Christian schools sue California university system to force acceptance of religious courses

University of California, Christian schools at odds

By Claire Cooper, The Sacramento Bee, October 30, 2006

The University of California and an association of fundamentalist Christian schools are heading for a showdown over their competing views of academic freedom.

The conflict erupted over a decision by UC admissions officers a couple of years ago to reject future proposals for high school curricula based on certain Christian textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press of South Carolina and A Beka Books of Florida. Approval was not withdrawn from courses that already received an OK.

The Christian schools sued UC, asserting a right to teach the viewpoints they choose.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has refused to throw out the suit, ruling in August that the schools should have a chance to prove that religious discrimination was behind UC's decision. A two- or three-week trial is expected in 2007.

Among the books are a physics text that treats the Bible as infallible truth and a biology text that calls evolution "a retreat from science." American history, government and literature texts also are at issue. Continue.

UC Loses Bid to Stop Christian School Suit

A federal judge rules that the case alleging that admissions rules violate student freedoms can proceed to trial.

By Rebecca Trounson, The Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2006

A Los Angeles federal judge said Tuesday that he would allow a discrimination lawsuit filed against the University of California by a small Christian school in Riverside County to proceed.

Acting in a case that is being closely tracked by educators and free speech advocates nationwide, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero rejected UC's effort to dismiss several major allegations in the suit and allowed it to move forward. The written order followed a tentative ruling in the case in June. Continue

Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss

Read the order of US District Judge S. James Otero, dismissing some of the Christian school association's claims but letting the organization continue its lawsuit against the University of California. (On the school association's website) Click here.

Lawsuit filed alleging "viewpoint discrimination"

A Church-State Clash Over College Requirements

A Christian high school has sued the U. of California for not certifying 3 courses taught from a religious viewpoint

By Jennifer Jacobson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 3, 2006

Except for its title,American Literature: Classics for Christians looks like any other high-school textbook. It includes short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe and defines literary terms such as irony and satire.

But the text, published by A Beka Book, in Pensacola, Fla., also asks how many of Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues have a "Scriptural basis." And it describes a speech that William Jennings Bryan gave during the Scopes "monkey" trial, in 1925, as a "well-reasoned argument for the authority of the Bible against the claims of evolutionary philosophers." Continue

Christian School Association lawsuit challenges state standards, asserts right to "freedom from hostility toward religion"

On August 25, 2005, the Association of Christian Schools International, Calvary Chapel Christian Schools of Murrieta, California, and five Calvary students, filed a lawsuit against the University of California and California State University to force them to accept the Murrietta's courses as meeting admission requirements. The complaint, filed in the federal district court in Los Angeles, claims that Calvary students were

discriminated against and excluded from University of California and California State University institutions because some courses at Calvary Christian School are disqualified from approval as a-g curriculum because of the Christian viewpoint added to standard subject matter presentation in those courses and their texts, or ... effectively prohibited from taking courses with Christian viewpoints that would otherwise be taken because those courses are so disqualified.

Click here to read the complaint (a PDF document) on the association's site).

The Christian schools association's overview of its lawsuit against UC

Before filing their lawsuit, the Christian School Association met with the University of California committee that sets admission standards. Here is the Christian group's assessment of the UC group's problem with their biology texts:

As the discussion continued about the biology books, it became evident that they were rejected because they appeared to state the perspective that the Bible is revelation and along with faith is more authoritative than the observations of science, especially if there were a conflict over a "factual scientific issue."

Click here to read the ACSI overview (a PDF document).

University Is Accused of Bias Against Christian Schools

By Carolyn Marshall, New York Times, November 20, 2005

With December 12 set for the first hearing in a Christian education organization's lawsuit against the University of California system, the New York Times profiles the case, which, it reports, is being closely watched by both Christian educators and First Amendment advocates as a national harbinger. Click here to read the report

War of worldviews: Christian schools vs. University of California

Inside the First Amendment

By Charles C. Haynes, First Amendment Center, February 5, 2006

Speculating which side will prevail in the lawsuit, Haynes says that if the plaintiff Christian schools have included all the elements of a standard physics or biology course, then it shouldn't matter whether their text books are sprinkled with religious verses. But if the books are lacking in the required coursework, then UC is within its rights to refuse to accept them for purposes of admission. Click here for the commentary.

Creationism: It's not just in Kansas anymore

By Peter Schrag, Sacramento Bee, November 23, 2005

"It was pure coincidence that on the very same day that the Dover board was dumped, the Kansas Board of Education took a big step in the other direction.... Yet if everything's not up to date in Kansas, California isn't immune. Twenty years after creationists ran the last full-scale campaign to write their "science" into California's curriculum, Calvary Chapel School in Murrieta, the Association of Christian Schools International and six students hoping to go to the University of California are suing UC. The charge: that the university, in denying credit for some of the religiously oriented courses the students took and the texts they used, practices 'viewpoint discrimination' and 'hostility toward religion.'" Click here to read Schrag's column.