-Christian Colleges Dodge a Bullet in California.

        (California State Capitol: Wikipedia)

We recently posted about potential legislation in California that would make it very difficult for Christian colleges to maintain Biblical beliefs and moral codes. Fortunately the outcry in the state and across the nation was enough to get the dangerous potential bill revised. Here’s the story from the Family Policy Alliance:

SB 1146 would have seriously restricted the religious freedoms of Christian institutions. On Wednesday, the author removed a provision that would have allowed students to sue “private institutions if they are disciplined for violating church teachings,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

“I don’t want to just rush a bill that’s going to have unintended consequences,” said Sen. Ricardo Lara, “so I want to take a break to really study this issue further.”

Jonathan Keller with the California Family Council, one of Family Policy Alliance’s nearly 40 state-based groups, said he was pleased with the move.

“This is certainly a victory for both religious liberty and student choice,” he said. “We are exceedingly grateful to our many coalition partners from local, state, and national organizations who have worked tirelessly to educate Californians to the dangers of SB 1146.”

Left in the legislation is a requirement for private schools to report the names of students expelled for violating morality codes. Sen. Lara said that would give him all the information to determine whether schools are “discriminating.”

Read the whole article>

Response: Notice that this not really over, just on hold. The sponsor of the bill still wants to force an accounting from Christian institutions for every student expelled for violating morality codes. This will undoubtedly result in either further legislation or court action against Christian colleges in California.

We really do need to be on top of this and vigilant. The only reason this bill was not voted on like it was is because it is an election year, not because anyone had an epiphany or any second thoughts about what they might be doing.                  *Top