With two national Christian Legal Society representatives attending the meeting held at noon Monday at the Moritz College of Law, 13 Ohio State society members unanimously voted to adopt the national constitution as their own.
The Christian Legal Society members held a one-hour session that was closed to the public, and came to the 13-0 decision in favor of amending the OSU chapter constitution.
The national society constitution has been given a recent facelift – now stating that chapter leaders and officers must exemplify the highest standards of morality as set forth in Scripture, which includes abstaining from homosexual conduct.
“We think it is unfortunate that a group of students have chosen to exclude some other students from fully participating in their organization,” said Chris Geidner, president of OutLaws, the OSU Moritz College of Law’s GLBT group.
By adopting the national bylaws, the organization is now out of compliance with Ohio State’s nondiscrimination policy. The Lantern received a letter written to Christian Legal Society members prior to the vote stating a vote in favor would likely result in loss of Student Activities funds, the only source of revenue for the organization.
Although there is no official plan to compensate for the lost funds, there are a handful of CLS alumni who have volunteered their time and money to assist the chapter, said Michael Berry, president of the Ohio State chapter of CLS.
“We will continue to meet, to have Bible study and fellowship, and to minister to the community,” Berry said. “It also means that we now have a constitution that reflects our true identity as Christians. Under our former constitution, we were saying one thing but doing another.”
The OSU chapter will have full legal protection provided by the national organization if the law school attempts to de-recognize the chapter for being out of compliance. A far less vague constitution for the CLS will help to associate themselves completely with the national organization by stating their policy officially.
“The next step for us is to move forward,” Berry said. “Our ability to reflect the love of Christ to a hurting world will speak far more about what we hold dear than any constitution ever could.”
Other groups are moving forward as well – but in an effort to prove the CLS vote to exclude homosexuals is a harmful act.
A Student Bar Association senator meeting will be held today at Drinko Hall to discuss the outcome of the vote. Proposed resolutions from the SBA express their firm support of the university’s nondiscrimination policy, and call for the administration to not recognize CLS as a legitimate student group.
“This university has rightly decided that discriminating against students based on their sexual orientation is unacceptable,” Geidner said. “The College of Law and OSU now must act quickly, but fairly, to enforce the university nondiscrimination policy.”
