Sunday, August 14, 2016

A Victory for Religious Freedom at Christian Universities in California

A California lawmaker who is sponsoring a bill that would have allowed the use of taxpayer dollars to punish and publicly shame Christian universities for operating according to their beliefs has removed an offending provision from the legislation.

In announcing his legislation in April, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D), sponsor of SB 1146, hadreferred to his action of denying First Amendment rights to religious schools as closing a “loophole that allows private universities to discriminate against students and staff based on their gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.”

Using the Obama administration’s threat-based style of governance, Lara’s measure would have required any Christian university that does not treat LGBT individuals as a protected class of people to do so if it wants any of its students to receive financial aid. READ MORE