My Wish List

We live in a convoluted world where “nondiscrimination” has become a clandestine way to discriminate:

• The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter at the State University of New York at Buffalo [SUNY] has three weeks to come into compliance with the school's nondiscrimination policy or risk losing its status as an official campus group.

According to the university:

• InterVarsity's constitution, which includes a clause requiring leaders to agree with a statement of faith, violates school policy.

Discrimination dressed up as “non-discrimination!” I don’t know much about SUNY Buffalo, but I would imagine that they are not yelling “discrimination” at their woman’s group, which requires female leadership or their Young Democrats, while only allows a Democrat to head the group. I would also be surprised if SUNY was going after the Muslim group, which of course insists on Muslim leadership. In fact, I can’t think of a group that wouldn’t discriminate in some way in their selection of leadership.

If I’m wrong about this, I wish that someone would correct me. However, I’ve seen too many instances of this kind of anti-Christian bias in our institutions of “higher learning” to think that SUNY is acting even-handedly out of an impartial concern for justice. Also, SUNY isn’t alone in this matter:

• The University at Buffalo is the second college in the last two weeks to tell an InterVarsity chapter to revise its constitution or lose the right to operate on campus. Last week, Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos reiterated his intention to enforce the school's revised nondiscrimination policy, which no longer grants religious groups the right to require elected leaders to share their beliefs. Four campus Christian organizations, including InterVarsity's Graduate Christian Fellowship, have until mid April to submit new constitutions that comply with Vanderbilt's policy.

From my understanding of the law, private institutions, like Vanderbilt, have a right to exercise their biases. However, I just wish that they would lay aside their hypocrisy - that they are merely pursuing a policy of “nondiscrimination.” At least, they should admit that they have a bias, and that they are discriminating according to their bias. Let them put their deceptive cards on the table!

I also wish that New York City would reconsider their hypocritical ruling that churches can no longer rent space in their NYC schools on Sundays. Although they base their ruling on the “separation of church and state,” their high principles don’t prevent them from renting space from churches when their own schools require the additional space. I wish they would come-clean and fess-up that they are using a double-standard.

I also wish that if the law is going to allow Vanderbilt and many other institutions to practice stealth discrimination, they would also allow church organizations to discriminate according to their faith and conscience. However, many recent rulings have denied them this constitutionally guaranteed prerogative – the free exercise of religion.

Why this hypocrisy? My final wish is that our underlying motives will be exposed for the world to see them – the very thing that our Lord has promised to do!