or maybe it was the idol worship?
Posted on 10/18/2006 8:26:21 PM PDT by Iam1ru1-2
The Alliance Defense Fund has written a letter to a "Christian" college asking officials there to reconsider their decision to ban several national and international Christian student organizations because the groups are too evangelical.
Georgetown University, which boasts a tradition of more than 200 years of Jesuit and Catholic teachings, recently sent letters to half a dozen evangelical Christian organizations telling them they no longer are welcome.
"Now I've seen derecognition letters before, but this one takes the cake," David French, the senior legal counsel for the ADF, said of the Georgetown University decision. "Blessings and may God's peace be on you! … Now get off campus!"
He told WND that there's been no satisfactory explanation for the sudden change in school policy, but those in a position to know best say the groups, such InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, are too evangelical.
"The real interesting thing is that Georgetown tossed these groups, but left the Muslim Student Alliance and the Jewish Student Alliance intact," French told WND. "This Christian college is giving more religious freedom to Muslims and Jews than to Christians."
He said the evangelical groups simply want "to have a place at the table" with other religious groups.
The ADF letter to John DeGioia, the president, and Rev. Timothy S. Godfrey, S.J., a campus ministry leader, and others asked them to correct the "discriminatory decision by the school's Office of Campus Ministries.
"OCM's actions completely betray the goals, ideals and values that have given Georgetown University the reputation for excellence it enjoys today," the letter said. "They also highlight a disturbing double standard when compared to the way that the University treats Jewish and Muslim student organizations."
The letter noted that Georgetown advertises that it believes "serious and sustained" discourse among people of differing faiths promotes understanding. However, the difference between its statements and its actions is "a sizeable credibility gap," the letter said.
That "gap" expands when the university's treatment of Jewish and Muslim organizations is added. One group is set up to "encourage" Jewish students to grow in their faith, a second is dedicated to "development and growth of the school's Muslim community," yet Christians evangelicals are banned.
"The only difference is that they are promoting different religions. But rather than celebrating this diversity, OCM has banished one religious tradition from campus," the letter said.
The school actions also violate its own free speech policy and student organization policy, the letter notes.
Ironically, the school recently hosted K. Anthony Appiah in an address sponsored by the Berkley Center Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. He noted that religious differences are "made easier if there is an ongoing, respectful, cosmopolitan conversation between adherents of different religious traditions."
Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at the University Center for Human Values and Princeton, also suggested "the real divides are not between one religion and another but between what you might loosely call fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist forms of religiosity."
French said the university, which is private, has the right to dictate who it wants on campus, but essentially it is staging a "bait-and-switch" with students and parents by proclaiming that they will enjoy "full religious freedom" on campus, when they won't.
"Come and spend your $120,000 and your child will enjoy the full range of First Amendment rights," he said the school pitch is. However, when the students arrive, the school has "yanked some of those critical rights."
French said once again, "it appears that a modern liberal university's commitment to diversity, tolerance, and the free exchange of ideas does not extend to evangelical Christians."
The brush-off letter from the university starts: "Blessings and may God's peace be upon you!" but deteriorates shortly later to: "Protestant Ministry has decided to move in another direction."
As a result, Georgetown said, "Your ministries will no longer be allowed to hold any activity or presence (i.e. bible studies, retreats with Georgetown students, Mid-week worship services, fellowship events, move-in assistance, SAC Fair, etc.) on campus."
Further, the school told the ministry organizations, "All websites linking your ministries to a presence at Georgetown University will need to be modified to reflect the terminated relationship. Your ministries are not to publicize in any literature, media, advertisement, etc. that Georgetown University is or will be an active ministry site for your ministry/church/denomination."
French said the letter from the ADF's Center for Academic Freedom finishes with a request that the university now live up to the moral values it says it has been teaching.
"ADF recognizes that Georgetown University is a private institution and that it is not bound by the constitutional principles detailed above. It is, however, bound by the moral values it has long proclaimed in its own promises and policies. There is no conceivable harm to the University in granting the Affiliated Ministries the same rights and access given to Jewish and Muslim organizations."
"The real problem at Georgetown is the same problem that has plagued campuses across the country: an increasing intolerance for religious students and student groups (regardless of whether they are Catholic or Protestant) who take the Bible seriously and seek to live their lives under the authority of Scripture," French said in a blog on the ADF site.
"In the many years I've spent defending Christians on campus, I've never seen a campus, private or public, eject a Christian student group from campus that followed campus orthodoxy on the relevant social and religious issues of the day."
Georgetown's explanation has varied: It told the groups in the letter it was going a "different direction." Then it told subsequent news reports that there was a failure in "communication." It also has said, through spokesman Erik Smulson, that the chaplaincy recently was reorganized and it wanted more control over ministries on campus.
The Washington Post also reported that the key issue was "whether those in the groups proselytize."
It wasn't so much the speaking in tongues in the library that did it, but the snake-handling at cheerleader tryouts proved the final straw.
The Jesuits are 'The Defenders of the Faith' don't ya know!
The Pope's Knights etc, etal!
AMDG
or maybe it was the idol worship?
"Am I not turrrrtle enough for the turtle club? ...turrrtle....turrrrtle...
It's sad when an Christian institution starts excluding anyone who obeys Christ's primary command to his followers. At that point, it no longer has a claim to be a Christian institution.
I suppose the first time a muslim suggests that someone adopt islam, the muslim groups will be banned.
I got the impression that it was brought on by a whole lot of Protestant bickering and in-fighting regarding religious beliefs and who would control Protestant-student needs. Since the Protestants couldn't get their act together as a unified voice, the school gave them a time-out to cool off.
Of course, as an Agnostic libertarian, I believe the hive of scum and villainy that is Georgetown has a right to exclude anyone they want.
"Jesuit and Catholic teachings"?? LOL, Jesuits are Catholics. Anyway, it's about time that the Catholic Universities became Catholic again. This is uplifting news. If the so-called "evangelicals" want to attend Catholic schools, let them become Catholic, or start their own schools.
Moral underpinnings bump!
What b.s. this is. Anything that "evangelicals" have of Christianity they got from the Catholic Church. Evangelicals do not practice Christianity, but some watered down, diltuted version of it. The Catholic Universities should not want these people there if their primary job is to try to convert Catholics to their silly little rendition of Christ's Church. Who needs any of this distraction and division at a university anway? Let the self-annointed 'evangelicals' go found their own universities.
Catholics, Moslems, and Jews and everyone else but just say no to evangelicals.
Such statements are offensive. Practicing real Christianity has nothing to do with any manmade institution.
His statement was meant to be offensive. Don't feed him with an equally offensive statement which will drag others into a flame war.
Christ founded the Church. Not man-made. A man-made church would consist of Lutheran, Baptist, Mormon...
Hmmm...what exactly did I say that was offensive?
Right on.
A man-made church would consist of Lutheran, Baptist, Mormon...
Huh?
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