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God and Man at Carolina

By Mike S. Adams, Ph.D., and Charlton Allen, Esq.

January 13, 2003

Intolerance in the Name of Diversity

Christians and non-Christians alike were shocked when it was recently revealed that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), a student group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, had been threatened with de-recognition unless it allowed non-Christian students to serve as group officers.

Loss of university recognition for student groups is not a mere technicality. It denies these groups, among other things, the use of university facilities and access to university funding. Simply stated, it effectively bans such groups from campus altogether. After this story was broken by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the university rescinded its threat of de-recognition of IVCF in the midst of a national public relations firestorm.

Since the incident with IVCF, both of us have received several calls and e-mails concerning the incident. Most have posed a rather simple question: Is it really possible for college administrators to be so uneducated in the basics of civics that they would fail to recognize that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution trumps their school diversity policies? Others marveled that the UNC administration had decided that Christian groups could exist on campus only if they would abandon their core religious beliefs and allow non-Christians to become leaders and members.

We immediately suspected that the incident at Chapel Hill was not an anomaly, but rather a function of the general animus towards Christians that exists on so many of our college campuses. After an article in the UNC student newspaper reported that a number of other organizations had also received letters threatening de-recognition, we decided that further examination was imperative. We initiated a public records request, pursuant to North Carolina law, demanding UNC-Chapel Hill disclose all such correspondence. Given the rather large number of student organizations (481, to be exact), we wondered whether all groups had been carefully scrutinized or whether certain organizations were targeted.

Following our request, the university disclosed seventeen letters written by Assistant Director for Student Activities and Organizations Jonathan E. Curtis on December 10, 2002. In these letters, the following organizations were threatened with revocation of university recognition:

• Music Makers Christian Fellowship, for stating that members of the servant team "are expected to model an appropriate Christian character to the rest of Music Makers."
• Young Life, for referring to its membership as "a community of adult Christians."
• The Lutheran Campus Ministry, for referring to its members as "a Christian community" and for requiring baptism as a criteria for leadership in the organization.
• The Episcopal Campus Ministry, for limiting its membership to "all Episcopal students attending UNC-CH, together with all those students from other Christian communions who chose to take the Chapel of the Cross and EMC as their parochial center."
• Chi Alpha Omega Christian Fraternity, for limiting its membership to Christian males.
• Chi Alpha Christian Fraternity, for requiring group leaders to commit to the goal of "discovering together what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ as the forgiver, healer and leader of [their] lives."
• Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, for limiting its membership to "any male student . . . who . . . believes in God." (No secular single-sex Greek societies at Carolina were threatened with de-recognition.)
• Campus Crossroads, for requiring that "Leadership positions . . . must be held by those professing Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord."
• Brotherhood in Christ, for limiting its membership to males.
• The Bahá'ís of UNC-CH, for limiting their membership to those who believe in God.
• The Native American Law Student Association, unless they allowed full participation "without regard to race."
• The UNC-CH chapter of AISES (the American Indian Science and Engineering Society), because its members must be Native American unless granted "Special Membership."
• IVCF was the only organization to whom multiple letters were sent. In three separate letters, it was threatened with de-recognition for requiring its officers subscribe to Christian doctrine.

Additionally, UNC-CH Habitat for Humanity and Phi Beta Kappa received letters concerning potential membership limitations unrelated to belief in God or in Christianity. These groups, however, were threatened with a mere suspension, not revocation.

The university has yet to comply with our demand for the release of similar correspondence from prior years. We suspect that if they do, the pattern will be the same, showing more examples of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's abuse of the ministerial recognition process as a means to advance its own agenda unconstitutionally. The patent absurdity of the university's demands on these groups is compounded by the fact that they were all written under the guise of "diversity."

Regardless of whether these letters are a function of malice or sheer tomfoolery, the remedy is clear. Indeed, this is not a situation likely to provoke a war between our Constitution and common sense. Both compel the same result.

Nonetheless, to date the only organization that has challenged this intimidating practice is IVCF. Their success in forcing UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser to rescind the university's threat of de-recognition should serve as an inspiration to the other organizations involved, and to others who are able and willing to take up their cause.

Last summer, many academics were outraged when the North Carolina legislature drafted an amendment that they interpreted as an effort to prevent the teaching of the Koran in the UNC system. Their cries for academic freedom were heard across the state. But where are their voices now? What has happened to the principles once held in common by Christians and non-Christians alike? What has happened to the light of liberty that once shone so brightly upon the hill?

For further reading:

John Leo, "Playing the bias card," U.S. News & World Report, January 7, 2003.

Jane Stancill and Yonat Shimron, "Moeser upholds Christian group's status: UNC-CH club OK to continue," The Raleigh (N.C.) News-Observer, January 1, 2003.

Mike Adams, "The Cost of Diversity," BreakPoint Online, November 22, 2002.

BreakPoint Commentary No. 020813, "No Conservatives Need Sign Up."

BreakPoint Commentary No. 020801, "Tar Heel Qur'án."

The "BreakPoint College Survival Kit" includes a collection of resources that will help students understand more clearly what they believe and why they believe it.

Dr. Mike S. Adams is an associate professor at UNC-Wilmington. He can be reached at adams_mike@hotmail.com.

Charlton L. Allen is an attorney in Wilmington, North Carolina. He can be reached at charlton_allen@hotmail.com.