Christian Discrimination at Wisconsin School

In an age where civil rights groups jump at the opportunity to cry discrimination, there remains one segment of society subjected to marginalization and censorship. That segment – Christians – just happens to represent the majority of Americans, making what happened at the University of Wisconsin even more frustrating. Because it was there that a young student named Rachel Langeberg was told she could not include Biblical references in her class presentation.

Langeberg was developing a graded group presentation for Professor Annette Kuhlman’s Crime and Criminal Justice class when she was told that she would fail if she kept religious references in her final work.

“Religious contemplations and the bible belong to a different realm and not academic sources,” Kuhlman wrote in an email to Langeberg. “I will not allow you to present unless you change this.”

At issue was a point in the presentation where Langeberg suggested that one explanation for why people committed arson was that humans were born into sin and were cursed with a sinful nature. It did not make up the bulk of the project, but Langeberg felt it was natural and important to include her sincerely-held beliefs. But when Professor Kuhlman insisted she would get a failing grade unless she complied, she reluctantly removed the offending passages.

In what Langeberg’s attorneys insist is a classic case of retroactive justification, the professor then went back and changed the parameters of the assignment, requiring students to only use peer reviewed sources for their presentations. If that was Kuhlman’s attempt to avoid the thorny First Amendment troubles she saw coming over the hill, the Liberty Counsel says it’s too little, too late. They have written a letter to school administrators, accusing them of “unconstitutional hostility toward religious belief” on behalf of Langeberg, their client.

“It was highly inappropriate for Dr. Kuhlman to censor this team’s work and perspective on the issue, in its original form, based on incorrect and discriminatory statements about the law and religious belief,” Liberty Counsel attorneys wrote.

Langeberg does not appear to be seeking litigation; she merely wants an apology from the school. So far, University of Wisconsin officials have not responded to the request.

A Marginalized Religion

Who would have ever dreamed we might end up here? Imagine what the response would be if you could travel back in time a hundred years and tell the Americans of 1915 what was coming. They wouldn’t believe you. Hell, you don’t even have to do that. Today, legions of liberal writers will still insist there is no discrimination against American Christians. They mocked the religious freedom battles in Indiana as though the people there were fighting against phantoms.

But this is real, it’s happening, and it’s only going to get worse. We are sliding into the era of Christian persecution. Liberals – always preaching tolerance and equality – have determined that Christians are the great enemy. And unless Christians fight back, we will stand idly by and watch them turn this country into a secular state where religious beliefs are intolerable. And that may just be the end of everything.