Tag Archives: University

Jewish Student Senate Candidate Faces Anti-Semitic Questions

A group at Stanford University is coming under fire after a Jewish students who was seeking their endorsement for her student senate campaign was given an anti-Semitic question.

Molly Horwitz, during an interview with the school’s Students of Color Coalition, was asked if her strong Jewish identity would influence the way she voted on issues related to Israel.

Horwitz, who was born in Paraguay, had already submitted to the group an application where she had to explain reconciling her identity both as a Latina and a Jew.  She told the Anti-Defamation league and Stanford officials that she felt the questioning of her Jewish identity was “over the line.”

“It is not OK that they brought my Jewish identity into this and implied it might impact my decision-making ability,” Horwitz said in an email to the J. weekly. “I interpreted the question as anti-Semitic.”

Horwitz wrote an op-ed in the Stanford Daily asking for an apology from the group and admitted the question completely rattled her.

“The rest of the interview was a blur to me. I barely kept it together. As soon as I left the interview room I began shaking and hyperventilating. I replayed the incident over and over in my mind.”

The SOCC claims that the question was not a “litmus test” and that religious identity had nothing to do with the question.  The group refused to endorse Horwitz.

“We’ve seen this now on a number of campuses … [Jewish students] feeling like their Jewish identity is being called into question in terms of their ability to serve on various student bodies and to be impartial representatives,” said Vlad Khaykin, associate regional director of the ADL’s San Francisco-based Central Pacific Region.

Supreme Court Justice Grants Abortion Pill Relief

A Supreme Court justice has given temporary relief to two religious groups that objected to the compromise to the abortion pill mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

Geneva College of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and the Roman Catholic dioceses in Erie and Pittsburgh along with their affiliated organizations.  The groups sued the Obama administration because the so-called “compromise” still required them to provide abortion-inducing drugs.

The University of Notre Dame had previously filed a lawsuit over the same issue.

“Signing such a form or letter facilitates moral evil,” the groups wrote in legal briefs. “This is true whether or not applicants pay for the objectionable coverage.”

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted temporary relief and ordered the Obama administration to respond to the appeal by Monday.

The Supreme Court has already remanded the Notre Dame ruling to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to be reconsidered in light of the 2014 Hobby Lobby stations.

Johns Hopkins Reverses Decision Banning Pro-Life Display

Johns Hopkins has announced they are reversing a decision that banned a pro-life display from campus.

The display, which had been part of the university’s “Spring Fair” for 30 years, was initially banned until a call from Fox News to the school asking why the JHU Voice for Life student group was denied a chance to post the display.

The group’s display, which shows unborn children in various stages of development, was called “disturbing” by a student committee.

“We’ve reviewed your pictures with our advisers and have determined that your display contains triggering and disturbing images and content,” read an email the committee sent to JHU Voice for Life.

Andrew Guernsey, president of the pro-life group, told Fox News that abortion is disturbing and that’s the reason they need to post the display.  He also pointed out that it was odd a school that’s famous for medicine would be calling the display offensive.

“I certainly find it ironic that a university that has dedicated itself to the advancement of medicine and biology would find displaying medically accurate fetal models disturbing and offensive,” Guernsey said.

The committee responded to Fox News’ inquiry by stating “We… were wrong in our initial decision and, upon further reflection, have decided we will not impose restrictions on the displays presented by any community groups at Spring Fair… The committee values free speech.”

Vandals Deface Pro-Life Display At Clarion University

Vandals defaced and destroyed crosses that were part of a pro-life display at a Pennsylvania university.

Students for Life at Clarion University played the crosses.  The 350 crosses were part of a display called “Cemetery of the Innocents” and each represented 10 aborted children that day.

Overnight, a number of the crosses were pulled out of the ground and thrown in trashcans.  Others were defaced with messages indicating their connection to activists against a recent Indiana religious freedom law.

The crosses were also placed in a manner that is a traditional anti-Christian placement.

“[All] 350 crosses were pulled up and re-inserted in inverted fashion, a well-known anti-Christian symbol,” the group Students for Life reported. “Additionally, red paint was splattered on crosses and signs. Even eerier was the mock bloody footprints of an infant painted in front of the display.”

“Pro-Choice” was written on the sidewalk near the mock footprints of an infant.

University police claim they are investigating the act.

“I ask that as a community of educators and students, we come together and reflect upon our commitment to our rights and responsibilities of expression,” university President Karen Whitney said in a statement. “I ask that we use dialogue and discussion to engage very differing viewpoints in ways that leave all of us better for the experience.”

The display has since been restored.

Anti-Life Students Demand Abortion Display Be Removed

A group of students opposed to a display of crosses posted by a pro-life group at the University of Texas at Arlington is demanding the school remove the display.

The group of anti-life activists claim that the display of crosses represents Christianity and thus is “culturally insensitive” to a “diverse campus.”

“Every cross is supposed to represent an unborn child, but not necessarily every child that is aborted is Christian,” petition organizer Ashley Radovcich told The Shorthorn, the campus newspaper. “And therefore, they’re being culturally insensitive, especially since we’re the fifth most diverse campus in America.”

“They need to be more culturally sensitive to religions and cultures on campus,” she reiterated. “I mean, by all means, they should represent their views—freedom of speech … but they should also be more aware of what they’re putting out to the public.”

“When I’m looking at this, they’re basically telling us that we can go to Hell just for having options,” sophomore Olivia Frost added.

The group that placed the crosses, Pro-Life Mavericks, said the 2,900 crosses represent the number of children killed each day by abortion.  This is the second year of the display, which also received hostile backlash from anti-life students the previous year.

Adam Fogel of Pro-Life Mavericks told Chrisitan News that the biggest surprise to their group was not the anti-life protesters who held signs in front of the display, but the number of students who said they were unaware of the number of babies killed via abortion.

“Many people had no idea that abortion was this common and this much of a problem in the states,” he said.

The student group says they will erect the display again next year despite the hostile response.

Teen Drinks Lotion For Two Days Hiding From Islamist Massacre

Surviving by drinking lotion while hiding in a closet, a Kenyan teenager is praising God for surviving the brutal attack by Islamic terrorists on a University in Garissa.

Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, spoke to reporters at a local hospital after being treated for dehydration and malnourishment.

“I was just praying to my God, saying that if it has come to my day, it has reached. But if it not yet, let God decide whatever He likes,” she said.

She said that she chose the closet after the Islamist gunmen yelled any student hiding under their beds would “come out very fast.”  She covered herself with clothes so that a quick check of the closet wouldn’t reveal her presence.

She said that when she began to feel hungry and thirsty, her only option was a bottle of body oil.

Cynthia was so terrified that she did not believe at first the Kenyan military forces were actually there to help her.  The troops had to find a teacher to explain to the girl that it was safe to leave the closet.

The Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab admitted the attack which was targeting Christian students.  Witnesses said that the terrorists would ask who the student worshiped and if they answered Christ they were shot on the spot.

Death Toll In Kenyan University Attack Rises Over 140

Kenyan officials have confirmed the death toll in the Islamic terrorist attack on Garissa University has reached 147.

Witnesses say that the terrorists appear to have had excessive planning because the first place targeted was a lecture hall where Christians would meet for early morning prayers.

“They investigated our area. They knew everything,” Helen Titus told The Associated Press at a hospital in Garissa where she was being treated for a bullet wound to the wrist.  Titus said she put her classmate’s blood and hair on her face and laid still to make the attackers believe she was dead.

The terrorists also called for studnets to come out, saying they would not kill women.  They shot men on site if they said they were not Muslim.

The terrorists confirmed they were targeting Christians.

“We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for the group Al-Shabaab, which took responsibility for the armed assault, announced. “There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building.”

Terrorists Kill 70 In Attack on Kenyan College

A group of masked terrorists have killed at least 70 people and taken hostages after attacking Garissa University in Kenya.

The Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab claimed the assault and said they were targeting the Christians at the school.

“We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” said terrorist spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab.  “There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building. We are also holding many Christians alive. Fighting still goes on inside the college.”

Witnesses say that the terrorists had snipers on top of buildings to shoot those who were fleeing the dormitories during the attack.  Soldiers reportedly ordered the students to dive for cover as they escaped the building.

The terrorists say they are also holding a number of female Christians alive as hostages.

The vice chariman of the student union told Fox News that the gunmen were asking people about their faith.

“If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot,” he said. “With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.”

The terrorist group has targeted Kenya after that nation contributed forces to the African Union that drove Al-Shabaab from major cities in Somalia.

Christian Fraternity Loses Status

Chi Alpha, a Christian student fraternity that exists to “reconcile students to Christ, equipping them through Spirit-filled communities of prayer, worship, fellowship, discipleship and mission to transform the university, the marketplace and the world”, has lost its fraternity status at the California State University-Stanislaus because they required their leaders to be Christians.

The university claims that the Christian group requiring their leaders to affirm their Christian beliefs violates the school’s non-discrimination policy.

Matthew Jacob, Turlock City Councilman, feels the group is being treated unfairly.

“It’s nothing less than religious discrimination,” he told CBS Sacramento. “It goes against the very purpose of the organization to begin with,” Jacob added, “to have somebody that doesn’t even uphold that faith system to be teaching and mentoring other students in that capacity.”

“Cal State Stanislaus allows fraternities to limit their leaders and members to men,” said Adèle Keim, Legal Counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, in a press release. “So why can’t a religious group require its student religious leaders to practice what they preach? We call on Cal State to reinstate the Chi Alpha chapter immediately.”

Supreme Court Remands Notre Dame Contraception Suit

Lower court justices who voted to deny Notre Dame’s religious rights will have to take a second look at their ruling after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out their decision.

The justices of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is being ordered to reconsider their decision in favor of the Obama Administration blocking Notre Dame’s request to have an exemption to the President’s signature health care law’s mandate of abortion causing drugs.

The Supreme Court said the 7th Circuit needed to take into account the court’s 2014 ruling in the Hobby Lobby case.

The Notre Dame case is the only appeals court decision that was issued prior to the Hobby Lobby ruling.  In other cases, the judges have upheld the rights of the Christian organizations to not pay for abortion causing drugs.

The school said their rights were protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.