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UK Bishops Warn Student Unions Ban of Christian Groups “Intolerant and Unlawful”

By Gudrun Schultz

UNITED KINGDOM, November 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Leading Anglican Bishops were joined by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth in warning university student unions that banning Christian groups from campuses was illegal, in a letter published Wednesday in The Times.

"Christian students at many of our universities are facing considerable opposition and discrimination in violation of their rights of freedom of expression, freedom of belief and freedom of association,” the bishops wrote.

Student union associations at three universities, Exeter, Birmingham and Edinburgh, have responded to increasing pressure from homosexual activists on campus by banning groups who oppose homosexuality from operating on University premises.

The University of Edinburgh student union refused to allow a Christian group to hold a course promoting abstinence and married-centered sexuality on the University campus, after complaints from students that advertisements for the course opposed homosexual activity. Objections to the course came largely from the Gay and Lesbian Society at the University, Christianity Today reported.

The bishops said banning Christian groups was “intolerant and unlawful,” and called for reinstatement of the Christian unions currently suspended “with full society rights forthwith as a student society forthwith.”

"Of course university student guilds and associations have a responsibility to ensure that official societies are run in a proper and lawful manner. However, this does not give them, or anyone else, the right to restrict or change the essential beliefs of those societies or impose as leaders people who do not share those core beliefs ... as faith sharing organisations, CUs specifically invite people who do not share the Christian faith to attend their meetings, [but] it would be inappropriate for anyone who does not agree with the aims, objects and beliefs to be executive committee members."

Signatories to the letter included seven evangelical Church of England bishops, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, and the Rt. Rev Crispian Hollis, Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth and lead Bishop of Higher Education.

Representatives of the Evangelical Alliance, the Lawyers Christian Fellowship, the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Universities & Colleges Christian Fellowship were also among those who signed the statement.

Read the bishops’ letter to the Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2468585.html

See coverage from the Guardian:
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1954607,00.html

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Edinburgh University Bans Christian Club from giving Abstinence Course
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06112210.html

Christian Student Union Shut Out Over Refusal to Include Gays, Lesbians
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06012504.html

“Tolerant” Georgetown University Ousts Conservative Christian Groups
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06090603.html

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