The Beta Upsilon Chi fraternity, also known as Brothers Under Christ, requested official recognition as a student organization in 2007.
The Center for Student Activities and Involvement — the official administrators of UF student clubs — denied BYX’s request for recognition last year because the group mandates that its members be Christians and bars women from becoming members.
In response to this egregious miscarriage of justice, otherwise known as “tolerance” and “pluralism,” BYX sued UF for … religious and gender discrimination? You read that right. An organization that unabashedly discriminates against non–Christians and women sued UF for religious and gender discrimination.
College is a place for the no–holds–barred, free exchange of ideas. It is perhaps the last remaining venue for this once–prevalent American pastime. The plethora of ethnicities, nationalities, religions and most importantly, ideas, theories and philosophies existing on any given college campus is what makes a college education the bulwark of democracy and a free society.
If Christian males can exclude all others from membership in a student organization, what’s preventing the Ku Klux Klan, Neo–Nazis or any number of other misguided, unenlightened bigots from coming to campus to start their own officially sanctioned student organization?
We respect BYX’s First Amendment rights to free assembly and free exercise of religion. And their presence on campus is part of that panoply of pluralism that makes UF such an exciting and intellectually stimulating place. But the First Amendment is multifaceted. Alongside the free exercise of religion is the freedom from the establishment of religion — that is, the separation of church and state. Overtly Christian organizations should not be receiving public funding to promote their religious beliefs.
