An appeals court in California ruled this week in favor of a Christian school in an anti-discrimination case.
In September 2005, California Lutheran High School in Wildomar expelled two girls after they admitted to the school principal that they had told other students they were lesbians, and that they had engaged in lesbian conduct with each other -- in direct violation of the school's code of conduct. The girls' parents then filed a lawsuit, claiming discrimination against their daughters.
Christian Legal Society attorney Tim Tracey is handling the case.
"The question before the court was whether or not private religious schools were subject to state anti-discrimination laws," he explains. "[Essentially] does it violate those laws for a private religious school to say we want our students to abide by our beliefs and to live according to rules of conduct that are consistent with those Christian beliefs?"
A lower court and now the 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside have ruled in favor of the school. It remains unclear whether this latest ruling will be appealed to the California Supreme Court, a body that has ruled in favor of special rights for homosexuals the past several years. That concerns Tracey.
"When the question before it is gay rights versus religious freedom, the California Supreme Court said 'we go with gay rights,'" says Tracey. "And this is obviously a case that I can see the California Supreme Court being very eager to take and to rule on."
The case is Doe v. California Lutheran High School Association.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
