Young Australian Skeptics

Cross-​​posted from Divisible By Pi.

Look out, Christians — apparently universities are out to get you! Just take a look at what’s happening in Georgia right now…

A counseling student has filed suit against a university in Georgia because she claims the school is forcing her to abandon her Christian beliefs in order to receive a degree.

Oh no! I wonder what they’re doing to her to so unjustly trample her beliefs. Perhaps they are forcing her to publicly renounce Christianity? Masturbate with a crucifix? Piss in the holy water?

Jennifer Keeton, 24, is pursuing her master’s degree in counseling at Augusta State University. But after her professors learned of her biblical beliefs — specifically her views on homosexual conduct — from both classroom discussions and private conversations with other students, the school imposed a “remediation plan.”

Ah, of course. The horrible injustice being perpetrated here is against her god-​​given right to hate gays. Interestingly, they never actually say what her views on homosexual conduct are — though given that they’re described as ‘biblical’ it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that she thinks they ought to be killed and burn in hell.

“It’s in essence [telling her] ‘you do not have the correct beliefs, we are going to re-​​educate you into the correct beliefs,’” explains David French, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. “And unless she completes this — quote — ‘remediation plan’ to their satisfaction, then she can be thrown out of [the school’s counseling program].”

Now, if this were someone undertaking a physics course, I could see this ‘remediation plan’ as being an imposition on her freedom of religion. Ditto for an art history course, or a law degree. In those cases, religious bigotry isn’t going to affect your ability to do well in your course, and it won’t prevent you from adequately performing your job once you go out into the real world.

But this particular bigot isn’t taking a course in physics, or law, or art history. This bigot is undertaking a master’s degree in counselling, and irrational prejudice against homosexuals is extremely likely to impact on her ability to competently perform her job in the future. You simply can’t go into counselling if you hold beliefs that will cause you to see some of your clients as essentially sub-​​human. This falls into the same category as biology students refusing to accept evolution, or pharmacists refusing to dispense certain drugs — if your religious beliefs preclude you from learning and understanding the course material or doing your job, then you need to study another subject or find another job. Simple as that.

French tells OneNewsNow there are some absurd elements to the plan. “Such as admonishing her to go to — quote — a ‘gay-​​pride parade’ and write about her feelings after she’s been,” he describes. “In other words, [the school’s plan would be] deliberately exposing her to behavior that she finds immoral in the hope that she’ll accept it. It’s ridiculous.”

Jennifer Keeton can cry me a river — if she can’t even bring herself to attend a gay pride parade (I’m sorry, a ‘quote’ gay-​​pride parade) and write about her feelings, she shouldn’t become a counsellor. If she’s so set in her bigotry that even attempting to see the issue from a different point of view and write about how she feels about it is enough to launch a law suit, she should pack it up and find a job where bigotry is accepted. May I suggest ‘reporter for OneNewsNow​.com’?

French calls it “pure thought reform” and accuses Augusta State of outlining “a program of indoctrination” for Keeton.

That popping you just heard was the sound of your internal irony meter overheating.

“Jennifer is not interested in being indoctrinated, she wants to be educated,” states the attorney. “She wants to learn about the counseling profession, she wants to be a good counselor — but being a good counselor does not require that one surrender their most fundamental religious beliefs.”

“Like hating homos.”

And so French says Keeton is filing suit to get the school to respect her First Amendment rights. “A public university student shouldn’t be threatened with expulsion for being a Christian and refusing to publicly renounce her faith, but that’s exactly what’s happening here,” he concludes.

This isn’t a First Amendment issue. This is a ‘bigotry will prevent you from doing your job properly’ issue — you don’t graduate medical school if you don’t believe in the germ theory of disease, regardless of whether it’s part of your religion or not.

No one is asking this girl to publicly renounce her faith — they’re giving her a choice between prejudice and bigotry, and being a councillor. Given that I’m pretty sure there are Christians who count themselves as pro-​​gay (minority though they may be), there’s nothing in that choice that requires her to give up the sweet crackery taste of Zombie Jesus.

— —  —  — —

As an addendum, the OneNewsNow​.com story has a poll attached. Voting looks like it is closed, but I doubt it would have made much of a difference given the question and options available:

What is most clearly represented by the attitude of Augusta State Univ. toward Jennifer Keeton’s Christian beliefs?

An institutionalized hatred of biblical Christianity — 29.82%

A priority given to indoctrination instead of education — 22.67%

An attempt to expunge Christian morality from the field of counseling — 47.52%

My, what a totally unbiased poll…

Tags: bigotry, Christianity, gay rights

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Religion, Richard Hughes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.