Christian fraternity stays

A federal appeals court last week ordered the University of Florida to recognize Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian fraternity, while a trial court hears arguments over the university's decision to deny the Christian fraternity official recognition.

According to The Independent Florida Alligator, the campus student newspaper, the University of Florida has refused to recognize Beta Upsilon Chi as an official student group because its requirement that members be Christians violates the university's policy on religious discrimination. With the help of the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund, the fraternity sued the university for discrimination in a federal lawsuit.

In a free society, Christians and other groups should be free to associate and be recognized on college campuses. The central issue, of course, is that with recognition comes access to state government funding. It's an odd case given the fact that every fraternity discriminates against women. Is that not in violation of the school's discrimination standards?

However, could this lawsuit have been avoided? It may be better for Christian fraternities to remain Christian but not require a profession of faith in order to join.

If a non-Christian wants to join a Christian fraternity that is a good thing, right? What better way to share the gospel with people than have them join your Christian fraternity? I say, let the non-Christians join, room with Christians, attend Bible studies, worship services, missions trips, accountability groups, prayer times, road trips to hear John Piper, and so on. Why not? It's not a church but a campus organization where the fraternity men are all missionaries.

Are non-Christians lining up to join Christian fraternities and organizations on other campuses? For example, are Christian colleges being flooded with non-Christian applicants? Doubt it. Why would Christians not want non-Christians to be in their fraternity? Or better yet, why would a non-Christian even want to join?

If Christians would think missionally about their campus groups perhaps they could avoid these types of lawsuits altogether. (Of course, there are some non-missional Christians I've heard who also don't believe that Christian kids should attend "secular" universities at all, but that's a separate issue.)

What if Beta Upsilon Chi was so missional that it was burdened not to simply accrue status for themselves as "Christians" but to serve the University of Florida and renew the campus for Christ socially, spiritually, and culturally? That is, remain faithfully Christian but create space for the Holy Spirit to use the organization to draw people to the Father and renew the campus. There would be no need for lawsuits.