Suing for Jesus: a new legal team wants to cleanse the campuses for Christ - Alliance Defense Fund

Progressive, The, April, 1997 by Anne-Marie Cusac

"Increasingly, we are going to see religious-freedom arguments used to undermine government. Student fees are an easy target, but the same argument applies to using public funds for public education," says Frederick Clarkson, author of the book Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.

"Generally, they're looking to the abolition of the public school," he adds. "Many of the leaders are frank about saying so."

"They feel that the First Amendment means that they do not have to do business with certain people," says Sara Diamond, an expert on the religious right. "They want to say that their religion allows them to discriminate."

Diamond is concerned that the meaning of the First Amendment is changing bit by bit, as organizations like the Alliance Defense Fund win local lawsuits that attract little attention but have big implications. "Cases work at this piecemeal, local level," she warns.

Sears agrees. "I always refer to the religious freedom fighters as a big jigsaw puzzle," he says. This is one more piece of the puzzle put in place. This is not some insignificant case in Madison, Wisconsin," he adds. "This has national implications. Long term. Big time."

Blocking the

Anti-Christ

The Alliance Defense Fund describes itself as a protector of religious freedom. And civil libertarians would probably approve of some of the Fund's stances. For instance, the organization defended the right of a street preacher to proselytize in a public park. It also stood up for the right of pro-lifers to protest outside an abortion clinic.

The Alliance Defense Fund's biggest preoccupation appears to be cases involving public schools around the country. In 1995, the Fund gave money to Ronald Rosenberger, a student who was suing the University of Virginia for the right to receive funding from student-activity fees to start a campus Christian newspaper. Until Rosenberger v. The University of Virginia, the school had attempted to maintain a separation of church and state when it came to student fees. This suit changed that.

"This win was a big deal," boasted the newsletter of the Alliance Defense Fund after the Supreme Court commanded the University of Virginia to grant funding to the Christian newspaper. "It was not just a win against the university and the twenty-some other radical groups who filed opposing briefs. It was a win against the nation's entire public-education establishment, the American Civil Liberties Union, and similar groups who have marched this country down the anti-religious path for the past generation."

After Rosenberger, the Alliance Defense Fund took the offensive. "We also have begun to select key cases that would build on this foundation and to look for other cases that will create additional key precedents in our quest for true religious freedom in America," the newsletter added. Southworth vs. Grebe was the follow-up, though Rosenberger may seem a strange precedent for Southworth vs. Grebe.

The first suit extends university funding to a Christian newspaper, and might seem to be protecting the free speech of a controversial and unpopular organization on campus.