Christian School Discrimination

Since 2016, Bethel Christian Academy has been giving out millions of dollars worth of scholarships to those who wish to attend their school. These scholarships are provided by the BOOST program, which gives scholarships to students from low-income backgrounds to attend nonpublic schools. This program has non-discrimination rules that require schools to accept students no matter their race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Bethel Christian Academy is a nonpublic school in Savage, Maryland run by Bethel Ministries and is a Pentecostal church.  Bethel says that they do not turn down students based on sexual orientation but only asks students to refrain from engaging in sexual conduct, and there have no been any cases to prove that they have ever discriminated against a student. 

In the fall of 2017, officials from the Maryland State Department of Education said that Bethel did not follow the scholarship’s non-discrimination requirement after reading the Parent-Student Handbook that stated the school supports the bible’s view of marriage between a man and woman.  It also said ‘that God immutably bestows gender upon each person at birth as male or female to reflect His image’.  They revoked the school’s ability to provide any more scholarships because of these beliefs and also ordered them to pay more than $100,000 for previous scholarships. 

In June, Bethel school filed a lawsuit against the state that this was a violation of their freedom of speech, freedom to exercise religion, religion establishment clauses, and due process and equal protection clauses.  They said that by having the state penalizing the school for its beliefs, they are discriminating against them.  Bethel principal, Claire Dant, said that the school does not ask for a student’s sexual orientation during the admission process and that if someone is gay, ‘it is invisible’.  She said she does not know if any student who is gay has ever gone to her school.   

In the brief that they filed it said that since the school has represented that it will not discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity that the state officials are punishing the schools for its beliefs and expression, violating the First Amendment. 

They also argued that the Supreme Court case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer stated that a private organization cannot be required to renounce its religious character to participate in a public benefit program.  

On November 14th of this year, the state tried to dismiss Bethel’s case, but a federal judge denied this request stating that Bethel had said it does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in its admissions. This case has not been resolved yet.  

This case is very tough because there are cases that can say that both the school and state are discriminating in some cases.  The school could be discriminating against students, but the state is clearly discriminating against the school.  Because of the fact that there is no proof that the school has ever discriminated against a student, and that the school does not ask for a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity, then I am siding with the Bethel school in this case.  Just because the school supports a certain religious belief, does not mean they choose who receives their scholarships based on this.  These students also have the choice of whether or not they can attend this school.  If they do not want to attend because they do not agree with their beliefs, they can choose another non-public school to go to.  Since this money is already going to nonpublic schools, then it is not an issue.  Just because a school has a certain belief, does not mean they are discriminating.  They clearly do not turn anyone away based on their beliefs or identities, because they do not ask anyone on their applications.  They cannot discriminate against information that they do not know.  The school has the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so they have the right to have these views since they are not discriminating against anyone.