Officials in Maine are being sued by a local church over a state law that requires schools to adhere to an LGBT anti-discrimination policy in order to participate in a tuition program.
On Monday, Crosspoint Church, which runs Bangor Christian Schools, filed a complaint against Maine officials in the United States District Court for the District of Maine.
According to the complaint, BCS called the law a "poison pill" because it contradicts the school's stance on biblical marriage being only between one man and one woman and its rejection of the belief that gender identity is not in accordance with one's biological sex.
In light of what the law entails, "BCS was no longer eligible to participate in the tuitioning program, and eligible families could no longer use their tuition benefit at BCS," the complaint states.
"Thus, the sectarian exclusion operated to allow religious schools to participate in the tuitioning program if, and only if, they held religious beliefs the State approved," it added.
"Putting Plaintiff to the choice of participating in a generally available benefit program or surrendering its constitutionally protected religious exercise penalizes its religious exercise and constitutes a substantial burden."
First Liberty Institute is representing Crosspoint Church, The Christian Post reports.
On Tuesday, FLI Counsel Lea Patterson issued a statement citing the 2021 Supreme Court case Carson v. Makin, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of parents prohibited from using a state tuition program to send their kids to private Christian schools.
"Maine lost at the U.S. Supreme Court just last year but is not getting the message that religious discrimination is illegal," Patterson argued. "Maine's new law imposes special burdens on religious schools in order to keep them out of the school choice program. Government punishing religious schools for living out their religious beliefs is not only unconstitutional, it is wrong."
Shortly after the Carson ruling, Maine Attorney General Aaron contended that the BCS's biblical views on LGBTQ+ issues make them ineligible for the tuition program.
"The education provided by the schools at issue here is inimical to a public education," Frey said in a statement last year.
"They promote a single religion to the exclusion of all others, refuse to admit gay and transgender children, and openly discriminate in hiring teachers and staff."
At the time, Frey vowed to "explore with Governor Mills' administration and members of the Legislature statutory amendments to address the Court's decision and ensure that public money is not used to promote discrimination, intolerance, and bigotry."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Skynesher
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
