Why Would They Want To Join?!
Why should non-Christians be allowed to join a Christian society - where all of its activities are presumably based around the religion?
The Christian Union at Exeter said the ruling by an independent adjudicator would mean Muslims or atheists could become its leaders.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is backing the organisation.
The 350-strong Union was told by the Students’ Guild, which regulates student bodies, last year that it may lose its status unless it drops its requirement for members to declare their faith in Jesus because it meant the society was closed to many students…
The National Union of Students said: “Students’ unions have a duty to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all communities.
“As a result, they continually take steps to ensure that their own equal opportunities policies are adhered to.” (The Telegraph)
The NUS have a slight point - there should be “equal opportunities”, and these exist within this society, since meetings are open to all. Why should non-Christians be able to join this sort of Christian society? The next step along this absurd line is to say that Labour Party members should be allowed to join a Conservative Party society, vice-versa, and etc.
I can’t see why people who weren’t members of a particular religion or party would want to join a student society dedicated to it anyway, so where is the problem to be solved? Have there been complaints from non-Christians that they weren’t allowed to join this society? I very much doubt that there has been. There are more than enough societies that most people want to join at a Fresher’s Fair. So why the absurd demand?
Religious and political societies in the real world and on campuses operate this sort of “discriminatory” procedures. They always have, and I’m sure they always will. Quite why the Student’s Guild at Exeter decided to threaten the loss of it’s status is beyond me. Sheer stupidity.
Source: The Telegraph
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There are legitimate reasons why a non-christian would want to join a christian society.
One such example: if you have a genuine interest in the faith but do not believe - for example if you’re studying to be an RE teacher, or are doing an anthropology course.
But you could still go to the meetings. So where’s the problem?