The plaintiffs are Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship. A national Christian legal organization represents them. The complaint challenges the university's Campus Ministries Policy, which ended the groups' registered status and barred them from affiliating with their national ministries.
Under the policy, the groups allege, they must now get the campus minister's approval for events, fundraising and guest speakers. They say they can no longer reserve campus space on their own, recruit members, advertise their meetings, or organize Bible studies and worship services without that sign-off.
The students also say the rule is not applied evenly. The complaint states that the Muslim Students Association and another group, the VSU Community Faith Alliance, are exempt from the policy. The Christian ministries are not.
The lawsuit claims violations of the First Amendment's guarantees of free exercise, free speech and assembly. It also claims a violation of the Establishment Clause and of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. The students ask the court to block the policy, restore their registered status, award damages and hold a jury trial. These are allegations in a complaint. The university has not been shown to be liable, and the court has yet to rule.
A permission slip to pray
Look at what is being asked of these students. They are not asking for money, or for special favors. They want to open a Bible, sing a hymn and pray together in a room on a campus they pay to attend. Under the policy they challenge, they would need a university official's approval to do it.
The Founders saw this danger plainly. The First Amendment does not say government may permit worship if it is supervised. It says government shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. A state university is an arm of the state. If it hands one faith a supervisor and leaves other faiths alone, that is a policy that deserves sharp questions, and a federal judge will now ask them. Those who run the school are owed courtesy and a fair hearing. The policy is owed hard scrutiny.
But I want to say something to the students, and to any believer who feels the walls closing in. The church has never needed a campus charter to exist. It was born without one. It met in upper rooms, in homes, in prison cells and in catacombs. Its first leaders were told by the authorities of their day to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. Their answer is still the church's answer:
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)
Think about the weight of that promise. It names no building, no registration form and no approved minister. It requires two or three, and it requires the name of Christ. Where those are present, the Lord is present. A university can cancel a registration, but it cannot cancel that.
When the Jerusalem council ordered Peter and John to stop teaching in Jesus' name, they did not riot, and they did not slander anyone. They said, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." (Acts 4:19) That was a calm answer, and a firm one. They honored the office of those who questioned them, and they obeyed God.
That is the pattern for a Christian under pressure. Use every lawful means. File the suit, make the case, and respect the court. Do not hate the administrator who wrote the policy, because he is a man for whom Christ also died. And do not trade the gospel for peace with the system. A college student is at the age when the deepest questions come: Who am I, why am I here, and what happens when I die? Those questions are not answered by a diversity statement. They are answered by the One who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." A campus with no room for that answer has a hole in the middle of it, however many programs it runs.
My friend, if you are young and sitting in a dorm room wondering whether the faith is worth the trouble, hear this. The trouble is real, and so is the One who promised to be there. He has met his people in worse places than a Virginia classroom.
The case will go forward in Richmond. The students need their rights decided on the law. The rest of us can remember that the church is not a club the state charters. It is the body of Christ, and no policy can unmake it.