Education

Religious and Public Education

Religious Education

Religious schools and educational institutions are—and have been—under tremendous societal pressure to acquiesce to changing cultural standards regarding sexuality, including same-sex marriage, claims of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) discrimination, and other sexual orientation/gender identity (SOGI) issues. As believers, we are called to live under God’s authority and with a consistent understanding of biblical truths about human sexuality.

But such truths seem to be increasingly colliding with so-called “social equality” rights pushed by vocal proponents. In June 2015, by a narrow majority, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a “fundamental right” to marry. As a result, religious institutions and individuals are likely to face various conflicts between this newly created constitutional right and their religious freedom and free speech.

Christian schools, along with their administrators and staff, need to know the practical reasons for upholding marriage between one man and one woman and be prepared for new laws that do not necessarily provide adequate protections for religious persons and for “test” cases seeking to push the limits of existing laws.

Educating Religious Schools

CLS seeks to educate religious schools and their administrators and staff about current critical legal issues and to help them navigate through these legal minefields of sexuality-related issues, particularly in light of rapidly shifting cultural norms and accompanying legal changes.

CLS’ Guidance for Christian Schools & Colleges includes a webinar and a white paper, both of which provide valuable information, as well as model language for religious schools to use.

Guidance for Christian Schools & Colleges

In addition to the above resources, Kim Colby, Director of CLS’ Center for Law and Religious Freedom, wrote two articles addressing these current struggles and surrounding issues: Practical Steps that Religious Institutions Should Consider in a Post-Obergefell World and The Current Legal Landscape Regarding Same-sex Marriage, Religious Liberty, and Nondiscrimination Law. These articles are a great overview to the resources above.

The Religious Freedom Institute published Kim Colby’s blogpost, Whose Shame?, addressing California’s attempt to shame religious colleges for claiming their Title IX exemptions.

Learn More

Public Education

The Center was founded in 1975 to protect the right of students to meet for religious speech at high schools. Eventually the Center helped secure the right of all students at public educational institutions – whether elementary schools, high schools, or colleges and universities – to meet for prayer, Bible study, worship, and other religious speech on campus.

The Center has also worked to protect the access of religious community groups to public school facilities on the same basis as other community groups. The Center has also provided resources to help teachers of faith understand the rules for religious expression and religious materials in the public schools.

Elementary Schools

Enabling Religious Student Groups To Meet In Public Elementary Schools

Community groups, like Child Evangelism Fellowship and other religious groups, have a free speech right to conduct after-school programs for elementary-aged students on the same basis as other community groups, like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, are allowed to meet. The Center has represented community groups in many precedent-setting cases in the elementary school context.

The Center secured equal access to elementary schools in Oakridge, Oregon, for Child Evangelism Fellowship Good News Clubs. The clubs meet after school with elementary-aged children who have parental permission to attend. The children hear Bible stories, sing songs, play games, and learn that God loves them.

Citation: Culbertson v. Oakridge School District, 258 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. 2001)

The Supreme Court ruled that a Good News Club must be allowed to meet after school with elementary students. The Center filed an amicus brief in support of the students.

Citation: Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001).

A public school district adopted a new policy and continued to refuse to distribute fliers to parents about a religious after-school program that taught children about God, even though fliers for nonreligious community groups frequently were sent home to parents. The Center sued on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship and won a ruling in the Fourth Circuit that the new policy violated the Free Speech Clause.

Citation: Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland v. Montgomery County Public Schools, 457 F.3d 376 (4th Cir. 2006).

A public school district refused to distribute fliers to parents about a religious after-school program that taught children about God, even though fliers for nonreligious community groups frequently were sent home to parents. The Center sued on behalf of the Child Evangelism Fellowship chapter and won.

Citation: Child Evangelism Fellowship of New Jersey v. Stafford Township School District, 386 F.3d 514 (3d Cir. 2004), aff’g, 233 F. Supp.2d 647 (D.N.J. 2002).

A public school district refused to distribute fliers to parents about a religious after-school program that taught children about God, even though fliers for nonreligious community groups frequently were sent home to parents. The Center sued on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship chapter and won a ruling that distribution of religious community groups’ fliers would not violate the Establishment Clause.

Citation: Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland v. Montgomery County Public Schools, 373 F.3d 589 (4th Cir. 2004).

Secondary Schools

Enabling Religious Student Groups To Meet In Public Secondary Schools

Christian Legal Society has long believed that pluralism is essential to a free society and prospers only when the First Amendment rights of all Americans are protected, regardless of the current popularity of their speech or religious beliefs. For that reason, CLS was instrumental in the bipartisan passage of the Equal Access Act of 1984 that protects the right of all students to meet for “religious, political, philosophical or other” speech on public secondary school campuses.

The Act was a bipartisan effort to protect religious student groups from being excluded from high school campuses simply because they wanted to meet for religious speech, including Bible studies and prayer, when other student groups met. For 33 years, the Act has protected religious students to meet at their high schools.

In Congress:

The Center was instrumental in the drafting of the federal law that has protected the right of millions of public secondary school students to meet for prayer and Bible study for 33 years. See 128 Cong. Rec. 11784-85 (1982) (Sen. Hatfield statement) (recognizing CLS’s role). Passage of the EAA was truly a bipartisan effort. The EAA passed in the House, 337-77, and in the Senate, 88-11. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Carl Perkins (D-KY), along with Committee ranking member Representative William Goodling (R-PA), Representative Don Bonkers, (D-WA), and Representative Trent Lott (R-MS), shepherded the Act through the House. Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), Senator Jeremiah Denton (R-AL), and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) led the bipartisan effort in the Senate, with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) among its Democratic supporters.

To help them understand the EAA and know how to implement it, the Center provided guidelines to 14,000 school superintendents nationwide.

In the Courts:

The Center has worked in the courts since 1975 to protect the right of religious student groups to remain on high school campuses. A small sampling of the Center’s work over four decades includes:

The Center was instrumental in the drafting of the federal law that has protected the right of millions of public secondary school students to meet for prayer and Bible study for 33 years. See 128 Cong. Rec. 11784-85 (1982) (Sen. Hatfield statement) (recognizing CLS’s role). Passage of the EAA was truly a bipartisan effort. The EAA passed in the House, 337-77, and in the Senate, 88-11. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Carl Perkins (D-KY), along with Committee ranking member Representative William Goodling (R-PA), Representative Don Bonkers, (D-WA), and Representative Trent Lott (R-MS), shepherded the Act through the House. Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), Senator Jeremiah Denton (R-AL), and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) led the bipartisan effort in the Senate, with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) among its Democratic supporters.

To help them understand the EAA and know how to implement it, the Center provided guidelines to 14,000 school superintendents nationwide.

In the first case heard by the United States Supreme Court on whether religious student groups could meet in high schools for Bible study and prayer, the Center represented a group of religious students from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The students were denied the right to meet for prayer and Bible study even though other student groups met on their high school campus. Although the Supreme Court ruled for the students only on procedural grounds and not on the merits, the case became the basis for the federal Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. §§ 4071-4074, and a Supreme Court victory four years later in Board of Education v. Mergens.

Citation: Bender v. Williamsport Area School District, 475 U.S. 534 (1986), vacating on jurisdictional grounds, 741 F.2d 538 (3d Cir. 1984), rev’g 563 F. Supp. 697 (M.D. Pa. 1983). The district court ruled in favor of the student group at 563 F. Supp. 697 (M.D. Pa. 1983) (Chief Judge William Nealon).

At the same time that the Center had a petition in Garnett v. Renton School District before the Supreme Court, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Equal Access Act in the Mergens case. The Center filed an amicus brief in support of the constitutionality of the Act, which is how the Court ruled.

Citation: Board of Education v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990)

College and University Campuses

Enabling Religious Students to Meet on College and University Campuses

For 40 years, the Center has worked to help religious student groups meet on college and university campuses despite great resistance from some college and university administrators. Often these religious groups are the only contact that hundreds of thousands of college students will have with Christianity during their time in college. It is a mission field that is ripe for the harvest, but keeping it open for the Gospel is an ongoing challenge.

On February 16, 2017, Center Director Kim Colby testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice of the House Judiciary Committee at its hearing on “The State of Religious Liberty in America,” laying out the deeply troubling flaws of the USCCR’s September 2016 Report that treated religious freedom as an afterthought rather than an inalienable human right. Read the Center’s testimony and watch the hearing.

On April 4, 2017, the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing on “First Amendment Protections on Public College and University Campuses.” The Center submitted a written statement for the hearing record that focused on numerous examples of colleges threatening religious student groups with exclusion from campus simply because they require their leaders to be religious.

On March 2, 2016, the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on “Protecting the Free Exchange of Ideas on College Campuses.” The Center submitted a written statement for the hearing record that focused on numerous examples of colleges threatening religious student groups with exclusion from campus simply because they require their leaders to be religious.

On June 2, 2015, Center Director Kim Colby testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice of the House Judiciary Committee at its hearing on “First Amendment Protections on Public College and University Campuses.” On too many college campuses, religious student groups are being excluded because they require that their leaders agree with the groups’ religious beliefs, message, and standards of conduct. The Center’s testimony highlighted several campuses where this problem has occurred and the importance of protecting religious students’ on campuses nationwide. Read the Center’s testimony and letters from the students themselves telling their stories. Watch the hearing or peruse the Committee’s hearing report.

On March 22, 2013, Center Director Kim Colby testified on behalf of robust religious freedom before the United States Commission on Civil Rights at a briefing entitled “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties.” The Commission released its briefing report in September 2016 in which a majority of the commissioners expressed opinions that, in the view of many, exhibited intolerance for religious dissenters. Two commissioners defended a robust vision of religious freedom.

Diverse faith groups protested the report’s intolerance in a letter to President Obama, Speaker Ryan, and President Pro Tem of the Senate Hatch. Read the Center’s testimonyoral statement, the Commission’s briefing report, or a short summary of the Commission’s findings and recommendations, including one commissioner’s statement. Read Center Director Kim Colby’s congressional testimony, which outlines basic flaws with the Commission’s findings and recommendations.

Religious Released Time Education

The Overlooked Open Door in Public Schools:

Religious released time is a constitutionally-permissible means by which public schools release students who have parental permission to attend off-campus religious instruction. Originally published in 1982 by Christian Legal Society and written by Center attorneys Sam Ericsson and Kim Colby, this booklet has encouraged churches and other religious groups to establish released-time programs in their communities, thereby allowing hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers to receive religious instruction during the school day.

Do You Need Help?

Christian Legal Society offers legal assistance for those in need through CLS’ network of Christian Legal Aid clinics and Christian Attorneys’ directory. CLS’ Center for Law & Religious Freedom is also available to address issues related to the infringement of religious freedom.

Find a Christian Attorney
Get Help with Religious Freedom
Find a Legal Aid Clinic