Many things are happening on Vanderbilt's Campus these days. I have heard and read several variations of the situation on campus and it is hard to discern true fact from true opinion.
I know that the Vanderbilt Administration has something called an "all-comers" policy regarding on-campus student groups. That means all students can attend any meeting of a student group. The administration also has a policy that says that religious views cannot be a factor in choosing leadership -- this means that a Catholic or Christian or Jewish student group cannot use "religious views" as a factor in choosing leadership (i.e. President, Vice-President, etc).
A big "Town Hall Meeting" was held a few weeks ago where
Vanderbilt and
bloggers had very different views on how the meeting went. My favorite quote is from a Vanderbilt Law School Professor,
“
What would you think of a Town Hall meeting held in a room too small to accommodate the town, ground rules that don’t allow the opposition 5-10 minutes to present their side, and lastly rigid control over who had access to the microphones? Welcome to deliberative democracy at Vanderbilt University”
I'm not exactly sure what the issue is at Vandy, because I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court just ruled on this exact topic on hiring discrimination. It's literally been less than six weeks since I've heard on the news that the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that religious organizations are allowed to include religious beliefs in their hiring criteria. How is that not the same situation?
I find the whole thing confusing... I don't understand why Vanderbilt doesn't understand that someone who does not have a Christian faith cannot lead others in a Christian faith. This is not rocket science... and they are supposedly, very intelligent professors and administrators...
The ONLY thing that does make sense in this situation, the only thing that makes all the sense in the world is prayer. Vanderbilt needs Prayer right now.
The students. The administration. The student groups. The undergrads. The graduate students. The chancellor. The current student leaders. The future student leaders.
You remember that song, "
It's me, it's me, oh Lord, standin in the need of prayer..." That is what Vanderbilt is crying out right now.
Please pray for this situation... the prayer that never fails, "Lord, Thy Will Be Done!"
Thank you.
