Would really suck to go to a counseler just for her to be down on you about being gay and try to convert you.

College punished her for anti-gay views, student claims | ajc.com

graduate student has filed a lawsuit accusing Augusta State University officials of violating her constitutional rights by ordering her to change her views opposing homosexuality.

.Jennifer Keeton, a graduate student in the school of counseling, says in her court filing that the school threatened to expel her if she didn't complete a remediation plan that includes diversity sensitivity workshops. Keeton had said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice, according to her suit.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Augusta. The university has not been served with the lawsuit and officials declined to comment on the case, spokeswoman Kathy Schofe said Friday. She did say that the university does not discriminate and has policies in place to protect students if they believe they have been discriminated against.

Keeton is represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian attorneys. The suit accuses Augusta State officials of violating Keeton's First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion.

"A public university student shouldn’t be threatened with expulsion for being a Christian and refusing to publicly renounce her faith, but that’s exactly what’s happening here," David French, senior counsel for the defense fund, said in a news release. "Abandoning one’s own religious beliefs should not be a precondition at a public university for obtaining a degree."

Keeton, who is pursuing a master's degree in the education college's counseling program, was told her beliefs are incompatible with the prevailing views of the counseling profession, her attorneys said in a news release. The lawsuit argues those beliefs would not affect Keeton's ability to counsel gays and lesbians.

The defense fund has filed similar lawsuits against Missouri State University and Eastern Michigan University.

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Counselling: like psychology but you don't even have to pretend that any of this hokum's scientific!

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i'd like to enroll on a counselling course somewhere, espouse some deeply bigotted religious position - like, aids is god's punishment for being gay, then let some christian lawyer's association back me all the way to the highest court in the land then turn around, while the verdict was being considered, to the waiting press corps and say - oh, no no, you're right. that *is* a really really really really really really really stupid thing to believe. i can't believe my lawyers are that stupid! why didn't someone tell us how stupid we were being? i am so stupid! stupid old me! what's that? an interview you say? about how stupid it is to believe stupid things like that? why of course. and one for your friend there too. and perhaps a tv slot. me shaking dawkins' hand? well if you insist...

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Such blatant manipulation, scarcasm, and confession of prior insincerity would be a huge turn-off, PR-wise.

I trust you meant this as just a pleasant daydream and not an actual media strategy.

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Actually, there's a bit of an issue here, as to how far a profession can go towards policing the thoughts of practioneers. There's not much chance she's be hired except by a evangelical Christian school in any case.

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Originally Posted by Benjamin

Such blatant manipulation, scarcasm, and confession of prior insincerity would be a huge turn-off, PR-wise. I trust you meant this as just a pleasant daydream and not an actual media strategy.

i dunno, i think it'd be pretty compelling. obviously i wouldn't ham it up *quite* so much. but a sudden change of heart / reversal of fortune always makes for a good story. combine it with last minute legal judgements, any sort of sexual practice and strident religious fundamentalism and you're on to a winner.

i should get whats-his-face to represent me. i'd make a mint.

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Originally Posted by Benjamin

Actually, there's a bit of an issue here, as to how far a profession can go towards policing the thoughts of practioneers.

Well, clearly, it also depends on the practioners.

My parents are hard core christians and, although they don't believe homosexuality to be a lifestyle choice (anymore?), they certainly view such a lifestyle as incompatible with being Christian - Immoral being slightly different as, while God commandments are seen as moral, it is not the only moral thing in the world. In other words, my parents do agree gays can also be nice, charitable people who are not bent on spreading their sexual mores and satanism...

They're also teachers. They don't refuse to teach atheists, agnostic, muslim or gay kids on the principle that it'd be against their religious pov.

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I think they should let her get her degree. Some private religious school might hire her. They can descriminate all day long.

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Give unto Caesar that what is Caesar's, and lie like hell to keep as much of the rest of your shit as you can.

"If you want something said ask a man...if you want something done, ask a woman" Margaret Thatcher

I am just pointing out it's a gray area. Technically, if you want to be religiously militant, you cannot function in a modern and/or diverse society.

Most believers are nowhere near that obtuse and have long ago made some compromises so that they can function - Or short circuit the issue by declaring that tolerance of unbelievers is actually a virtue, in and of itself.

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