FIRE reports:

In a remarkable display of repression and double standards, a Florida public college has prohibited a Christian student group from showing The Passion of the Christ on campus. The school justified its actions by expressing a fear that high school kids may ìwander inî to the showing and thus be exposed to the R-rated film. While the college was expressing such concern for young eyes and ears, however, it hosted a publicly performed skit entitled ìF**king for Jesus,î which described simulated sex with ìthe Risen Christ.î In addition, the college has unlawfully ordered that a school official be present at every student organization meeting.

It was interesting to read both letters. FIRE may not have had all of its facts in a row, and unfortunately did not mention the uhÖ Passion PlayÖ in the letter. Given the college attorney's response letter it would have been laughable to see the selective prudishness and hairsplitting (or perhaps even the surprise of the attorney that it actually had occurred!).

Meanwhile the attorney's references to FIRE's list of legal precedents was questioned in a way that has me wonder if the college got their understanding of Free Expression from the same place Cal Poly got their notion of Due Process for the Steve Hinkle case.

Finally! Religious groups have no place on public college and university campuses. No taxpayer money should be funnelled into supporting religion. Even if the university isn't directly giving state money to the group, the group is probably using university resources and utilities.

The vast majority of religious views out there stand in direct opposition to the ideals and practices of education: free research, skepticism, empiricism, critique, demystification, historicizing, experimentation, etc.

Secularist students need to fight to keep religion off campus.

Finally! Religious groups have no place on public college and university campuses.

There are solid arguments against that.

E.g., FIREís Guide to Religious Liberty on Campus

The money quote, based on legal precedent and basic principle...

If a public university permits expressive organizations to exist at all, then the following basic rights belong to religious organizations on the same basis as other expressive organizations ... (pp. 42.)

What follows the ellipses are the same access to facilities & common funding (e.g., student fee access), due process, and freedom from outside interference that you'd give to the Campus Freethinkers, College Democrats/Republicans/Libertarians and any other group with an opinion and an attitude.

The vast majority of religious views out there stand in direct opposition to the ideals and practices of education: free research, skepticism, empiricism, critique, demystification, historicizing, experimentation, etc.

You can say the same thing about Marxist-Leninism and other "post religious" boot-in-face authoritarian movements. Shall we ban them as well?

And for the record, I'm a godless heathen.

Where are the un-American activity hearings when you need them.

The left tried this fifty years ago when the communist party was active world wide.

America woke up and removed hundreds from positions of influence and power .
The countries of the world which did not successfully stop their plans were blighted by the policies of the left for generations and thousands of lives were ruined.

England still suffers from this to a degree today even after the free market corrections of the Thatcher years.

Europe is a prime example of the end result of their policies .

The openly communist countries were even worse , of course , with wholesale repression , murder of the citizens and starvation .

And the college campuses think this is "progressive" and cute and the people who do not subscribe to the liberal view are dinosaurs ? We need to restore some common sense to the curriculum. These kids are being subverted .

As a secularist and an atheist, I am thoroughly dismayed at how the establishment clause is being misused as a bloody club to beat down any expression of religion. This is the opposite of the original intent of the founding fathers. Shame on those who practice this perversion.

The most dangerous and destructive religion known to man is leftism, which has killed hundreds of millions of people around the world and threatens to destroy the educational system of the greatest nation on earth. Just what we need at a time when radical islamism aims to enforce sharia worldwide. A leftism that seeks to appease islamism in any way possible, while at the same time attempting to destroy all conceivable traditions of the western world.

I think the matter here isn't so much an attempt to overplay the Lemon test and such, but rather that the administration and attorney are well uh... diplomacy demands that I use the word "naive". The attorney's return letter came off as pretty well... naive. That or they really DO think they're running a daycare center for young adults and intelligent teenagers with tenure (which is a too frequent case on many campuses).

Karen Elliot - Funny, it is largely the Christian Reformation mindset that gave rise to all of those things that you sem to support.

krm:

What? You were expecting gratitude???

Free expression for the non-religious also means free expression for the religious. Censorship in either direction is not the answer.

The selectivity of the censorship was pretty funny, though.

DOF:

It gets better, apparently the school also showed the R-rated film, Welcome to Sarajevo on top of the naughty play. I may have been wrong that this was not an explicit attempt to screw over the religious group. But I still think these guys are a bit... uh... uncalibrated?