Posted on 12/13/2021 9:09:30 AM PST by daniel1212
The Iowa State Appeal Board agreed Monday to pay a combined $1.93 million for attorney fees and damages in a pair of cases involving two Christian groups: Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, The Gazette newspaper reports.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represented both groups in the lawsuits alleging religious discrimination.
At issue was a university requirement that groups affirm a human rights policy banning discrimination on the basis of religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, among other classes.
The controversy began when a gay student said he was refused a position within Business Leaders in Christ because he would not affirm its belief statement, which affirms the traditional, biblical view of marriage and sexuality.
The university deregistered Business Leaders in Christ after it refused to change its beliefs. The university later deregistered InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for similar reasons.
The university lost multiple rounds in court, including this year when the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Business Leaders in Christ....
"...The individual defendants may pick their poison: they are either plainly incompetent, or they knowingly violated the Constitution.”
(Excerpt) Read more at christianheadlines.com ...
In this case then once again the free exercise of religion is, at best, essentially only to be allowed as regards private worship but not when it extends to actions and choices that are contrary to the ideological "religion" of the Left.
The fallacy is that moral laws can be separate from faith beliefs - only when said faith involves deity, in particular the God of the Bible. Yet all moral laws are based upon belief, including that stealing is wrong (but not necessarily in baseball) to that certain words are (at least contextually), and the premise that one must merit rewards and leadership. a And while they may be reasonably logical, they reflect the foundational ethos of those who make them (in some tribal cultures treachery is a virtue).
Yet the ideology of the Left, such as affirms gender is defined by whatever one feels like, and that skin color itself makes one racist, and determines qualification for position, is one that is based upon faith, essentially the premise that liberal elites have superior wisdom, and to who all must submit. Or else.
For indeed, such are proxy servants of the devil who lusts for exaltation, creating a world in which everything that God ordained is perverted, and in which he is threby at least implicitly worshiped. Yet we know that "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted," (Luke 18:14) and that the devil will be terminally abased/punished and all who are not on the Lord's side thru effectual faith. (Rv. 14:1; 20:15-15)
Meanwhile, going back to the issue of freedom of religion and of speech, to censor the speech and outlaw the actions of religion based upon the premise of separation of church and state while requiring submission to the immoral ethos of the Left is bigotry against ideology which involves a deity. Most specifically the Creator of the Bible, under the premise that He is the all-wise moral judge and authority, while ideology which flows from the in the liberal elites, under the premise that they are the supremely wise moral judges and authority on what is right, is held to be constitutional.
Too bad the educrats aren’t paying out of their own pockets.
This needs to happen again and again until the discrimination stops.
Before voting Monday to approve the nearly $2 million in payments, State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald asked Solicitor General [and Demonicrat] Jeffrey Thompson to explain the decisions that propelled such costly litigation.Excerpted from a December 7, 2021 update news report, "University of Iowa ordered to pay nearly $2M in faith-based student org lawsuits."
“When this stuff starts out — they ask to be a student group and somebody tells them no — I assume they don't come to your office for that kind of advice,” Fitzgerald said. “Do they get some sort of legal advice down there? The Law School or somebody tells them, ‘Hey you can’t do that.’”
Thompson explained that the UI does consult with its Office of the General Counsel and “We were involved in this process from the beginning.” The situation was complicated, he said, and began with the gay student filing a human rights complaint against BLinC. Thompson asserted the two lawsuits were part of a bigger push to establish legal precedence.
“One of the reasons that these cases were brought and this started, this was initially a test case that was designed to create litigation,” Thompson said.
hopefully not after dragging it out so very long through the courts
The Founders never foresaw this coming since they were dealing with the basic issue of Congress (not states) establishing a coherent national religion, such as seen in states, but which did not mean government could not affirm religion in general, such as sometimes volitionally offering prayers of supplication and gratitude and exhorting the same as men such as Washington, Lincoln Roosevelt etc. did. Jefferson even had a female evangelist preach in the House, consistent with inclusiveness of religion, versus exclusiveness, but was averse to gov. calling for fast or feast days but which Washington and Lincoln, etc. did. See ► HISTORICAL QUOTES IN CONTRAST
...the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals "...The individual defendants may pick their poison: they are either plainly incompetent, or they knowingly violated the Constitution.”
I think the 8th Circuit opinion arrives at a false dichotomy. It’s clear to me that the University was both incompetent & violated the Constitution.
We think alike.
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