Think if it as a variation on the Groucho Marx quip about not wanting to belong to a club that would have people like him as members.
According to Fox affiliate KMVT, California State University at Stanislaus has deactivated its chapter of Chi Alpha, a national Christian fellowship group, because one of the organization’s requirements — that its leadership be Christian — discriminates against non-Christians.
The article quotes Cal State Associate Vice President Tim Lynch as explaining:
What they cannot be is faith-based where someone has to have a profession of faith to be that leader…. Every club is allowed to establish its own standards for how leaders are selected as long as it’s non-discriminatory.
Matthew Jacob, a city councilman, claims that if any discrimination is taking place, it is religious discrimination — and it is against Chi Alpha. In a letter to the university’s chancellor, Jacob wrote:
It goes against the very purpose of the organization to begin with, to have somebody that doesn’t even uphold that faith system to be teaching and mentoring other students in that capacity.
Chi Alpha responded itself in a statement asking:
How can we function as a Christian group without Christian leaders in our group? How can someone lead us if they don’t follow our mission?
The policy might at least be defensible if it were applied consistently to all campus groups, but the university fails to practice what it preaches. As Lynch himself acknowledges in the video below, fraternities and sororities are granted a gender exemption.
In addition, the university sponsors an Asian Pacific Islander Club, a Hmong Student Association, and an Indian Student Association, none of which presumably is forced to open its leadership to nonmembers of those cultural groups.
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