The Ohio State chapter of the Christian Legal Society voted unanimously Monday to adopt the society’s national constitution, which states that non-practicing Christians and homosexuals are not permitted to be officers or leaders in the society. The old constitution didn’t specifically limit group membership, but chapter officials said membership was still limited to those exemplifying the highest standards of morality as set forth in the Bible.
The Christian Legal Society put its chapters in a tough decision by setting these new standards. If the Ohio State chapter rejected the new constitution, they would have lost support of the national organization as well as the rights to use the name.
But because they did vote to adopt the new standards, the Christian Legal Society is no longer in compliance with the universities nondiscrimination policy, enforced with all student groups. Ohio State’s policy is one with obvious merits – no one is allowed to be excluded from a group strictly because of his or her ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. By being in opposition to this policy, the Christian Legal Society may, and should, lose all of its connections with the university, as well as its university funding. It’s wrong to allow the group to continue being affiliated with the university if not all university students are welcomed members.
The university should not stop there either. An investigation into the constitutions of all students groups is in order, to make sure the university is not sponsoring any other organization that closes membership to certain groups.
On top of that, the university also needs to look into the practices of each organization. A Christian Legal Society member said even if the national constitution had not been adapted, the organization would still elect its offers based on their standards of morality, effectively eliminating non-practicing Christians and homosexuals from holding office. Other student organizations may also write one thing and practice another, which the university should investigate before giving out funding.
The university’s nondiscrimination policy is only an effective one if its consistently enforced. All student groups should be looked at to make sure every Ohio State student is free to benefit from the groups’ existence.
