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Policy exempts Muslim student groups, according to lawsuit
An attorney for two Christian clubs at Virginia State University accused the school of “brazenly singling out” the students because of their faith through a new campus ministry policy.
The clubs represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a lawsuit against the public university on Sept. 24 alleging the policy amounts to religious discrimination.
“VSU is brazenly singling out Christian clubs and treating them worse than student groups of other faiths,” Tyson Langohfer, senior counsel at the Christian legal organization, told The College Fix in a statement via email recently. “The Constitution prohibits such blatant discrimination.”
The Christian student groups that are suing, Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship, have chapters at VSU.
Both clubs “provide religious support to students on college campuses through Bible studies, leadership trainings and events and numerous other opportunities for spiritual growth, both on and off-campus,” according to a news release from ADF.
The lawsuit challenges a new campus ministry policy, adopted in August, that changes “student-led ministries” from being registered student organizations to student clubs and places them under the control of the campus ministry office.
The federal lawsuit, which was recently assigned to U.S. District Judge David Novak, claims the policy discriminates against Christian groups because it exempts Muslim and secular groups.
The policy puts student ministries under the control of the campus minister, Rev. Thomas Wynn, and a board of university faculty and staff, according to the lawsuit. Wynn is named as a defendant in the case.
Under the policy, Wynn and the board may decide whether student-led ministries get to plan events and hold meetings, according to the report.
“Although the Policy’s language appears to govern only formal club gatherings,” Wynn told students in an Aug. 19 informational meeting that “even informal gatherings must be approved in advance,” the lawsuit alleges.
This policy also causes Christian student groups to lose “funding, event-planning, resources and event-promotion rights” because they are no longer considered registered student organizations, according to the lawsuit.
Additionally, national organizations affiliated with these student ministries cannot “have any influence or involvement” with their campus activities under the policy, the lawsuit alleges.
The university says the policy is meant to “foster an authentic, loving, and supportive faith-based community for Virginia State University students,” according to the lawsuit.
When students asked Wynn about the policy, he told them that it is not “discrimination,” according to the lawsuit.
Regarding the exemptions, he said the policy is supposed to “give [Muslim students] a more equal footing and a voice on campus,” and Hindus or Buddhists who want to start a group would be “evaluated on a ‘case-by-case basis,’” the case alleges. The campus currently does not have Hindu or Buddhist groups.
Both Christian clubs believe the policy is a violation of “numerous” First Amendment rights. “The government cannot prefer Muslim and secular groups over Christian groups, cannot dictate to Christian groups how to worship, and cannot strip Christian groups of benefits for what they believe and for what they say,” the lawsuit argues.
Langohfer with ADF told The Fix: “The First Amendment clearly establishes the right of all student organizations to associate around shared beliefs. The students of Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship are right to stand up to university officials and hold them accountable for violating their fundamental rights.”
The College Fix reached out to Rev. Wynn and the university media relations office to ask about the policy and the lawsuit, but neither responded to emails in recent weeks.
This is not the first time a Christian group has sued a university for alleged religious freedom violations.
In 2017, The Fix reported that the group Business Leaders in Christ sued Iowa State University for “revoking its club status” because a “former club member rejected important parts of its Christian beliefs.” The club member “claimed he was denied a leadership position owning to his sexual orientation,” according to the report.
MORE: House committee advances bill requiring equal treatment for religious student groups
