Foot-washing on Georgia campus akin to 'hazing'?

Foot-washing on Georgia campus akin to 'hazing'?

A federal judge has denied a request by Savannah State University to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Christian student group. The school had accused the group of "harassment" and "hazing" in its acts of evangelism and service, and a few months later kicked the group off campus.

The lawsuit was filed in March by the group, Commissioned II Love, after Savannah State officials formally expelled it from campus, saying the club had violated its suspension. That suspension came in April 2006 when officials claimed the group's act of sharing the gospel amounted to "harassment" and that its practice of washing the feet of new members, as Christ did with his disciples, amounted to "hazing." On Friday a federal judge in Georgia ruled against a request from the university to dismiss the group's lawsuit.

Joseph Martins is litigation staff counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which -- along with the National Legal Foundation -- represents the student group. Martins says school officials suspended the group last year after offended students filed a complaint with the police about the group.

"The university got the police report, and without a hearing, they suspended Commissioned II Love," the attorney explains. He says that even though the school's policies state that before any sort of sanctions would be imposed, an administrative hearing would be held -- "sort of a innocent-before-proven guilty" approach, says Martins -- the school "did not take those steps in this case."

In fact, according to ADF, the University charged that foot washing was "an activity which endangers or is likely to endanger the physical health of a student, regardless of the student's willingness to participate in such activity" -- and that because members of the group shared their faith with other students, that was tantamount to "harassment."

The Christian club must be defended, says Martins. "Public colleges and universities are allowing every type of speech or activity or expression under the sun -- until it has anything to do with faith," he laments. "And once you have a faith-based organization, a Christian organization coming out there and expressing their faith, that's when the policies start getting kicked into place and that's when these organizations get punted and get treated differently than everybody else."

Martins says it is "ridiculous" that any university would "boot" a Christian student club from campus simply for exercising its First Amendment right to free speech.

The lawsuit Commissioned II Love v. Yarbrough was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.