A Big Win

Religious liberty has scored a major victory in an unexpected place.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-to-2 that the San Jose Unified School District in California violated the constitutional rights of religious students when it banned the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) from school campuses in 2019.

Why did the district ban FCA clubs?  The club required officers to sign a statement of faith, which, among other things, discouraged sexual activity outside of marriage. 

One teacher complained, and the school claimed that the statement of faith violated its anti-discrimination policy.  Not only that, school officials attacked the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the school newspaper, essentially calling them bigots.  

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes sued.  Good for them!  We must stop caving into the left’s unconstitutional demands! 

The Ninth Circuit judges ruled that virtually every school club had policies that in one way or another “discriminated” based on various qualifications, including race and gender.  So, the school could not deny access to a religious club based on the teachings of its faith.  That was raw religious discrimination.

There was a time when schools encouraged morals and character development.  In this case, the school was attacking something it should have been encouraging. 

We should all be able to agree that we want to raise children with good character, fulfilling Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream where we are judged on the content of our character.  Instead, the San Jose school district declared war on Judeo-Christian values and character building.

For far too long, the outcome of cases like this at the Supreme Court was fairly uncertain.  But not anymore. 

Because Donald Trump, a candidate who didn’t fit the definition of a “good Christian,” went to Christian voters and promised to appoint pro-life justices who would respect religious liberty won in 2016, we’re are now in the strongest position we have ever been on the sanctity of life and religious liberty in the past 50 years. 

Christian citizenship matters!  (The fact that it was a 9-to-2 decision shows just how much the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has been transformed!)