Strict Separationists Once Again Support Discrimination Against Religion

I suppose this is just a "dog bites man" story, but liberal strict separationist groups have once again expressed their support for government discrimination against religion.

The ACLU, People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Federation of Teachers have together urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to uphold a district court decision that nothing in the federal Constitution stops Colorado from revoking college tuition assistance from those students who choose to attend Colorado Christian University. That revocation is based upon the state's conclusion that CCU is "too religious," even though it is an accredited four-year liberal arts institution that offers majors in computer science, business administration, and numerous other "secular" fields of study.

It matters not to these groups that Colorado financially assists students majoring in the same subjects at secular, public, and less religious institutions. It matters not that the state conducts an intrusive and subjective analysis of a college's religiosity in determining whether to revoke aid to its students. So much for "separation of church and state."

The bottom line is that these groups disagree with the theologically conservative Christian worldview that underlies the educational experience at CCU. They are comfortable with forcing religiously conservative taxpayers to support students at secular and "mildly" religious universities, because the education there is more consistent with their own worldview. But they cannot tolerate allowing economically disadvantaged students who choose CCU to keep their assistance.

Religious liberty is supposed to be about government neutrality towards religion. In the eyes of these groups, church-state law is simply a tool, to be used for marginalizing their ideological opponents.