{"id":362658,"date":"2026-10-02T07:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362658\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:10:09","slug":"virginia-state-university-accused-of-eliminating-christian-student-ministries-while-muslim-groups-remain-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362658\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia State University accused of eliminating Christian student ministries while Muslim groups remain on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia State University\u00a0(VSU) is facing a federal lawsuit<\/a> from two Christian student organizations that say the school stripped them of their official campus status and placed them under the direct authority of a university-appointed minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher education has really broke from its long-standing desire to promote intellectual diversity and to actually seek truth, and, instead, they are essentially telling students that any disagreement, that certain speech is violence and that hearing difference of opinions on important topics is actually not encouraged. It\u2019s actually discouraged,\u201d Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that higher education is really failing in its primary role, which is to educate the next generation \u2026 how to deal with living in a pluralistic society with people who have different opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys with ADF filed the lawsuit on behalf of campus chapters for Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit challenges VSU\u2019s updated Campus Ministries Policy, which plaintiffs argue\u00a0violates the First Amendment\u00a0by forcing Christian student groups<\/a> under university control while granting exemptions to non-Christian religious groups.<\/p>\n

According to the policy<\/a>, all Christian student-led ministries must operate under the \u201cgovernance and influence\u201d of VSU Campus Minister Thomas Wynn and an advisory board made up of faculty and university personnel. Additionally, the rule bans student ministries from affiliating with their national parent organizations.<\/p>\n

Langhofer told Fox News Digital the policy unconstitutionally penalizes Christian students for their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message that it would send is that the First Amendment means what it says: that you can\u2019t treat secular groups better than religious groups,\u201d Langhofer said. \u201cYou can\u2019t treat one religious group worse than another religious group, regardless of your motives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheTwo Christian student groups filed a lawsuit against Virginia State University, claiming a new policy targets them while exempting Muslim groups. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether your motives are unity or things like that. You can\u2019t have one single campus pastor on campus that is able to control all Christian groups and then exclude the Muslim group and allow them to receive all of the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Non-Christian and Muslim student organizations remain exempt from the mandate, according to the legal filing.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleged that the policy targets Women of Victory and Bethel Campus Fellowship, both local chapters of national organizations that\u00a0host Bible studies, leadership training and spiritual development events for students on and off campus.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThe lawsuit alleges the groups\u2019 First Amendment rights were violated by Christian student groups being kicked off campus, while non-Christian student groups were exempt. Facebook\/ Women of Victory Ministries, Inc.<\/p>\n

Although both groups remain listed on VSU\u2019s official website, ADF representatives noted that the online directory does not reflect their current operational status on campus. <\/p>\n

The student organizations are seeking a court order restoring their status as fully recognized registered student organizations (RSOs).<\/p>\n

Langhofer pointed to \u201ctheological differences\u201d between the campus pastor and the student organizations as a core issue created by the university\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether that\u2019s the fruit of this or not,\u201d Langhofer said regarding the policy\u2019s origins. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it ultimately comes down to is an attempt to control what these groups are doing by the university, rather than allowing these groups to continue to operate in the same fashion as they\u2019ve operated for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He emphasized that decades of legal precedent prohibit public universities from\u00a0targeting groups based on religious viewpoints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court has held for a very long time that all student groups on campus must be treated equally, and you can\u2019t single some out simply because of what they believe,\u201d Langhofer told\u00a0Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

Virginia State University did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia State University\u00a0(VSU) is facing a federal lawsuit from two Christian student organizations that say the school stripped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22331,1692,4660,6211,1208,9,11,10,49,51,50,58,418],"class_list":["post-362658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-christianity","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-first-amendment","tag-islam","tag-media","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-us-news","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}