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Augusta State Univ to Counseling Student: Change [Christian] Beliefs or Get Out
LifeSiteNews.com -- Your Life, Family, and Culture Outpost ^ | Thursday July 22, 2010

Posted on 07/22/2010 1:49:10 PM PDT by topher

Thursday July 22, 2010


Augusta State Univ. to Counseling Student: Change Beliefs or Get Out

AUGUSTA, Georgia, July 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed suit against Augusta State University Wednesday on behalf of a counseling student who was allegedly told that her Christian beliefs are unethical and incompatible with the prevailing views of the counseling profession. The student, Jennifer Keeton, says she has been told to stop communicating her beliefs and that she must undergo "training" to accept homosexuality in order to graduate from the counseling program.

Augusta State ordered Keeton to undergo a re-education plan, in which she must attend “diversity sensitivity training,” complete additional remedial reading, and write papers to describe their impact on her beliefs. If she does not change her beliefs or agree to the plan, the university says it will expel her from the Counselor Education Program.

“A public university student shouldn’t be threatened with expulsion for being a Christian and refusing to publicly renounce her faith, but that’s exactly what’s happening here. Simply put, the university is imposing thought reform,” said ADF Senior Counsel David French.

“Abandoning one’s own religious beliefs should not be a precondition at a public university for obtaining a degree. This type of leftist zero-tolerance policy is in place at far too many universities, and it must stop."

Keeton, 24, is pursuing her master’s degree in counseling at Augusta State. Lawyers say that after her professors learned of her biblical beliefs, specifically her views on homosexual conduct, the school imposed the re-education plan. Keeton says she never denigrated anyone in communicating her beliefs but merely stated factually what they were in appropriate contexts.

The plan, according to ADF lawyers, assails Keeton’s beliefs as inconsistent with the counseling profession and expresses suspicion over “Jen’s ability to be a multiculturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (GLBTQ) populations.” They say the plan requires her to take steps to change her beliefs through additional assignments and additional “diversity sensitivity training" and to “work to increase exposure and interactions with gay populations. One such activity could be attending the Gay Pride Parade in Augusta.”

Each month, Keeton is allegedly required to complete a report on how the “remediation” assignments have influenced her beliefs so that faculty can “decide the appropriateness of her continuation in the counseling program.” Lawyers say the plan concludes by noting that “failure to complete all elements of the remediation plan will result in dismissal from the Counselor Education Program.”

In an ADF video, Keeton said that, “While I want to stay in the school counseling program, I know that I can't honestly complete the remediation plan knowing that I would have to alter my beliefs." "I'm not willing to, and I know I can't, change my Biblical views," she said.

ADF attorneys filed the complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley with the U.S. District Court for the District of Georgia.

ADF is currently litigating a similar case involving a counseling student at Eastern Michigan University and successfully resolved a case at Missouri State University. Also in litigation is a case involving a Georgia counselor fired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because she would not agree to affirm homosexual behavior as morally acceptable.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10072207.html


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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: 666; academia; christian; counseling; fascism; georgia; homsexuality; obama; palin; religion
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It is okay to have perverted beliefs, but not Christian beliefs.
1 posted on 07/22/2010 1:49:14 PM PDT by topher
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To: topher

Somebody’s gonna get RICH...!


2 posted on 07/22/2010 1:52:33 PM PDT by US Navy Vet
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To: topher

The left is always hypocritical no matter what. They push diversity, but that diversity had better not include a servant of the Most High God.

Do we see who’s running this show? Can we see the horns? He’s a god wannabe and can’t stand the threat of the Real God!


3 posted on 07/22/2010 1:53:24 PM PDT by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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To: topher

Worse. They cannot ask her to change her religion, and they know it. So what the school is advocating is, clearly, Orwellian double-think, the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accept both of them. That is a recipe for mental illness.


4 posted on 07/22/2010 1:53:59 PM PDT by La Lydia
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To: US Navy Vet

“ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?!” - Jay Robinson as Caligula in The Robe

Now he’s running a college.


5 posted on 07/22/2010 1:54:10 PM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: topher

Evil is afoot in all of our schools. Parents be aware of what your children are being subjected to in their schools.


6 posted on 07/22/2010 1:54:21 PM PDT by J Edgar
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To: topher

We must pretend that abnormality is normal and we must pretend that mental illness is not a mental illness to be a counselor.

/makes sense not


7 posted on 07/22/2010 1:55:03 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com <--- My Fiction/ Science Fiction Board)
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To: topher

Counseling appears to be one of those professions requiring little (if any) intellect anyway.

Why not replace all those “counselors” with a voice recognition machine hooked to a robot face?

The machine’ll have much more of an IQ than your typical “counselor”.

Another degree worth its weight in cr*p...er Obamas.


8 posted on 07/22/2010 1:57:43 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: topher

We need to use the same Gestapo tactics that the hard left uses. Boycott, picket, publicize, report to government licensing agencies, call the local and national press, and litigate to the hilt. Simply venting our anger is pointless!


9 posted on 07/22/2010 1:59:20 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: topher

It is time for the University of Ga Regents to can this program and send its faculty on a job hunt. Academic freedom for me but not for Thee.


10 posted on 07/22/2010 2:00:52 PM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (Oligarchy...never vote for the Ivy League candidate.)
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To: topher

One wonders how her professors would react if she announced that she had converted to Islam and that she now believes that homosexuals should be executed by stoning.


11 posted on 07/22/2010 2:01:23 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: topher
There are 2 people of good standing in my church who are counselors. Christian counseling does a whole lot of good.
12 posted on 07/22/2010 2:02:01 PM PDT by vpintheak (Love of God, Family and Country has made me an extremist.)
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To: topher

Is there a way for us to let her know of our prayers and support?


13 posted on 07/22/2010 2:02:23 PM PDT by lastchance (Hug your babies.)
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To: topher

Godly Christian young lady. God will bless her! I pray for her!


14 posted on 07/22/2010 2:05:22 PM PDT by rawhide
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To: topher

Re-education camps? Where have I heard that before?


15 posted on 07/22/2010 2:07:34 PM PDT by Tzimisce (No thanks. We have enough government already. - The Tick)
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To: topher

Seems to me that if she feels she can’t counsel gays, she wouldn’t take them, and that she would be perfectly competent to counsel straights. that’s assuming, of course, that the university’s objections made any sense to begin with. Which they don’t


16 posted on 07/22/2010 2:11:40 PM PDT by chesley (Eat what you want, and die like a man.)
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To: rawhide

I know I shouldn’t ask this, but where the hell are the elected state representatives on this issue? And who funds this state reformatory?


17 posted on 07/22/2010 2:13:27 PM PDT by Melchior
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To: Da Coyote

You sound as ignorant and closed-minded as the administrators at Augusta State.


18 posted on 07/22/2010 2:13:45 PM PDT by Jackson57
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To: topher

What galls these creeps the most are the results: Genuinely embracing Christianity has righted far more screwed up lives than all the modern secular humanist counseling out there.


19 posted on 07/22/2010 2:14:56 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: topher

Well... to be fair, she is in a secular environment and should couch her counseling devoid of her faith.

If she wants to be a counselor for people seeking help from professionals who share the same faith then she should seek a job there.

There is a place for witnessing and there is a place for counseling. Sometimes they meet in the same place but in a secular setting it really would be inappropriate for a counselor to couch her practice, advice or therapy with “her qualifiers”.


20 posted on 07/22/2010 2:29:47 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it.)
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