Religious institutions hold a particular niche in our society. After all, America was founded on religious freedom (and turkey dinners). We have to respect each other’s religious beliefs, and a religious institution — such as a school — has the right to follow its tenets even in the face of Constitutionally protected rights. The question I find myself asking is: how steep is that slope?
Sure, a private, religious school can only accept students of the same faith; that’s a given. What about if the students are doing things the religion reviles? Can a Lutheran private school expel two girls for being suspected lesbians?
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-school28-2009jan28,0,3503114.story?track=rss
The truth is, there are two different issues at play here. One is the private ownership of the institutions; since the State is not officially involved, there is no Constitutional protection. Now, there are all sorts of arguments that any school, private or otherwise, should constitute “State actors”, but the current legal climate is that private schools are not subject to the State Action Doctrine.
The other issue is that a religious institution must be allowed to practice and adhere to its faith. To paraphrase Bill Cosby, “I know religion! I practice religion!” Are there aspects of most religions that those not within the faith would take offense at? Yes; hell, I know people in my religion who have a hard time with some of it.
Normally I would view a case like the one linked to above as correct since the person has two outs: she can choose to use a different school and she can choose not to take part in the offending religious practices (again by leaving the school by choice). However, since this is a school situation, and the student is notfree to make the choices I just mentioned, this decision does not sit soundly with me — but what are the alternatives?