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Vanderbilt University shows the future of campus parachurch ministry...

by David and Tim Bayly on April 23, 2012 - 7:16am

Vanderbilt University continues to foment rebellion against Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Christian Legal Society reports one student religious organization's bylaws contained the following paragraph stating these requirements...

of its leaders: "Criteria for officer selection will include level and quality of past involvement, personal commitment to Jesus Christ, commitment to the organization, and demonstrated leadership ability."

Vanderbilt's administration required the ministry to delete the phrase "personal commitment to Jesus Christ." For the ministry to retain its certification by Vanderbilt, the paragraph must be changd to read: "Criteria for officer selection will include level and quality of past involvement, commitment to the organization, and demonstrated leadership ability."

(TB)

 

Tags: 
Parachurch
Academia
Persecution

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Comments

Submitted by JD Stuart on April 23, 2012 - 9:18am

For what it's worth...

I'm kind of glad Vanderbilt is doing this. (I say this as a devout Christian alum who benefited greatly from RUF and other Christian groups on campus.) It's like the advice you talked about giving Joseph, if I'm remembering correctly, when he was deciding between VU and a Christian school (was it Wheaton?) -- at least with these secular schools, they're explicit and overt in being out to get you. This just makes it even clearer where VU stands, which I don't think is a bad thing for believers.

And they're not saying students can't go to church or pray -- they're just saying that if these groups want the university's funds/meeting spaces/name, the groups are going to have to abide by the university's overarching (spineless, post-modern) non-discrimination policy, and that includes both membership and leadership requirements.

There's been some talk of a compromise under which the university gives religious groups a Greek-system-like exemption in which they're allowed to use university meeting spaces, at least, but I have no idea how likely such a scenario is.

(And, as for RUF, this new crackdown doesn't really affect it, as far as I'm aware, since the group has no stated membership or leadership positions or requirements.)

Submitted by Mike Shields on April 23, 2012 - 3:24pm

My more blue collar take on this issue (from 4/21):

http://mikescommentaries.blogspot.com/2012/04/evil-liberals-continue-their-assault-on.html

Submitted by Eric Rasmusen on April 23, 2012 - 5:19pm

Does anyone know what's behind this persecution? The President of Vanderbilt knew he was going into a fight, and he must have a reason. Presidents don't usually like getting into this kind of fight, so I bet someone told him to do it. That someone would be a trustee or a big donor. Or possibly his wife. Anybody know?

Submitted by JD Stuart on April 23, 2012 - 7:39pm

It all started when BYX kicked a member/office-holder out for being gay. He complained to the administration, and so the administration decided to "get serious" about applying its non-discrimination policy, including adopting this all-comers policy for university-subsidized group membership and leadership.

The Board is advising the administration, but I don't think there's any particular trustee pushing the agenda.

Submitted by Elliot Huck on April 24, 2012 - 8:56am

It seems like it's primarily a result of the BYX incident (for anyone who didn't know, BYX is the Christian fraternity on/off campus). I can't see any monetary motivation, especially considering that quite a few donors have threatened that they will withdraw financial support. Also, I don't think it's just the President; the administration are pretty much united on this one. The main people actively pushing this agenda are Chancellor Zeppos, Provost McCarty, and Dean Bandas, although I'm sure there are many others involved. At present, it's difficult to tell how the Board is factoring into the equation.

Sincerely,

Submitted by JD Stuart on April 24, 2012 - 10:38am

Actually, I don't believe Chancellor Zeppos is doing much pushing. I think it's coming primarily from David Williams (Vice Chancellor and Chief Counsel).

As far as donors, my understanding is that very few of the bigshots are withdrawing support.

Submitted by Eric Rasmusen on April 24, 2012 - 11:48am

Thank you for the information. It's ironic, then, that the new rules don't apply to BYX and the other fraternities.

Submitted by JD Stuart on April 25, 2012 - 6:30am

BYX isn't actually classified as a fraternity -- it's an SGA student group, like all the rest, and is bound by the university's rules.

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