From HuffPo (of all places!) come “Julea Ward, Christian Counseling Student Expelled For Gay And Lesbian Views, To Argue Discrimination Case In Court.” In typical fashion, HuffPo is really drawing from other media; in this case, “Expelled EMU counseling student wins OK to sue after refusal to advise gays, lesbians” from the Detroit Free Press. To quote the freep:
An Eastern Michigan University student who was expelled from a counseling program because she refused to counsel gays and lesbians about their lifestyles won a key victory today in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
A three-member panel of the court said Julea Ward can argue her religious discrimination suit against the university before a federal court jury in Detroit.
“Ward’s free speech claim deserves to go to a jury,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton said in an opinion joined by Julia Gibbons and John Adams. Adams is a federal district judge from northern Ohio who was sitting by designation on the appeals court.
“Although the university submits it dismissed Ward from the program because her request for a referral violated the ACA (American Counseling Association) code of ethics, a reasonable jury could find otherwise — that the code of ethics contains no such bar and that the university deployed it as a pretext for punishing Ward’s religious views and speech.”
The HuffPo site is worth visiting because it includes a YouTube video from Ward sponsored by her conservative Christian defense team, the Alliance Defense Fund, and in the nutshell, Ward is claiming discrimination because she’s a Christian.
I have to say given the level of discrimination that happens in this country against people who are Jewish, Muslim, atheist, and whatever else but Christian, I personally have a hard time with that argument. And I have to wonder how far a professional organization is supposed to take an individual professional’s own beliefs into account here. I mean, suppose Ward had not wanted to counsel a mixed race couple or a Muslim couple because it violated her “Christian” values: would this have made it into the courts at all?
This is the comments from the judge that will end up costing EMU money. I dont see this case being about gays or religion (though most want to make it that way); She followed procedure as she had a conflict. EMU, like most schools, are sensitive to liberal ideology only. Yes another court case that will cost the school money.
“But the judges said Ward had requested the change to avoid imposing her beliefs on gay and lesbian clients and noted that the ACA’s ethics code allows counselors to refer clients elsewhere based on values.”
I consider myself a spiritual person, and most definitely not a religious person.
So in keeping with free speech, etc., let me say that I’ve always felt that the only good religion is a dead religion.
Yeah this case comes down to the jury interpretation of the ACA ethics code, not a constitutional test.
I was in a counseling program and while, they encouraged us to work through our issues with different hot button topics, they said ETHICALLY, if you can’t get past an issue, you are doing your client a disservice and should refer them. That’s what pisses me off about this whole situation – Ward was doing the right thing for her CLIENT. It wasn’t about discrimination against her client, it was about getting that client the highest level of care. And expelling someone for that is a knee-jerk reaction by a liberal leaning institution.
And to say that Christians aren’t persecuted in America is to ignore the fact that 90% of portrayals of Christians in media is negative.
There has to be a way for students to retain their moral and religious convictions and still be able to complete their studies at EMU.
We’ve set the bar for “persecution” pretty low when a negative portrayal in the media counts as persecuting someone.
I guess my reply to that would be to look at some of the other groups portrayed in the media negatively, then ask yourself how this has affected your own attitudes towards those groups. Do you give the person or persons a fair shake or do you have walls up or prejudices against them?
It’s not just about the media, but it’s about the subtle effect of it on a person’s subconscious and how that then acts out in individual interactions. It feeds prejudice which leads to persecution.