The Christian law school that wasn’t: Canadian Supreme Court rules against Trinity Western University

Today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Trinity Western University, a Christian liberal arts college which has been trying to establish a law school.

From the legal brief:

The Law Societies of British Columbia and Ontario had the power to deny approval to a proposed law school that would have required students to follow a religiously-based code of conduct restricting sexual behaviour, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Students and faculty at TWU are required to follow a code of conduct. Among other things, this code of conduct forbids any sexual relations except for in a marriage between a man and a woman.

After the school was turned down by the two law societies, TWU appealed the decision, which worked its way up to the Supreme Court who ruled against them today.

Quoting again from the legal brief:

The “public interest” included promoting equality by ensuring equal access to the legal profession, supporting diversity within the bar, and preventing harm to LGBTQ law students. Neither Law Society was stopping someone from following his or her own religious beliefs (including following the covenant if s/he wanted to). They only prevented TWU from enforcing beliefs on other members of the law school community.

That last sentence is striking to me. Part of the issue is that TWU would have been “enforcing beliefs on other members of the law school community.” It’s not doing that because people have choice on if they go to that school or not. No other law school in Canada has that policy.

This is a loss for religious liberty in Canada.

Why can’t a law student have an option (one option) to go to a law school with a university that has Christian values at the core of its mission?

Traditional Christian values are often criticize for being intolerant.

In Canada (and largely in the United States), there is this push for LGBT tolerance that is increasing becoming intolerant of views that disagree, especially Christians who disagree.