In Montana, University Officials Fear Religious Activities Mean The ‘Big Sky’ Is Falling

• By Alan Sears
• Posted Sep 27, 2011
• No Comments »

It’s almost as if officials at the University of Montana think religious faith is toxic … a kind of spiritual or philosophical asbestos that pollutes whoever breathes the air around it.

How else to explain their ban against Montana students completing work-study projects at Missoula’s huge City Life Community Center? Last year, the 34,000-square-foot teen recreation area was used by no less than 43 not-for-profit or youth-based programs – some of them with religious affiliations.

Groups meeting at the Center include: Missoula Parks and Recreation, District Youth Court/Drug Court, Missoula County Public Schools, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Sentinel Kiwanis Club, Missoula Rotary Club, Missoula City Fire Department, and various other religious and athletic organizations. The building offers a full-service sandwich and coffee bar; a gymnasium equipped for basketball, volleyball, and fencing; a student center; a teen activity center for ping-pong, air hockey, video games, darts, and other recreational/social activities; and a paintball facility. And yes, some groups sing and pray there, too.

It’s that last element that frightens U of M administrators, who – spooked at the prospect of violating any so-called “church and state” directives in the regulations that govern federal grants for work-study programs – refused to let any of the school’s students work at the Center.

There’s just no constitutional basis for their concern, though – a fact pointed out by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys in a letter to university officials. Public university students are not infected, afflicted, or disqualified from federal financial assistance simply because they work in the same building where religious activities are allowed to take place.

“The work-study statute and regulation, properly interpreted, do not require you to forbid work-study students from working at City Life on the ground that religious activities sometimes occur there,” the ADF letter stated. “Indeed, the law likely forbids such an approach.”

In light of that information, U of M administrators have now agreed to allow students to be employed at the Center.

“University students should not be prohibited from taking part in a work-study program merely because religious activities would take place before or after their shifts in the same building,” says ADF Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. “The university got it right by ending its quarantine and allowing students to work at the community center. They can be confident that the Constitution does not equate nearby religious youth activities with asbestos in the ceiling tiles.”

Although this misunderstanding was cleared up quickly and with minimal legal fuss, it shows all too clearly how paralyzed and intimidated many public school and university officials are by the decades-old fiction of “separation of church and state” (America’s gift from the ACLU and its allies). Please be in prayer for attorneys and allies across the country, as we fight the power of this fabrication and work diligently to restore religious freedom to students, staff, and faculty in the public schools and universities we all fund.