Newman Society’s Dan Guernsey Discusses Cancel Culture, Critical Race Theory on ‘Catholic Current’

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Preserving the Catholic worldview in Catholic education means rejecting today’s “cancel culture” and refusing to be compromised by critical race theory, explained Dr. Dan Guernsey, Education Policy Editor and Senior Fellow of The Cardinal Newman Society, on “The Catholic Current” show with Father Robert McTeigue, S.J.

The show aired on July 19 on The Station of the Cross radio. The podcast recording of the 50-minute conversation is available on the Station of the Cross website and on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics related to cancel culture and critical race theory, including defining the two issues, how they fit into social practices today, how they have affected Catholic education and the appropriate response from Catholic educators and parents.

Critical race theory, Guernsey said, “is not about racism.”

“We all agree and have been trying for many years to stop the sin of racism wherever it is found. We’ve all been fighting this for decade. This is not about racism; this is about replacing one worldview with another.”

As Father McTeigue noted, cancel culture and critical race theory “really aren’t compatible with the Catholic worldview.”

“Cancel culture comes in, [because] they have to cancel the existing worldview,” Guernsey said. “The existing Christian worldview that we’re trying to present in Catholic schools, that’s precisely what they’re trying to cancel.”

Guernsey and Dr. Denise Donohue, Vice President for Educator Resources at The Cardinal Newman Society, recently authored a series of resources for educators and parents regarding the dangers of cancel culture and critical race theory when applied to a Catholic education.

Suggested Standards of Christian Anthropology to Address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in Catholic Education

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Teachers working in Catholic education can use these Standards for Christian Anthropology along with The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusivity from a Catholic worldview. These standards help students see themselves and each other through God’s eyes and will allow them to come to know the importance of communion with each other and with God; that man was made for communion, and not division, and will find true happiness when he makes a complete gift of himself to others and to God.

Standards

  • Express that every person is a gift from God. 1.1.3 TOB
  • Recognize that all creatures are a sign of God’s gift in love. 2.1.1 TOB
  • Relate how we learn more about ourselves through our relationships with others. 2.3.1 TOB
  • Discuss reasons why God made man male and female in Gen. 1:27 and Gen. 2:18-22a. 2.3.2 TOB
  • Explain how original nakedness refers to seeing the world and others as God sees; as Gift. 5.4.1 TOB
  • Define “original nakedness” as experiencing the true and clear vision of the person; as gift and in God’s image. 6.4.1 TOB
  • Exhibit the virtue of reverence for God, his creation, and other people by treating them with respect and honor, for God is all good and his creation is a good gift. 6.4.2 TOB
  • Discuss how we are created in the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God. 2.5.1 TOB
  • Extrapolate how man is created in God’s image through the communion of persons. 4.5.1 TOB
  • Contrast how God can enable people to view the world and others as gifts with how some people view the world and others as a threat, eliciting a response of selfishness and manipulation. 3.6.1 TOB
  • Explain gift-of-self as thoughts, words or actions that place oneself at the service of others and seek the true good of the other. 6.6.1 TOB
  • Discuss how the character of a person is embodied in their comportment. 2.7.1 TOB
  • Analyze how the body reveals that each person is made for relationship with God, others, and the world. 2.8.1 TOB
  • Explain how the human body is a visible sign (a “sacrament”) of God’s invisible love. 6.8.1 TOB
  • Recognize that each person is unique and unrepeatable. 1.11.1 TOB
  • Recognize that God calls us to make a gift of ourselves in love. 1.11.2 TOB
  • Propose how a “communion of persons” involves the loving gift-of-self (i.e., the Trinity, but also the unity of the Church, the family and the unity of man and woman) 7.5.1 TOB

Suggested Catholic Curriculum Standards to Address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in Catholic Education

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Teachers working in Catholic education can use these standards taken from The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusivity from a Catholic worldview. These Standards help educators go deeper into a discussion of how God works throughout all time and space and how He is present today in creation and in the very being of those we interact with daily who have been given varied gifts and talents to share. God, by His own design, does not give to all the same qualities and characteristics but gives each person their own unique set of gifts and talents so that we might learn generosity and interdependency (CCC 1936-1937).   

Teachers might also consider incorporating the Standards for Christian Anthropology to provide students with a deeper understanding of what is means to be a person and a beautiful gift from God to the world and to one another.

Catholic Curriculum General Standards:

  • Exhibit care and concern at all stages of life for each human person as an image and likeness of God (S.K6 GS1; S.712 GS1)
  • Value the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit (S.K6 GS3; S.712 GS3)

Catholic Curriculum Dispositional Standards:

  • Exhibit affinity for the common good and a shared humanity with those present, those who have gone before, and those who will come after (H.K6 DS2; H712 DS2).
  • Demonstrate respect and solicitude to individual differences among students in the classroom and school community (H.K6 DS3).
  • Accept and value how literature aids one to live harmoniously with others (ELA.K6 DS1).
  • Evaluate the aesthetics (idea of beauty) of different cultures and times to better appreciate the purpose and power of both cultural and transcendent notions of the beautiful (H.712 DS3).
  • Discriminate between what is positive in the world with what needs to be transformed and what injustices need to be overcome (H.K6 DS4).
  • Justify how history, as a medium, can assist in recognizing and rejecting contemporary cultural values that threaten human dignity and are contrary to the Gospel message (H.712 DS5).
  • Demonstrate respect and appreciation for the qualities and characteristics of different cultures in order to pursue peace and understanding, knowledge and truth (H.712 DS6).
  • Develop empathy, care, and compassion for a character’s crisis or choice in order to transcend oneself, build virtue, and better understand one’s own disposition and humanity (ELA.712 DS2).
  • Display a sense of the “good” by examining the degree in which characters significantly possess or lack the perfections proper to a) their nature as human persons, b) their proper role in society as understood in their own culture or the world of the text, c) the terms of contemporary culture, and d) the terms of Catholic tradition and moral norms (ELA.712 DS6).

Catholic Curriculum Content Standards Grades 1-6

  • Describe how history begins and ends in God and how history has a religious dimension (H.K6 IS1).
  • Explain the human condition and the role and dignity of man in God’s plan (H.K6 IS8).
  • Explain how historical events involving critical human experiences, especially those dealing with good and evil, help enlarge perspective and understanding of self and others (H.K6 IS10).
  • Summarize how literature can reflect the historical and sociological culture of the time period in which it was written to help us better understand ourselves and other cultures (ELA.K6 IS11).

Catholic Curriculum Standards Grades 7-12

  • Analyze cultures to show how they give expression to the transcendental aspects of life, including reflection on the mystery of the world and the mystery of humanity (H.712 IS5).
  • Demonstrate the ways men and societies change and/or persist over time to better understand the human condition (H.712 IS8).
  • Develop an historical perspective and intellectual framework to properly situate each academic discipline, not only in its own developmental timeline, but also within the larger story of historical, cultural, and intellectual development (H.712 IS6).
  • Demonstrate the ways men and societies change and/or persist over time to better understand the human condition (H.712 IS8).
  • Describe how the moral qualities of a citizenry naturally give rise to the nature of the government and influence societal outcomes and destinies (H.712 IS13).
  • Relate how the development of a broader viewpoint of history and events affects individual experiences and deepens a sense of being and the world (H.712 IS14).
  • Examine texts for historical truths, recognizing bias or distortion by the author and overcoming a relativistic viewpoint (H.712 IS17).
  • Evaluate how Christian social ethics extend to questions of politics, economy, and social institutions and not just personal moral decision-making (H.712 IS20).
  • Analyze the concept of solidarity and describe its effect on a local, regional, and global level (H.712 IS22).
  • Compare the right to own private property with the universal distribution of goods and the distribution of goods in a socialist society (H.712 IS23).
  • Identify the dangers of relativism present in the notion that one culture cannot critique another, and that truth is simply culturally created (H.712 IS27).
  • Explain from a Catholic perspective how literature addresses critical questions related to man, such as: How ought men live in community with each other? What are an individual’s rights, duties, freedoms, and restraints? What are a society’s? What is the relationship between man and God? Between man and the physical world? What is the nature of human dignity and the human spirit? What is love? What is the good life? (ELA.712 IS4).
  • Summarize how literature can reflect the historical and sociological culture of the time period in which it was written and help better understand ourselves and other cultures and times (ELA.712 IS11).

Statement on ruling in Starkey v. Roncalli High School and Archdiocese of Indianapolis

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The Cardinal Newman Society hailed Wednesday’s federal court ruling in Starkey v. Roncalli High School and Archdiocese of Indianapolis as a “landmark ruling with enormous implications for Catholic education and its First Amendment right to expect fidelity and moral behavior from all employees, not just teachers, whose duties impact the Christian formation of students.”

The ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana upholds the ministerial exception according to last summer’s Supreme Court ruling in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. But the Supreme Court case concerned a lawsuit filed by a religion teacher in a Catholic school. The Indiana case is an important development, because it affirms that the federal court cannot interfere in the employment decisions of a Catholic school regarding its guidance counselor.

The case involves Lynn Starkey, who attempted to sue Roncalli High School and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. She was fired from her job as Co-Director of Guidance when she entered into a same-sex union, a clear violation of Catholic moral teaching and of moral standards for Catholic school employees.

“Wednesday’s ruling is a landmark ruling with enormous implications for Catholic education and its First Amendment right to expect fidelity and moral behavior from all employees, not just teachers, whose duties impact the Christian formation of students,” said Patrick Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society.

“Catholic schools must have the freedom to hire educators and other employees who model the teachings of the Church. Catholic schools around the country should take an example from Roncalli High School and the policies of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, which have clear moral standards for Catholic school employees. As this case shows, courts will uphold religious freedom when they see consistent application of Catholic moral standards.”

Newman Society President Discusses Critical Race Theory, Catholic Education on Crisis Point Podcast

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The Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly was recently hosted on the Crisis Point Podcast with Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, to discuss why critical race theory is incompatible with Catholic education.

The 45-minute discussion is a helpful guide for Catholic families, leaders and educators on how to avoid dangerous ideologies in Catholic education and instead embrace the wisdom of Church teaching.

“Whether it’s radical feminism, gender ideology or critical race theory,” public schools are vulnerable to the latest ideologies, because they have no solid foundation for their curriculum and must yield to prevailing social trends, explained Reilly.

“With Catholic education, we need to focus on ‘What is Catholic education? What do we do better and why?’” Reilly continued. “If we want to talk about race in Catholic education, which we absolutely should and must, we already have all of the tools in our belt—a couple thousand years of wisdom rooted in the absolute truth of Revelation.”

The Newman Society has recently published resources addressing the “cancel culture” and critical race theory, authored by Vice President for Educator Resources Dr. Denise Donohue and Education Policy Editor and Senior Fellow Dr. Dan Guernsey. Reilly and Sammons also discussed The Newman Society’s work in general, including The Newman Guide, which recommends faithful Catholic colleges. Sammons described The Newman Guide as a “great resource for Catholics everywhere.”

“As the parent of now four who have either gone to college or are in college right now, I tell you what, it’s a great Guide,” said Sammons. “In our family… our rule is we aren’t going to help financially, unless they’re in The Newman Guide.”

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Wrong Way to Teach About Race in Catholic Education

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Human dignity and justice were topics in Catholic education long before the racial division of 2020. They are especially important today, as students need to understand an accurate history of racism and prejudices, learn Christian anthropology that teaches the dignity of all persons regardless of creed or color or origin, and strive for the communion to which Christ calls all of us.

And teaching these topics will remain central to Catholic education long after “critical race theory” has gone away.

But for now, the divisive, political ideology that seems opposed to nearly everything in Western civilization — simply because it is associated with white Europeans — is making headway into public schools. It’s difficult to thwart such efforts by activists, politicians and teacher unions to push false ideologies into public schools, because there is no clear authority or basis for truth in public education — only political power and public opinion.

But Catholic education is different. It is rooted in the truths of our faith, which reveal the foundations of reality, and it embraces classical philosophy and the West’s insights about human society, freedom, conscience, law and more. Therefore, Catholic education and critical race theory are simply incompatible.

There is a “radical disconnect between the Catholic worldview and critical race ideology,” which is why Catholic educators “must remain vigilant and faithful” to avoid allowing falsehood and division from corrupting the classroom, explain Dr. Denise Donohue and Dr. Dan Guernsey of The Cardinal Newman Society in their appeal against the “cancel culture.”

“Critical race theory misapplies personal sin to groups, irredeemably condemns those it labels as oppressors, condemns those who may happen to look like those oppressors, and makes moral demands of those it believes have privilege resulting from historic oppression,” write Donohue and Guernsey. “It also attempts to empower itself by manipulating race-based feelings of guilt and self-loathing in those in any way it connects to these claims. It provides these group-based sinners with a chance to feel righteous and pure in relation to their fellows once they acknowledge their guilt.”

This is “close to the heart of the pharisees whom [Christ] criticizes for their condemning legalism and self-righteousness.” But Catholic education strives to provide students “a clear understanding of sin and human agency and Christ’s expectations of those whom He has forgiven.”

Rather than adopting critical race theory, Catholics should rely on clear instruction provided in Vatican documents, the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letters, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to address complex topics like justice and human dignity. We have more than 2,000 years of wisdom to draw from!

“Catholic education offers Christ and the Gospel to the world as the ultimate solution to the sufferings and ills of humanity, including areas of social justice,” write Donohue and Guernsey. “The Church does not simply echo programs and agendas inspired by others’ values but brings to the table her own values of faith, forgiveness, mercy, and justice based on the divine revelation she is called to proclaim to all nations.”

Another concern is that critical race theory would trade studies in classical literature for contemporary books that are “shallow” and “politically correct.”

“Great literature provides a forum to explore the depths of the human condition,” explain Guernsey and Donohue. “Unfortunately cruelty, oppression and injustice are a perennial part of that condition. Educators wishing to explore these and related concepts will find no shortage of them throughout classical literature, where students can enter into a grand conversation through the ages with the best thinkers and most artful works humanity has produced.”

Classical literature and Catholic education have withstood the test of time. Critical race theory may have some popularity today, but not for long.

In a culture that constantly embraces new and even radical ideologies, Catholic students need to be taught how to find and hold onto truth across every division and through every age. They should be taught truth especially in the most divisive and heated situations. While critical race theory seeks to divide the world into racial categories, faithful Catholic education by promoting charity, community and rational dialogue can bring about healing through a deep encounter with the Divine Physician.

This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register.

10 Ways Catholic Education and Critical Race Theory Are Incompatible

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Today America continues to struggle with the consequences of the terrible sin of slavery and the injustice of racism. With confidence in Christ, Catholic education teaches God’s will for humanity and helps students rise above hatred and injustice. But critical race theory promotes a false political ideology that aims to divide rather than heal American society.

The following are 10 ways Catholic education and critical race theory are simply incompatible, summarized from the Newman Society’s Principles of Catholic Identity, Catholic Curriculum Standards and “Background on Critical Race Theory and Critical Theory for Catholic Educators” by Dr. Denise Donohue.

  1. Catholic education teaches from the truths of our faith and Christian anthropology. But critical race theory is a political, divisive ideology that is antithetical to the Catholic worldview.
  2. Catholic education teaches the dignity of all people, made in the image and likeness of God. But critical race theory has its origins in critical theory, a Marxist inspired movement that views all things through the lens of power and divides society into oppressors and the oppressed. Critical race theory marks this division according to racial lines.
  3. Charity and community are central to the mission of Catholic education. But critical race theory promotes division and forces people into competing racial groups.
  4. Catholic education conforms consciences to Christ and His Church. But critical race theory imputes unconscious bias upon persons and deems racism a permanent condition.
  5. Catholic education teaches that sin is an individual fault that can have devastating social impact. But critical race theory imputes guilt for “social sins” committed in the past.
  6. Catholic education teaches the unity of faith and reason and helps students know and live the truth. But critical race theory is skeptical of objective truth and rejects the Western intellectual tradition. It places individual experience and cultural constructivism over reason.
  7. Catholic education recognizes individual autonomy and cultivates students’ capacity for reason, without regard to skin color. But critical race theory assumes that race defines how one thinks and looks at the world.
  8. Catholic education observes human accomplishments and failings according to a Catholic worldview, by which racism is one element of a fallen and redeemed nature. But critical race theory demands that history be taught through the lens of race, power and privilege.
  9. Catholic education favors literature that promotes understanding of the human condition across time and culture. But critical race theory demands that classic texts be set aside for contemporary literature that is narrowly focused on race and social deconstruction.
  10. Catholic education respects the natural and religious rights of parents to direct the formation of their children in collaboration with the school. But critical race theory manipulates education to form children according to its narrow ideology and to reshape culture.

10 Ways Catholic Education Counters ‘Cancel Culture’

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Catholic education is different: its mission is rooted in the truth and salvific mission of the Catholic Church, and it forms young people for sainthood. When addressing sensitive topics—like race or sexuality—Catholic education must never shy away from the truth about man and God. Truth is the foundation of charity and community.

The following are 10 ways a faithful Catholic education counters the toxic “cancel culture” and false ideology, summarized from the Newman Society’s Principles of Catholic Identity, Catholic Curriculum Standards and “Catholic Education’s Call in the Face of ‘Cancel Culture’” by Dr. Dan Guernsey and Dr. Denise Donohue.

1) Embraces a Catholic worldview, where faith and culture enrich and speak to each other. Always leads with Jesus, “the inexhaustible source of personal and communal perfection.”

2) Uses faithfully Catholic materials, always wary of speakers, materials, and programs that deny Catholic teaching, promote division, blame one particular group or culture for all the ills of humanity, seek vengeance, or stifle free speech and religious freedom.

3) Relates discussions to a Catholic understanding of the human person through a clear and convincing Christian anthropology. Affirms human creation by God as male or female and the union of body and spirit, as well as the common humanity and destiny of all peoples as originating with God and part of His design.

4) Relates discussions to Catholic social teaching, including the dignity of all persons, the sacredness of human life, the sanctity of marriage and its importance to human society and human fraternity amid national, racial, ethnic, economic, gender, and ideological differences.

5) Helps students discover the religious dimension in human history. Compares the actions of peoples according to Catholic morality and virtues but also the level of development of a person or culture and the conditions, knowledge, and understanding of the time.

6) Teaches students to analyze the morality of human acts, including separating the sin and the sinner. Helps them properly attribute degrees of culpability based on individual awareness and freedom, not generalizations about group behaviors. Affirms the possibly of repentance and forgiveness.

7) Teaches logic and reason to uncover objective truth, especially when emotions run hot. Promotes dialogue not for its own sake, but as a means of pursuing truth and unity.

8) Teaches Catholic values and concepts of charity, forgiveness, mercy, justice, and the common good. Shuns sins of calumny, pride, detraction, and rash judgment. Carefully selects music, art, movies, and literature to develop empathy, helping students enter into another’s suffering without directly experiencing it.

9) Avoids compounding tension and division, especially by the use of loaded language. Avoids politically charged terms and symbols that lack nuance, have distinct meanings for different people, promote an “all in” approach to complex social flashpoints, or emphasize conflict or political power. Carefully defines terms within a Catholic context and vocabulary.

10) Avoids replacing academic pursuits with activism and allowing curricula to be driven by the news cycle. Does not force students into protests, compel them to identify with morally ranked categories, or require activities to make them feel the pain of discrimination.

Statement from the Cardinal Newman Society on 7th Circuit Ruling in Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Paris

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In a very important victory today for religious freedom, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-3 in Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish (July 9, 2021) that the ministerial exception bars “hostile work environment” claims.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled directly on this point, so the 7th Circuit’s decision is extremely important to Catholic educators and other religious employers.

“This ruling protects faithful Catholic educators and other religious employers from at least some lawsuits, which is especially helpful given the relentless drive to redefine sex discrimination as prohibiting Catholic beliefs about sex, gender and marriage,” said Patrick Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The ministerial exception helps preserve the authentic mission of Catholic educators and all religious organizations.”

The Cardinal Newman Society is excited to have played an important role in the case, filing an amicus brief last October that was prepared by Christian Poland of the Chicago firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP and John Bursch and Rory Gray of Alliance Defending Freedom. The brief helped persuade the full 7th Circuit Court to reconsider and overturn a dangerous 2-1 decision by a panel of the court’s judges, which would have allowed employees fired for moral reasons to work around the ministerial exception by claiming a “hostile workplace” instead of directly challenging their firing.

Today’s ruling comes almost exactly one year after the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Agnes Morrissey-Berru (July 8, 2020), which found that the ministerial exception includes Catholic school religion teachers. The Supreme Court protected Catholic schools and colleges from at least some discrimination lawsuits based on conflicts with Catholic moral teaching, but the 7th Circuit panel ruling would have greatly undermined the authority of religious schools, colleges and other organizations over ministerial employees.

The panel decision could have put Catholic education in an “untenable position,” the Newman Society warned in our amicus brief:

“A Catholic school has freedom to hire and fire ministers based on alignment with the Catholic Church’s religious teachings about sex, sexual orientation, and marriage. But if a Catholic school minister engages in a course of conduct that violates the Catholic Church’s teachings, and the school persistently communicates that the minister has strayed from the school’s moral expectations and should repent, the school can now be forced to endure a secular trial.”

The full 7th Circuit Court’s ruling strongly rejects the panel’s opinion and reaffirms the rights of religious employers with regard to ministerial employees.

A Crucial Line of Defense for Catholic Education

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Catholic education could face severe hardships should the religious protection that is built into Title IX — the federal law banning sex discrimination — be taken away. And that is exactly what some activists and the Biden administration hopeto do.

The Administration and some federal courts now interpret Title IX as a ban on teaching and upholding authentic gender, sexuality and marriage. But since the law was first enacted in 1972, Title IX has exempted religious schools and colleges from any application of the law that conflicts with their religious beliefs. Predictably, LGBT activists are now striving to undo that exemption.

For Catholics, it should be a top priority to hold that line. It doesn’t mean that we should focus only on exempting religion from bad laws while our culture collapses. But ultimately winning the culture war requires that we form young people in faith, reason and wisdom — all of which are in short supply today. I see no path to a renewal of the Church and culture without a renewal of faithful Catholic education.

We must carve out protection for Catholic education if we are ever to win the larger battle. If the religious exemption to Title IX falls, Catholic schools and colleges will probably fall also, and even Catholic homeschooling may be targeted. That’s because the impact will be felt far beyond restrictions on federal money for education, which is the trigger that subjects an institution to Title IX. Even more, a collapse of the Title IX religious exemption is likely to cascade into anti-Catholic bigotry in state law, accreditation, academic associations, athletic leagues, etc., until there is minimal tolerance for any form of truly Catholic education.

 

Lawsuits target exemption

Among the threats to the Title IX religious exemption are two lawsuits which are unlikely to succeed — but if they do, the consequences could be devastating.

One of the lawsuits seeks to exploit a narrow interpretation of the Title IX exemption itself. The exemption states that Title IX “shall not apply to an educational institution which is controlled by a religious organization, if the application of this subsection would not be consistent with the religious tenets of such organization.”

Two students who were expelled from Fuller Theological Seminary for violating rules against same-sex unions have asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to deny the seminary access to the Title IX exemption, because Fuller is nondenominational and independent of any organized religion. This, they argue, is not within the scope of institutions that are “controlled by a religious organization.”

The danger to Catholic education is enormous, should this argument prevail. Most Catholic colleges and many lay-established Catholic schools in the U.S. are not legally owned by the Church. They have independent boards of trustees that legally control the institutions. If the Title IX exemption is interpreted to exclude such independent operations, many of our Catholic schools and colleges as well as America’s nondenominational Christian institutions would no longer be protected.

Just last month, the Cardinal Newman Society and a number of faithful Catholic schools and colleges joined an amicus brief urging the Ninth Circuit to acknowledge that an institution controlled by a board of trustees that is committed to certain religious beliefs is, in fact, “controlled by a religious organization” for the purposes of Title IX. That is precisely how the U.S. Department of Education has always interpreted the exemption. The regulations implementing Title IX exempt any “educational institution [that] has a published institutional mission that is approved by the governing body of an educational institution and that includes, refers to, or is predicated upon religious tenets, beliefs, or teachings.”

But there’s another lawsuit that takes aim at the entire Title IX exemption. A group of students and alumni from various Christian colleges have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, calling for the religious exemption in Title IX to be struck down as unconstitutional because, by protecting religious institutions, it creates an “establishment of religion.” This contradicts longstanding practice of the Education Department and religious exemptions throughout federal law.

 

Stand firm

If the religious exemption to Title IX were struck down, Catholic schools and colleges could be forced to give up federal aid and, much worse, face a growing number of legal and social obstacles that could render Catholic educators unable to promote and educate their students in the eternal truths of the Church, both moral and academic.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is pursuing an end run around the Title IX exemption that could have similar consequences. By promoting the Equality Act — which was approved in the House and has been introduced in the Senate — the Administration has pinned its hopes on expanding the definition of discrimination under the separate Title VI and thereby opening the door to lawsuits and restrictions against religious education.

Catholic schools should be prepared to defend against these ever evolving and worrisome attacks on religious freedom. Courts have historically turned a kinder eye to institutions that maintain a sincere and consistent adherence to their professed moral beliefs. The best defense against these attacks, then, is for Catholic schools and colleges to consistently uphold the truths of the Church in their teaching, policies and activities.

The Church is used to weathering attacks. It has endured far worse than agenda-driven activists and lawyers seeking to overturn U.S. civil rights law. And recent court victories for religious freedom offer hope that the latest attacks will fail. But the attacks are worrisome nonetheless because of their direct opposition to religious freedom, and if they succeed, they could hurt thousands of Catholic families.

This article first appeared at the National Catholic Register.