the Christian faith and abstain from all forms of sexual immorality, which the Bible defines as everything from fornication and adultery to homosexual acts and sodomy.
The Christian business group’s statement of faith and good conduct required of leaders was crystal clear. “Members should conduct their careers without the greed, racism, sexual immorality and selfishness that all too often arise in business, political, and cultural institutions,” explains the relevant portion of the document.
According to media reports, however, a conflict arose between the Christian group and the tax-funded center of alleged “higher learning” when BLinC refused to allow a self-styled homosexual to become a leader. Indeed, according to University of Iowa spokesperson Anne Bassett, being Christian and believing the Bible represents a “violation” of the university’s “Human Rights Policy.”
“When a voluntary student organization chooses to become a registered student organization, it must adhere to the mission of the university, the UI’s policies and procedures, and all local, state, and federal laws,” said Bassett, adding that there are 20 religious student groups but without clarifying whether Muslim organizations might have to allow homosexual opponents of Islam as leaders.
For BlinC to be acceptable, though, it must change its statement of faith and allow non-Christian homosexuals as leaders. However, leaders of the group made clear that is not going to happen. “This is 2017, not 1984,” said BLinC student president Jacob Estell. “Our beliefs weren’t made by us, and they can’t be changed by us either — certainly not just to satisfy Orwellian government rules.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the Christian students in court, said the university is violating the Constitution, the law, and fairness by discriminating against the group, because tax-funded school officials are intolerant of Christian beliefs and diversity. “If you’re going to lead our Bible studies, if you’re going to interpret the Bible for us, if you’re going to lead us in prayer, all they’re asking is that you also agree with us about who we’re praying to,” said Becket attorney Daniel Blomberg, who filed the suit.
The case is hardly an isolated incident. And while leftists and Muslims are typically immune from the wrath of university thought police, it’s not just Christians in the crosshairs of hateful officials. Just last week, Wartburg College was in the news for discriminating against the conservative student group Turning Point USA. According to college officials, the conservative group cannot be tolerated because the club’s limited government viewpoints “were not in line with the values of Wartburg College.”
By discriminating against Christian students, the University of Iowa makes taxpayers complicity in its anti-Christian jihad to eliminate diversity and tolerance — two Christian values that have been hijacked and weaponized by intolerant bigots. But on the bright side, this naked hatred and intolerance by the Jesus Haters in Iowa should serve as a warning to Christian parents everywhere.
