Pro-gay legal groups oppose Christian law school in Canada

[Stan]

S O U R C E

Bob Kuhn, an attorney and president of Christian-sponsored Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, speaks to members of the Law Society of British Columbia before a Tuesday vote on whether the society's directors, or "benchers," should support the accreditation of the school's law program.

Trinity Western University photo

Legal societies in Canada are trying to thwart the opening of a law school at British Columbia's Trinity Western University because the Christian-based school requires students to avoid sex outside of a traditional, heterosexual marriage. The moves against the school violate Canada's Charter, supporters claim.

A nonbinding vote of 3,210-968 by provincial lawyers seeks a reconsideration of the Law Society of British Columbia's accreditation of the law school, set to open in 2016 and graduate its first class of attorneys three years later.

The Canadian Press news agency reports, "The vote is the latest setback for Trinity Western University, a school with about 4,000 students in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, and is sure to amplify an ongoing debate over the rights of a private institution to impose its religious views about homosexuality on students."

According to the report, Trinity Western "requires students to sign a so-called community covenant. The document includes a passage that forbids sex outside of marriage, defined as between a man and a woman, and students can be disciplined for violating it."

In April, directors of the Law Society, by a 20-7 vote, agreed to approve a law school at Trinity Western, a 52-year-old school. The directors are not obligated to follow the vote, a TWU report explained.

The matter comes more than a decade after the Christian school went to court over its teacher education program. In Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers, Canada's Supreme Court ruled by an 8-to-1 vote, "In considering the religious precepts of TWU instead of the actual impact of these beliefs on the public school environment, the BCCT acted on the basis of irrelevant considerations."

Opponents of Trinity's law school declared it is practice, not belief, that is at issue.

Victoria, British Columbia, attorney Michael Mulligan told Law Society delegates in July, "Our concern is with the conduct of the university, as an institution, and not the religious views of the faculty or students. Our task is to assess the conduct of the university in order to determine if its approval would further the objects and duties of the law society. On that score there is no need for speculation and the answer is no."

Bob Kuhn, Trinity's president and himself an attorney, addressed the society, too, saying Canadian law "recognizes that it is not against public interest to hold and publicly express diverse views on marriage," according to a TWU report. "In a free and democratic society, the faith of TWU graduates cannot preclude them from practicing law."

Writing in the Vancouver Sun, Trinity Western alumnus Mark Penninga, executive director of the Association for Reformed Political Action, a Christian group, stated, "The same B.C. lawyers who voted against the Trinity Western Law School have all taken an oath based on principles that come straight from the Christian religion."

Penninga asserted, "The citizens of this province, indeed the entire country, need to wake up to this reality and demand an answer to this central question: Just what does religious freedom mean to B.C. lawyers? Their vote tells me we only have the freedom to believe what they do."

Email: mkellner@deseretnews.com

Twitter: @Mark_Kellner

[Gail]

Thanks to Mark for his interest in TWU. It is a good school and I am also interested in how this all plays out.

[Gregory Matthews]

By refusing to accept active homosexual students, TWU is refusing the opportunity to teach future litigators and elected officials its Christian concepts of law and religious rights.

Do we advertise in evangelistic meetings that active homosexuals are not welcome to attend? No. we welcome the opportunity to aquaint them with Christian concepts.

Why should a law school close off the opportunity to give a specific group of students a view of Christian concepts of law and religious rights?

By the way: Homosexuality if not catching. It is unlikely that a homosexual graduate student would infect other students with homosexuality.

[bonnie]

By refusing to accept active homosexual students, TWU is refusing the opportunity to teach future litigators and elected officials its Christian concepts of law and religious rights.

[Stan]

I think it is a sad day, when a governing law organization, feels they must check out a persons religious belief and have that trump marks on the Bar Exam.

[Stan]

>>>Our concern is with the conduct of the university, as an institution, and not the religious views of the faculty or students

What if they are one and the same..

[Gregory Matthews]

Quote:

Has a private institution lost the right to set standards they see as right? They are not singling out just active homosexual students.

The rights of TWU was not the focus of my comment. TWU is a graduate school. It's graduates will include people who will enact the laws of the land, and litigate civil rights cases. If I were the Dean of that law school, I would welcome the opportunity to attempt to persuade those students of the legal rights that religious people should have and how to protect those rights.

[Gregory Matthews]

Quote:

They are not. A specific group of students were not closed off. A specific behavior for gays, lesbians and straight was.

Yes, a specific group of students was closed off--people who practiced a homosexual life style. As I said earlier; This, in my way of thinking was a valuable missed opportunity to teach this group of future enactors of law and litigators of the rights that religious people should have.

[Gregory Matthews]

Quote:

Because something is not contagious we should be willing to have our students exposed to anything?

Not for my kids or grandchildren ,Thank you.

Be realistic: This was graduate school. It was not High School. It was not even college. It was graduate school.

If you think that your grandchildren, who have graduated from college and attend a graduate program in law, should be protected from sitting in a classroom with people who are homosexuals, you have grandchildren who are not prepared to go into the workplace and earn a living.

Bonnie: The workplace of today has employees who are homosexual. You cannot protect your "kids and grandchildren" from working with such.

[bonnie]

Quote:

They are not. A specific group of students were not closed off. A specific behavior for gays, lesbians and straight was.

Yes, a specific group of students was closed off--people who practiced a homosexual life style. As I said earlier; This, in my way of thinking was a valuable missed opportunity to teach this group of future enactors of law and litigators of the rights that religious people should have.

According to the report, Trinity Western "requires students to sign a so-called community covenant. The document includes a passage that forbids sex outside of marriage, defined as between a man and a woman, and students can be disciplined for violating it."

Sounds like straight couples that want to shack up are excluded as well.

So the only way that future enactors of the law can be taught the "rights of religious people" is first to force a private institution to accept their lifestyle?

[bonnie]

I think it is a sad day, when a governing law organization, feels they must check out a persons religious belief and have that trump marks on the Bar Exam.

Actually they didn't. They said no to a lifestyle choice while voluntarily attending this college

[bonnie]

When I said not for mine ,I meant by force of a group that wants all to bend to their will.

My granddaughter is second year law student.She has a excellent grasp of the workplace as she is self supporting and has been for some time.

Doesn't mean when she chose a college and was accepted one of her first acts was to get the college to bend to her will thru force of law.

Another granddaughter graduated high school this year and has her pick of any college in the country.Has a free ride to the tun e of 340,000.00 in scholarships. Her parents don't have anything financially to say about the college she attends. She may not be ready for the world in your opinion but she has made her own choice.She is going to college to get her degree i n her chosen profession and doesn't have any interest in a college that has two men,two women,or a man and woman

shacking up. She by passed Harvard and other very liberal colleges for their standards or lack of them that she wants to surround herself with

[bonnie]

The rights of TWU was not the focus of my comment. TWU is a graduate school. It's graduates will include people who will enact the laws of the land, and litigate civil rights cases. If I were the Dean of that law school, I would welcome the opportunity to attempt to persuade those students of the legal rights that religious people should have and how to protect those rights.

You are not dean of what appears to be a private college that has set standards that are not yours

[Stan]

Originally Posted By: Stan Jensen

I think it is a sad day, when a governing law organization, feels they must check out a persons religious belief and have that trump marks on the Bar Exam.

Actually they didn't. They said no to a lifestyle choice while voluntarily attending this college

It is the Law societies I was speaking about.