Christian School Defends Right to Educate Kids According to Christian Values; Rejects LGBT Discrimination Charge
A private Christian school in Indiana is defending its right to educate children according to its values after drawing flak for allegedly discriminating against LGBT students.
Lighthouse Christian Academy in Bloomington, Indiana suddenly found itself at the center of national attention this month when Senate Democrats cited the school as an example of a learning institution that discriminates against LGBT students, the Associated Press reported.
During a Senate hearing, the Democrats pointed at a school brochure that says the Bible does not allow homosexual, bisexual or "any form of sexual immorality."
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Lighthouse officials rejected the charge, saying they've never turned anyone away based on sexual orientation.
Pressed to comment on the issue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said discrimination is wrong. However, it was up to Congress and the courts, not her department, to intervene.
Brian Bailey, an attorney who also serves as Lighthouse spokesman, said since Christians are state taxpayers, too, they should be allowed to fund institutions of their choice with their money, according to the Star Tribune.
Lighthouse received over $665,000 in state funds last year.
"Parents are free to choose which school best comports with their religious convictions," Bailey said in a statement. "For a real choice and thus real liberty to exist, the government may not impose its own orthodoxy and homogenize all schools to conform to politically correct attitudes and ideologies."
Bailey said the school admitted some students who were "tempted by same-sex intimacy."
In this case, he said all the school could do was to "teach our students to flee these sins."
Former Lighthouse student Mary Wegener, 24, said some of her classmates at the school were gay, but they received the same love and care from their teachers.
Dick Komer, senior attorney with Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, noted that federal law protects people against discrimination on the basis of race, national identity, sex and religion.
However, the protection does not extend to LGBT individuals, he pointed out.
"If the people who are grilling DeVos believe that sex includes sexual orientation and gender identity, then they should propose amendments to the statues that they have written and given her to enforce," Komer said. "The Congress is supposed to write the law, the agency is supposed to administer what Congress has given them. And Congress hasn't given it to them."
