Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

February 2016 – Chi Alpha, a Christian student organization on more than 300 campuses worldwide, is back on the California State University Stanislaus campus after being banned by university officials in September 2014. That fall, Cal State had implemented a new policy that banned religious clubs from requiring leaders to share the group’s tenets of faith.

Cal State officials readmitted Chi Alpha last November, but only as “second class citizens.” The group still must allow students who don’t share their faith to run for office, but will not be coerced into allowing non-believers to serve. This contrasts with the university’s policy that lets fraternities require leaders to be male, the environmental club require leaders to believe in climate change, etc.

“Cal State has adopted a halfway solution that still gives [other groups] more rights than campus religious groups,” said Adele Auxier Keim, legal counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, “…and that’s a step in the right direction.”

Becket Fund will continue working to arrive at a better solution where the Christian campus group can enjoy the right to screen those who run for office.

Chi Alpha, founded in 1953 for Christian students to worship and study, has a history of charitable work via projects such as feedONE (See poster, above.), which provides food for more than 14,000 children worldwide.

becketfund.org, 11/23/15; chialpha.com, 11/24/15