The largest homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy and propaganda organization in the United States is coming after Christian colleges. Whether the college is Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, non-denominational or charismatic, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) will be coming after them if they refuse to deny fundamental Christian doctrines. These advocates of a new social order don’t want them teaching that marriage is a relation of one man and one woman, homosexual conduct is immoral, and the sexual difference between male and female is a given and a gift.

The organization’s well-funded. It raised close to forty million dollars in 2014. It’s also increasingly politically influential. The HRC’s recent endorsement of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, as well as her glowing praise of the group when she got the endorsement, speaks volumes.

The HRC recently announced that it wants the federal government to expand Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to the Civil Rights Act which prohibits discrimination based on sexual difference in any educational institution that accepts federal funds. The implementing regulations of the Education Amendments Act allow an exemption when religious institutions can demonstrate that following a Title IX requirement would conflict with their religious doctrine, including religiously-based moral codes. Exemptions have been granted to Christian colleges across the confessional spectrum.

Supposedly “Hidden,” Dangerous Discrimination

The HRC views the Christian moral code as a “hidden” form of discrimination that puts “LGBT students at risk,” as it claims in the title of a new paper attacking the exemptions. The group sees respect for conscience in these matters as a violation of the students’ human rights.

Admitting in a press release that the Department of Education “has little discretion to deny these requests for exemptions,” it still demands that the department “publicly document for students and Congress which colleges are claiming their ability to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and to require each institution to make publicly available the exemptions they request and obtain so that students know their rights.”

The 56 colleges that have requested exemptions range across the Christian spectrum. The list includes Baptist institutions like Union, Criswell and Liberty, Methodist schools like Asbury and, Catholic schools like Franciscan, Dallas and Belmont Abbey, as well as Quaker (George Fox), Reformed (Dordt), Presbyterian (Covenant), Christian and Missionary Alliance (Toccoa Falls) and others. The HRC’s list doesn’t include well-known schools like Wheaton, Baylor or Catholic University.

More and more schools are asking for these exemptions. In his preface to the report Hidden Discrimination, HRC’s president Chad Griffin admits that “federal law does not explicitly protect students on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity from discrimination.” He and the HRC believe “there is more the government can do to hold these schools accountable and ensure students, parents, employees, and the public have all the facts.”

Then he makes clear that this is only a first step: “This resource is just the beginning of our advocacy on this issue, and we will continue to push for full equality for all LGBT people, at school, at work, and in the communities they call home.” For now, the HRC is just asking that schools that hold to Christian moral teaching be exposed. But the group will keep working to make sure those schools someday have to do what the HRC wants, in violation of their beliefs.

The HRC’s Reasons

Why? The Human Rights Campaign is a leader in what we’ve called the “gender identity movement.” That movement rejects the notion that there is any real difference (philosophers call it an ontological difference) between men and women.

The movement insists that gender is fluid and solely within the prerogative of the individual. The movement wants civil and criminal law, at the state and the federal level, to recognize a “right” to choose one’s gender — and to change one’s mind about it at any time. It wants Christian institutions to accommodate, fund, and enforce this newly minted “right to choose.” It seeks to use the police power of the state against institutions that do not comply. 

The HRC thinks the law is moving its way. As it says in the press release for the publication of Hidden Discrimination, there is “a growing recognition that Title IX protects students on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation – including recent case law, Department of Education guidance, and school district settlements that support the use of it by LGBT students seeking legal recourse.” The HRC wants this “protection” to apply to Christian institutions, despite the first amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.

The Human Rights Campaign effort against Christian Colleges is only one example of a growing national hostility toward faithful Christians, across the confessional spectrum. They’re starting small, but as Chad Griffin says, this is only a start. Worse is to come.