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Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                Chris Elliott                        Robyn Morrow                  Johnny Peña
                                      Fabian Sifuentes              Kristen Young

Jesus so kicks political correctness in the nuts 

On Monday, the faithful were able to escape the pharaoh of political correctness and journey into the promised land after wandering through the legal system for what may have felt like 40 years.

A federal appeals court ruled that an Illinois university could not revoke a student group's registered status over the group's requirement that its members stick to Christian beliefs. The ruling reverses a lower court decision and requires that Southern Illinois University reinstate the Christian Legal Society's status °™ allowing members to use the university's name and facilities and making the group eligible for school funding.

Thank God.

The university claimed the group's required adherence to basic Christian beliefs violated the school's affirmative action policy and federal and state laws concerning equal opportunity.

God forbid.

But in its ruling Monday, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said the school °°failed to identify which federal or state laws it believes (the group) violated.°± 

Godsmack.

Student groups are founded to bring together people who share a common interest, and sometimes that interest is religion. When schools can disband groups because of intangible requirements like beliefs, the door is open to all sorts of ridiculous abuses of power on the part of university administrations.

In Article III, Section 2, of its global bylaws, The Golden Key International Honour Society lists °°collaboration°± as one of its °°core values.°± Just because °°collaboration°± is important to that society doesn't mean it discriminates against people who like to work alone.

After all, many of the most basic Christian beliefs are identical to basic beliefs of almost any religion.

All the money and time that SIU put into these legal proceedings could have been put into education °™ and some would argue that universities should keep their focus in that area. We can only hope that other universities are watching.