While Christian student organizations are being denied funding and recognition at the University of Wisconsin, other religious student groups don’t seem to be having any problems. This week, the La Crosse Tribune is reporting that at UW-Waukesha, the student government recently recognized a pagan student organization that will be seeking $1,500 in student fee funding this year.
It’s likely that the belief-based choices about leadership, membership, and lifestyle made by this pagan group will be very different from those made by a Christian group—and that’s precisely the point. To take away the ability of religious groups to make belief-based choices about important matters defeats the very purpose of forming religious groups in the first place. It’s time that UW and other universities who wish to hamper students’ fundamental religious rights recognize that religious diversity, rather than a stifling uniformity, should be the norm on America’s public college and university campuses.