The state of California has agreed to pay a Christian preschool and its attorneys some $200,000 as part of a settlement to a lawsuit that began when the state tried to force the school to change its biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality.
The controversy began when the California Department of Social Services, citing new federal and state rules, told The Church of Compassion in El Cajon, Calif., that its preschool, Dayspring Learning Center, could only participate in the government-assisted food program if it agreed with a nondiscrimination policy that includes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The state even told the church it must stop “requiring Church employees to sign or abide by” a handbook that includes a statement of faith and affirms biblical teaching on gender and sexuality, according to court documents.
Dayspring filed suit, alleging violations of the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise, Free Speech, Free Association and Establishment Clauses. The suit also claimed the state was violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and Administrative Procedure Act.
“While the Church and Preschool serve all families, they will not teach or promote all messages,” the suit said.
Following the lawsuit, the state agreed to settle. As part of the settlement, the state will reimburse the school $30,478.96 for the cost of meals between Feb. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2023. The state also agreed to pay $160,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs. The school was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Center for Law & Policy and Advocates For Faith & Freedom.
ADF senior counsel Jeremiah Galus applauded the settlement.
“The government can’t withhold food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool,” Galus said. “The Constitution protects the right of Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith. In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their religious beliefs and exercise. While it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to resolve this, at least now Church of Compassion can continue its vital outreach to needy children and families.”
The suit said the church and its school “have been consistently, humbly, and compassionately loving their neighbors by identifying and meeting the needs of their community for more than two decades.”
“Defendants demand that the Church and Preschool agree to fully comply with new ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ nondiscrimination provisions, including in their religious employment practices (‘SOGI Rules’), or forfeit the right to receive generally available public funds used to feed needy children, including immigrants, in their community,” the suit said. “... The government does not have the authority to force religious institutions to compromise their deeply and sincerely held religious beliefs and practices about human sexuality, capitulate to the new SOGI Rules, or pressure religious groups and people to assimilate to conflicting sexual philosophies.”
The church’s beliefs on gender and sexuality, the suit said, were “uncontroversial for more than 2,000 years and continue to be held by most major world religions.”
Image credit: ©Getty Images/Matthew Starling
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
