Students with a Fellowship of Christian Athletes club in Montana are looking at their legal options after being given an ultimatum by the school district to disaffiliate with the national organization over its beliefs on sexuality and marriage. NBC Montana reported that following complaints made last spring by four female students at Bozeman High School about FCA’s stated beliefs on sexuality, Bozeman Public Schools has reportedly told students in the local club they would have to disaffiliate with the national FCA or no longer be officially recognized by the school district as an on campus group. They were told if the group wants to keep its status as an official campus group, it would have to change its name and follow the school district’s policy on inclusion.
This is not the first time that the school district has ventured into these waters. In 2008, the school district voted to add “sexual orientation” to its anti-discrimination policy, as reported by The Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “Young adulthood is a time when you have a lot of questions about yourself, and it’s not the school district’s place to judge one way or the other, because right or wrong isn’t the issue. We want to make sure it’s an inclusive place where every student is treated the same and has the same access to any club or activity, and so the inclusion factor is very important to us,” said Bozeman Schools Superintendent Bob Connors.
FCA is not a new organization. It is celebrating its 65th anniversary as a sports ministry and has groups present in high schools and colleges across the nation. There are at least 30 FCA groups in the state of Montana alone. Montana FCA Director Bob Veroulis assured that FCA does not discriminate and all students are welcome to attend events. He also told the Christian Post that the Bozeman FCA group is not caving under the pressure put on them by the school district and feel the district’s ultimatum is a violation of their First Amendment rights. He stated, “The kids have done research and found some stuff from the National Board of Education talking about students’ First Amendment rights. They are going in to discuss with the principal how they feel their First Amendment rights are being violated by this ultimatum.”
Trouble for the Bozeman High FCA group began last school year when a group of female students objected to FCA’s sexual purity pledge that expects adult leaders to abstain from sex before marriage and not engage in homosexual relations. According to FCA’s statement of faith, the organization believes that God’s design for sexual intimacy is to be “expressed only within the context of marriage.” The organization defines marriage as being a union between only one man and one woman. The girls feared that FCA’s statement of faith would be used to discriminate against students at the school.
Although the group of girls brought their concerns about FCA’s statement of faith last spring, it wasn’t until last month that they voiced these concerns at a school board meeting. The school board referred the FCA complaint to the Montana Association of School Boards. Although the district found the FCA club did not engage in any concrete form of discrimination against anyone at the school, the district was advised that the “FCA’s national mission statement does violate the Bozeman School District’s discrimination policy.” This is another example of religious persecution that has arisen against Christian groups that hold to a traditional view of marriage and sexuality.
Pray- Pray for young Christians to be able to withstand the religious persecution that is being forced upon them and to continue to stand strong in their faith.