Replies

PERSECUTION.ORG
http://www.persecution.org

===

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07010021.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com

Thursday, January 4, 2007

British Christian group takes legal action

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

EXETER, UK (ANS) -- A British Christian Union group banned from student facilities is taking legal action under the Human Rights Act.

BBC News in a report said, “Exeter University Evangelical Christian Union were suspended from the student guild and had a bank account frozen.
“The guild decided on the measures because the group asked members to sign a statement of religious belief.

“Similar groups have been accused of discrimination against non-Christians and gay people. The Union is seeking a judicial review at the High Court.

“The case could have implications for religious groups across the UK.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said moves against the Christian Unions are wrong.

Dr Rowan Williams said the refusal by some student unions to recognize evangelical Christian groups looked like a “fear of open argument.”

Dr Williams said that while the views of evangelicals on the issue of homosexual sex may be “embarrassing” to liberal Christians, traditional values should not be compared to holocaust denial or racial bigotry.

The BBC said that as well as Exeter, the Christian Union at the University of Birmingham faced a similar suspension of a bank account and exclusion from free use of student union premises.

The student guild at Exeter University says that the Christian Union's equal opportunities policies are being “audited.”

The Christian Union says its meetings are open to all, but members are asked to sign a statement of belief in Jesus as their God and savior and officials to sign a more comprehensive statement of belief.

Last resort

A statement on the Exeter University Students Guild website said: “The premise of the situation is that students felt that as students fund our societies and as our Equal Opportunities Policy states, all activities should be open to all students.

“The Evangelical Christian Union is the only society identified that has barriers to entry - both for membership of the society and to be on the committee of the society.

“This is certainly not a debate regarding the beliefs of the society; it is one of equal opportunities.”
Ben Martin, a member of the Christian Union committee in Exeter was quoted by the BBC as saying: “Legal action was the very last thing we wanted to take.

“We are all students trying to concentrate on our studies, but the action by the Guild, in blatant infringement of our rights, and their reluctance to reinstate us, has left us with no alternative.”

The BBC story concluded by saying, “Similar action is said to have been considered against Christian Unions at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University and some London medical schools.

“University students have voted to change the name of a Christian Union after claims it was misleading.

“The Students' Guild of the University of Exeter said some students complained that the name did not reflect the society's evangelical views.”

And to think that Britain was once known as a Christian country!

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.

** You may republish this story with proper attribution.