Christian group in legal fight over politically correct campus ban
Christian students barred from using their university's facilities because of their refusal to accept gay rights rules have launched a High Court case against the ban.
The battle over the rights and status of the Christian Union at Exeter University will now be decided by a judge.
Their legal move set up a test case likely to decide a series of arguments in a number of universities between Christian societies which believe that homosexual practice is wrong, and student unions and universities which demand they accept gay equality.
Similar rows over attempts to censor students who profess traditional Christian beliefs have broken out at universities in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The student court case comes in the wake of the apology last month by Lancashire Police to a pensioner couple who were grilled in their own home by two officers after they complained to their town hall about its gay rights policy.
The police force said sorry and paid compensation to Joe and Helen Roberts rather than face a High Court case in which officers would have been accused of persecuting people who have committed no crime for political reasons.
At Exeter, the 50-year-old Christian Union was banned by the Students' Guild and forbidden to use university rooms after it refused to withdraw rules which demand members declare they believe in Christ.
The rules effectively prevent gay activists from joining and using the Christian group to promote gay equality.
Ben Martin of the Christian group - which has already been forced by the Guild to change its name to Evangelical Christian Union - said: "Legal action was the very last thing we wanted to take.
"We are all students trying to concentrate on our studies, but the action by the Guild, in blatant infringement of our rights, and their reluctance to reinstate us, has left us with no alternative."
A statement on the Exeter University Students Guild website said: "The premise of the situation is that students felt that as students fund our societies and as our equal opportunities policy states, all activities should be open to all students.
"The ECU is the only society identified that has barriers to entry - both for membership of the society and to be on the committee of the society.
"This is certainly not a debate regarding the beliefs of the society, it is one of equal opportunities."
The argument over suppression of Christianity among students follows last year's row over British Airways rules which stopped staff wearing crosses. The airline suffered a humiliation and was forced to rewrite its rules after public anger greeted its attempt to stop check in worker Nadia Eweida from wearing a small cross.
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has issued a condemnation of attempts to silence Christian students who oppose gay rights. Dr Williams said in December that student unions who tried to shut down Christian Unions had "a fear of open argument".
The Archbishop added that it would be bad for academic standards "if the idea were allowed to gain ground that a student union could be an arbiter of publicly acceptable belief."
