Georgetown University May Defund, Derecognize Student Group for Supporting Biblical Marriage
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Can Catholic kids at a Catholic university support the Catholic church's position on marriage? We'll see.
A Georgetown University student group called Love Saxa may lose its funding and its standing as an officially sanctioned student group for its support of Biblical marriage.
Georgetown, located in Washington, D.C, is America's oldest Catholic institution of higher learning. Half of the student body is Catholic. The Catholic church doctrine identifies marriage as a covenant between a "man and a woman."
Nevertheless, Love Saxa is under attack for supporting that doctrine, which is being described as hateful and intolerant.
Last month the Georgetown University newspaper The Hoya published an editorial article written by the president of Love Saxa, Amelia Irvine, in which she wrote, "Love Saxa's definition of marriage does not include same-sex couples." The article, titled, "Confessions of a College Virgin," also advocates sexual intercourse only within marriage and monogamy. Love Saxa's constitution states marriage is "a monogamous and permanent union between a man and a woman."
Two Georgetown University students, Jasmin Ouseph and Chad Gasman, filed a complaint against Love Saxa, for allegedly violating the university's policy forbidding student groups that "foster hatred or intolerance of others because of their race, nationality, gender, religion or sexual preference."
Monday the Student Activities Commission will consider the complaint and decide whether to remove Love Saxa's school funding as well as its standing as an officially recognized student organization.
Although the Catholic church teachings oppose gay marriage, three-fourths of young Catholics under age 30 favor it, according to Pew Research. If the Student Activities Commission rules against Love Saxa, the organization may appeal that decision to the administration.
Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America told CBN News she's outraged that the student group has come under fire for standing up for traditional marriage. "The shocking idea that the rights of the students could be infringed, that they could stop the funding for these Catholic kids who actually believe the Bible's teaching on marriage is appalling."
Likewise, the Alliance Defending Freedom Center for Academic Freedom, which defends the rights of students and organizations that have been punished for their political or religious views, is weighing-in on the controversy.
Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer says, "To call for the derecognition of a student organization at a Catholic university because it holds to Catholic views on marriage is preposterous."
"Love Saxa's opponents haven't called for the dissolution of the LGBTQ Resource Center, for example, even though it holds to views that conflict with Georgetown's prohibition on groups whose purpose or activities are 'inconsistent with acceptable conduct at an American university committed to the Roman Catholic moral tradition,' yet they have targeted Love Saxa for views wholly consistent with the Catholic faith," he said.
"It's not enough that many of those who don't hold to conservative religious or political views are seeking to silence those with whom they disagree on public university campuses and elsewhere in the public square," Langhofer continued. "Now they are even seeking to silence them at private, religious universities, which are unquestionably free to recognize student clubs that adhere to the universities' own founding values."
"Georgetown should act consistently with its own Catholic identity and reject any request for Love Saxa to be derecognized," he said.
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