The city of Boston is being sued for religious discrimination. A federal lawsuit filed last week claimed Beantown was prohibiting the flying of the Christian flag while allowing a whopping 284 others, according to Fox News.
The director and co-founder of Camp Constitution, Hal Shurtleff, asked the city for permission to fly the Christian flag during a mere one-hour event for Constitution Day on September 17, 2017. The Christian flag is an inter-denominational symbol. Boston refused Shurtleff’s simple request maintaining that only non-secular flags were allowed to be flown.
Camp Constitution’s director and co-founder told Fox News, “There’s no question that it is an unconstitutional act and originally said it was a violation of the First Amendment, which I find ironic. I’m optimistic the lawsuit will go our way.”
Shurtleff revealed that Beantown would have approved their request if they had labeled the symbol the Camp Constitution flag rather than calling it the Christian flag. The FOx News report stated, “The group was planning an event with pastors encouraging racial reconciliation, freedom in the United States, and celebrating the link between Christianity and the United States, ending with the presentation of the Christian flag.” The event was canceled after Boston made its discriminatory declaration.
The chairman and founder of the Liberty Counsel, Matthew Staver, rebuked the city for the slight, which it made originally in 2018. Liberty Counsel is the religious freedom law firm representing Shurtleff.
In a statement, Staver remarked, “Censoring religious viewpoints in a public forum where secular viewpoints are permitted violates the First Amendment. Boston city officials may not ban the Christian flag as part of a privately sponsored event when they allow any other flag by numerous private organizations. It’s time for the court to stop the city’s unconstitutional censorship.”
Unfortunately, both a federal court and an appeals court has already ruled against Shurtleff. However, the most recent lawsuit consists of new “key facts” that Liberty Counsel feels will “compel a result in Camp Constitution’s favor.”
Unbelievably, while banning the Christian flag, Boston has allegedly green lighted the Turkish flag to be flown on city hall flagpoles 13 times since 2005 according to the recently filed lawsuit. This symbol contains the Islamic star and crescent.
In addition to this blatantly religious flag, Boston has permitted the Communist Chinese flag in commemoration of the anniversary of the Chinese Communist revolution. LGBTQ, transgender, Vatican, and Cuban flags have also been allowed.
The lawsuit contends, “Yet, despite all of these many flag raisings containing religious symbols and imagery, and the City’s allowing of the official flag of the Catholic Church, Camp Constitution’s proposed flag raising was denied because it was ‘religious.’ There can be no dispute that the City’s denial impermissibly discriminated between religion and non-religion, and discriminated between religious sects. Both violate the Establishment Clause.”
In another recent case of religious discrimination, a prominent Christian student group has sued its university. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship claimed Wayne State University targeted it due to its religious beliefs. According to Fox News, the Detroit based institution of higher learning kicked the group off campus in 2017 because it required its leaders to be Christians. Now, this doesn’t seem like a crazy stipulation for an organization, which had interestingly been on campus for an impressive 75 years, with the word Christian in its name.
According to a federal lawsuit, when InterVarsity Christian Fellowship threatened to sue Wayne State University in 2018, the school reversed course. The university maintained the organization is simply utilizing the case to “set a precedent.”
However, Becket, the civil liberties firm the group hired to represent it contended the university still agrees with its earlier interpretation that alleges the group is “discriminating in violating of the law and could be kicked off at any time.”
Inside the courtroom last week, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship member Deaunai Montgomery stated, “We are proud of and love our university, so we were saddened in fall 2017, when Wayne State deregistered our group, canceled our meetings, kicked us out of campus group events, and made us pay thousands of dollars to use campus space that other groups got for free, all simply because we asked that our student leaders believe our Christian faith, just as we have for over 75 years before.”
The student went on to say, “As a Christian, we need our leaders to sincerely believe that what they teach us about Jesus is true. To be clear, we want everyone to feel welcome to attend our group, but why should our Bible studies, prayer, and worship be led by someone who doesn’t believe those things?” A district court is expected to decide on the case this fall.
Sadly, religious discrimination is seemingly on the rise in America. Thankfully, President Trump has made religious freedom issues a priority in his administration. This is yet another reason why the 2020 presidential election is crucial for conservatives.
