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Christian college club exists on campus 'unofficially'
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An on-campus Christian club at California State University Long Beach is vowing to continue its Bible-based ministry despite losing a federal lawsuit accusing campus officials of violating its constitutional rights by denying the group official status.
In February, a federal district judge backed the public university system after four Christian student groups, including Every Nation, sued both the Long Beach State campus and San Diego State University. Filed in 2005, the suit argued that the Christian clubs were pressured by university officials to accept as members and leaders those who do not share their Christian beliefs.
The Every Nation group at LBSU remains on campus, although not officially recognized by the school's administration. The SDSU group disbanded as the result of the lawsuit.
The Alliance Defense Fund, which is a group of lawyers that primarily defends faith-based groups and individuals in religious freedom cases, has recently filed an appeal. The appeal does not include Every Nation or its members at the time of the original lawsuit. Those members have graduated college and are “moving on,” said ADF lawyer, Jeremy Tedesco. The appeal filed includes two groups from the original case, which are a SDSU Christian fraternity and sorority.
Much of the opposition to the Christian campus organizations came from homosexual or GLBT student groups claiming groups such as Every Nation were discriminatory when it came to appointing leaders, said Morgan Stephens, who is Every Nation's national director.
“The irony of the GLBT groups is that while they protest the apparent discrimination by a faith-based group, they would never allow someone who fundamentally disagreed with their choices to be the leader of their group,” Stephens said. “It's hard to have it both ways.”
Although not officially recognized by administrators, the Every Nation group on the CSULB campus has had to essentially started over since the lawsuit, renaming itself “Ethnos,” said current campus director Seyi Olagunju. The changeover action was taken at the end of last year on the advice of the Alliance Defense Fund.
At the time of the filing of the lawsuit in 2005, the Every Nation group at CSULB, joined the group at SDSU to show solidarity, said Olagunju, 27. Because of another university regulation that prohibits groups from officially being recognized if they are part of a lawsuit, the regrouping and renaming took place, he said.
Ethnos is still associated with Every Nation and is doing well at CSULB despite not being formally recognized by administrators for the last two years, Olagunju said. Olagunju has been the campus director of the group for the same period of time.
The group and its 35 regular members have pushed past their non-official status and seem to exist most comfortably inside the school's housing community, he said. Small groups, including open discussion groups called “The Real View” are meeting weekly inside the campus housing. Life Springs Church in Torrance is the group's local sponsor.
Still, the unofficial status has hampered Ethnos when it comes to accessing the privileges normally afforded other campus groups.
“Because we are not an official club as a result of the lawsuit, it has created issues for us in doing events, renting rooms, and doing stuff like that. It has been a tough couple of years for us functioning that way,” Olagunju said. “We have a good relationship with the school itself and the administration at Long Beach State recognizes us as a very good, strong and upstanding group, but we go to other campus ministries to help us out when it comes to things like that.”
Olagunju said that having to agree to a university nondiscriminatory clause regarding leadership is a violation of rights usually afforded other groups.
“I have a little bit of an issue with having the school dictate to us who can be in our board in terms of leadership and who we can take in our group especially if they don't believe the same things we believe,” Olagunju said. “We don't have any problems with any student at all coming in and being a part of our ministry. But, on principle, we feel it is violating our own right to have someone who did not represent our views to potentially be in a position of leadership in our organization. I don't see anyone coming into any other organization on campus who does not represent the views of that organization and be in leadership.”
Tedesco, who filed the appeal and continues to advise the Every Nation groups regarding the universities' nondiscriminatory clause, said the campus groups are being unfairly singled out.
“The groups are under extraordinary pressure from the universities to comply with their point of view of nondiscrimination,” Tedesco said. “It's nearly impossible to exist without recognition. These groups (such as Ethnos) are being treated as a non-entity. (The nondiscriminatory clause) doesn't deal with reality...you are a nothing. It is the most sever punishment they can impose.
“All other groups are allowed to have restrictive membership groups. You look at a vegetarian group, for example, they are not going to have a meat eater as its leader. Restrictive membership is commonly exercised in all other groups.”
Olagunju said he wants to make it clear that his group's goal does not include opposing other groups.
“We are not anti-gay, or anti-any group on campus. That is not our mission. Our mission is to preach the gospel in love. And that love has our principles that we stand by,” he said.
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