It appears that God’s ambulance chasers are at it again — scavenging the known Universe in search of any self-identified Christian ready to help the radical religious right’s legal arm launch yet another lawsuit over anything that even remotely seems to be a violation of a Christian’s right to employ chapter and verse in the condemnation of his/her fellow citizens.
The Los Angeles Times, this morning, is reporting that the Alliance Defense Fund, the aforementioned ambulance chaser in this instance, is representing Jonathan Lopez, a student at Los Angeles City College, who delivered a speech in class, replete with Bible verses, condemning marriage equality in the weeks following the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which eliminated marriage equality in the state.
Lopez, who maintains that proselytizing — in particular to his fellow students — is an essential requirement of his Christian faith, alleges that his teacher, in response to the speech’s Christian point of view, called him a “fascist bastard.” Later when he inquired about his grade, Lopez alleges he was told by his professor, John Matteson, to “ask God what your grade is.”
The ADF’s lawyer claims Lopez is a “victim of religious persecution,” and maintains “colleges and universities should give Christian students the same rights to free expression as other students.”
It would appear that Christian students do have exactly the same right to free expression, however, the community college has a published code pertaining to offensive speech that is intended to protect students from defamation, abusive remarks and harassment. Despite the claims by two students that Lopez’s speech was “deeply offensive,” the ADF insists the code violates Lopez’s rights.
In the Times article, Los Angeles attorney Jean-Paul Jassy is quoted:
Jean-Paul Jassy, a 1st Amendment lawyer in Los Angeles, said a number of cases have explored the tension between offensive speech and the expression of religious views. Often, he said, the decision depends on the specifics of the situation.
“Free speech really thrives when people are going back and forth, disagreeing sometimes and sometimes finding things each other says offensive, but there are limits, particularly in a school setting,” Jassy said after reviewing the lawsuit.
It seems clear that Lopez, aware of the school’s speech code, deliberately violated it to use his Bible to condemn gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and their right to marriage equality. This lawsuit is obviously nothing more than another instance in which the radical religious right is unwilling to abide by the rules, instead insisting on special rights that allow Christians to use their dogma to demean others and deny them their essential human rights. While these legal pit bulls are quick to claim violations of religious liberty for their own, they have little if any regard for the same rights of other faiths and non-faiths.
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