An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is describing the ruling in a case at Eastern Michigan University, which is challenging a Christian's rights to maintain her beliefs, as "open season on Christians." A federal court has ruled in the university's favor, but that decision is being appealed.
Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with ADF, is disappointed by the federal judge's decision because, as he says, "it basically has no respect for the right of conscience of Christians or other people who have sincere beliefs about the proper definition of marriage and whether certain sexual behaviors can be immoral." Julea Ward, a Christian, enrolled in a counseling practicum course at Eastern Michigan in 2009 and was assigned a potential client who sought assistance regarding a homosexual relationship. Ward asked her supervisor how to handle the matter, knowing she could not affirm the client's homosexual relationship without violating her religious beliefs. The supervisor advised Ward to reassign the client to a different counselor, which she did. (See earlier story)However, as Lorence explains, the school apparently was not satisfied to leave it at that. "...The school said, 'We have to dismiss you from the program unless you submit to remediation training that will change your thinking,'" he reports. The attorney is concerned that the First Amendment rights of Christian students are not being protected. "I just think that many are beginning to feel that they're doing something virtuous by driving Christians into the outskirts of the marketplace of ideas," the ADF senior counsel laments. In Ward's defense, ADF plans to take this case to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, trusting it will "understand the constitutional issues."
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