Federal Judge Upholds Dismissal of Counseling Student Who Refused to Counsel Gay Clients

Over the last two days I have commented on the (in my view, frivolous) lawsuit brought in Georgia by Jennifer Keeton, an apparent Christianist Kool-Aid drinker who believes her rights trump all else and who seems Hell bent to become a self-made Christian martyr. Who knows, maybe she's angling for speaking fees before various Uber-Christian group where she can decry the supposed persecution of Christians. Thus, it is ironic that today a federal court in Michigan basically drop kicked Julea Ward, a would be Christian martyr at Eastern Michigan University, who had played the same persecuted victim card now being played by Ms. Keeton. The U.S. District Court in Detroit upheld the university's expulsion of Julea Ward, a student in a high school counseling program, who refused to participate in a course practicum in a university operated clinic where she had to among other things counsel a gay client. What is truly amazing - and indicative of the self-centeredness of such supposed Christians like Ward and Keeton - is that the student who Ward refused to counsel was suicidal. Yet Ward - whose goal, again, was to counsel high school students where she might have done untold damage - refused to do anything to affirm the gay client or address his depression.
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Apparently, a gay suicide was preferable to Ward than treating the gay student like a human being. As I stated in prior posts, if individuals like Ward and Keeton want to pursue education careers yet refuse to abide by applicable professional ethical rules, they deserve to be expelled. Ward was represented in the lawsuit by the Alliance Defense Fund, a parasitic organization, that uses cases like Ward's and Keeton's to wring money from the ignorant and gullible. Here are highlights from The Chronicle of Higher Education:
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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Eastern Michigan University by a student who was kicked out of its graduate program in school counseling last year for refusing, on religious grounds, to affirm homosexual behavior in serving clients.
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In an order granting summary judgment to the university on Monday, Judge George Caram Steeh of the U.S. District Court in Detroit held that the university's requirement that the student be willing to serve people who are homosexual was reasonable, and did not amount to an infringement of the Christian student's constitutional rights to free speech and free expression of religion.
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The university "had a right and duty to enforce compliance" with professional ethics rules barring counselors from being intolerant or engaging in discrimination, and no reasonable person could conclude that a counseling program's requirement that students comply with such rules "conveys a message endorsing or disapproving of religion," Judge Steeh wrote.
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To maintain accreditation through the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, the program that Ms. Ward was in is required to familiarize its students with the ethics codes set forth by the American Counseling Association and the American School Counselor Association. In refusing to affirm the homosexual behavior of clients, Ms. Ward was accused of violating various provisions of the groups' ethics codes, including prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation and an American Counseling Association rule holding that its members should not demonstrate "an inability to tolerate different points of view."
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Judge Steeh's ruling held that the policy at issue was not a speech code but "an integral part of the curriculum," and that Ms. Ward's dismissal from the program "was entirely due" to her "refusal to change her behavior," rather than her beliefs.
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The ruling said that "instead of exploring options that might allow her to counsel homosexuals about their relationships," Ms. Ward "stated that she would not engage in gay-affirming counseling, which she viewed as helping a homosexual client engage in an immoral lifestyle." The ruling said, "Her refusal to attempt learning to counsel all clients within their own value systems is a failure to complete an academic requirement of the program."

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I hope the Court hearing Keeton's case in Georgia will be equally logical and make it clear that certain careers require adherence to professional codes and that self-centered students who refuse to comply deserve to be expelled. The Christianists' demand for special rights needs to be defeated.