More troubles at Southern Illinois University: PC police strikes at Christian student group

Back in April I blogged about Jonathan Bean, a history professor (and the department's sole conservative) who was the victim of a smear campaign. (An optional reading for one of his classes was tagged by his leftist colleagues as racist--and you know what trouble that can lead to!)

This FrontPage Magazine article by Thomas Ryan neatly sums up the Bean controversy.

SIU felt the pressure, as noted in the AP article:

Since then, some professors say they have received nasty e-mails from free-speech advocates and have been the subject of critical newspaper columns. One, written by columnist Cathy Young and published in the Boston Globe Monday, says Bean has been the victim of "a witch hunt that would do the late Joe McCarthy proud."

That AP article came from the Belleville News-Democrat, as does this one.

A group called the Christian Legal Society is no longer a registered group at Southern Illinois University because it's charter violates the school's affirmative action rules.

Here's an excerpt:

A Christian student group filed a federal appeal on Tuesday to be reinstated at the Southern Illinois University School of Law, which revoked the group's registered status because members must pledge to adhere to Christian beliefs.

The law school's Christian Legal Society chapter filed the appeal with the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to challenge a federal judge's July 5 decision to deny the chapter's request to have the university to re-establish the its status while its lawsuit goes forward.

SIU claims the Christian Legal Society chapter's requirement that its voting members and leaders adhere to basic Christian beliefs violates the university's affirmative action policy.

Here's the "best" part:

SIU began looking into the chapter's requirements after a member of another student group, who never attended a Christian Legal Society meeting, read about its policies in a law journal and brought its practices to the attention of administrators, Mattox (the attorney for CLS) said. No student was ever denied a membership or leadership position within the group because of his or her religious beliefs, he said.