Judge says UC can deny religious course credit

[festus]

Here we go again!


Judge says UC can deny religious course credit
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

(08-12) 17:25 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no anti-religious bias in the university's system of reviewing high school classes. Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed, a group of Christian schools has appealed Otero's rulings to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools," attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom said Tuesday. Her clients include the Association of Christian Schools International, two Southern California high schools and several students.

Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling "confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations." What the plaintiffs seek, he said, is a "religious exemption from regular admissions standards."

The suit, filed in 2005, challenged UC's review of high school courses taken by would-be applicants to the 10-campus system. Most students qualify by taking an approved set of college preparatory classes; students whose courses lack UC approval can remain eligible by scoring well in those subjects on the Scholastic Assessment Test.

Christian schools in the suit accused the university of rejecting courses that include any religious viewpoint, "any instance of God's guidance of history, or any alternative ... to evolution."

But Otero said in March that the university has approved many courses containing religious material and viewpoints, including some that use such texts as "Chemistry for Christian Schools" and "Biology: God's Living Creation," or that include scientific discussions of creationism as well as evolution.

UC denies credit to courses that rely largely or entirely on material stressing supernatural over historic or scientific explanations, though it has approved such texts as supplemental reading, the judge said.

For example, in Friday's ruling, he upheld the university's rejection of a history course called Christianity's Influence on America. According to a UC professor on the course review committee, the primary text, published by Bob Jones University, "instructs that the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events" and evaluates historical figures based on their religious motivations.

Another rejected text, "Biology for Christian Schools," declares on the first page that "if (scientific) conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong," Otero said.

He also said the Christian schools presented no evidence that the university's decisions were motivated by hostility to religion.

UC attorney Christopher Patti said Tuesday that the judge assessed the review process accurately.

"We evaluate the courses to see whether they prepare these kids to come to college at UC," he said. "There was no evidence that these students were in fact denied the ability to come to the university."

But Monk, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said Otero had used the wrong legal standard and had given the university too much deference.

"Science courses from a religious perspective are not approved," she said. "If it comes from certain publishers or from a religious perspective, UC simply denies them."

Judge says UC can deny religious course credit

This article appeared on page B - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[HK4U]

It is getting any more in this country that is o.k. to be anything except Christian.

[IheartTedNugent]

It is getting any more in this country that is o.k. to be anything except Christian.

It's because everything else is so much cooler.

[HK4U]

It's because everything else is so much cooler.

Said the spider to the fly.

[MissPriss]

Sounds like they have reviewed the courses and texts from said courses, and aren't just banning Christian courses. If they have valid reasons, which it sounds like they do, then there shouldn't be a problem here, the students can still get into the school as long as they scored high enough on a placement test for those subjects. Which if they know what they need to from their Christian courses, no problem right?

[tattedupboy]

I'm willing to bet that the ACLU is behind this. They can deny it all they want, but the reason this is going on is because of some belief by someone in the ACLU that these courses violate the separation of church and state that they claim exists in the constitution. This is a backdoor attempt by secular progressives to take God completely out of schools, plain and simple.

[kwo51]

Does coure work in other religions fail to get credit. They will get theirs in the end.

[HK4U]

I'm willing to bet that the ACLU is behind this. They can deny it all they want, but the reason this is going on is because of some belief by someone in the ACLU that these courses violate the separation of church and state that they claim exists in the constitution. This is a backdoor attempt by secular progressives to take God completely out of schools, plain and simple.

I agree. It is funny how we here the term seperation of church and state talked about in relation to the first amendment when it is no where there to be found.

[netentity]

I was going to try to stay out of this one as holy wars are a philosophical bridge to no where but Friedrich Nietzsche said it best...

"There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance it provides them afterwards to offer their prescription for alleviating life; their Christianity, for instance."

Yes, I agree with the ruling. Religion has no place in a public education system. One of the few times I find the 9th Circuit is right.

[HK4U]

I was going to try to stay out of this one as holy wars are a philosophical bridge to no where but Friedrich Nietzsche said it best...

"There are people who want to make men's lives more difficult for no other reason than the chance it provides them afterwards to offer their prescription for alleviating life; their Christianity, for instance."

Yes, I agree with the ruling. Religion has no place in a public education system. One of the few times I find the 9th Circuit is right.

[I]Well then you are at odds with a lot of the writings of our founding fathers. You are entitled to your opinion. That is one of two things we all have. As long as you understand that is your opinion and not that of the Constitution or most of the of the founding fathers. No where in the Constitution is the phrase Separation of Church and State. The patriots that wrote it were not trying to establish freedom from religion but rather freedom to worship as we pleased. And as usual the 9Th Circuit was wrong.

The following are but a tiny amount of what our founding fathers had to say.

"(T)he propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained" - George Washington, First Inaugural, April 30 1789

"I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Devine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments." - Benjamin Rush

"You have been instructed form your childhood in the knowledge of your lost state by nature; the absolute necessity of a change of heart, and an entire renovation of soul to the image of Jesus Christ; of salvation thro' His meritorious righteousness only; and the indispensable necessity of personal holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." - Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it." - Benjamin Franklin, from "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion", Nov. 20, 1728

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evil men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." - Noah Webster

"Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be entrusted on any other foundation than religious principle, not any government secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens." - Daniel Webster

"The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: 'that God governs in the affairs of men.' And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" - Benjamin Franklin


"He is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who set himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country." - John Witherspoon, member of the Continental Congress and clergyman

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson

"The United States of America were no longer Colonies. They were an independent nation of Christians." - John Qunicy Adams

Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Christian dispensation." - John Jay, First Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court

"Let...statesmen and patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age by...educating their little boys and girls...and leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system." - Samuel Adams

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John Jay the first Supreme Court Justice (for those of you who didn't know that)

"Without a humble imitation of the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, we can never hope to be a happy nation." George Washington

“Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son, Jesus Christ.” George Washington

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” John Quincy Adams 6th US President and son of John Adams

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religious, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry 1776