Augusta State U. to Counseling Student: Change Your Christian Beliefs or Get Out
Note: The following article is excerpted from the Alliance Defense Fund’s (ADF) site, posted on July 22, 2010. For a similar blog post on discrimination against Christians in state-approved counseling programs, see my post Court Upholds Expulsion of Counseling Student Who Opposes Homosexuality.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit against Augusta State University Wednesday on behalf of a counseling student told that her Christian beliefs are unethical and incompatible with the prevailing views of the counseling profession. The student, Jennifer Keeton, has been told to stop sharing her beliefs with others and that she must change her beliefs in order to graduate from the counseling program.
Re-education Plan, Diversity Sensitivity Training, and Thought Reform
Augusta State ordered Keeton to undergo a re-education plan, in which she must attend “diversity sensitivity training,” complete additional remedial reading, and write papers to describe their impact on her beliefs. If she does not change her beliefs or agree to the plan, the university says it will expel her from the Counselor Education Program.
“A public university student shouldn’t be threatened with expulsion for being a Christian and refusing to publicly renounce her faith, but that’s exactly what’s happening here. Simply put, the university is imposing thought reform,” said ADF Senior Counsel David French. “Abandoning one’s own religious beliefs should not be a precondition at a public university for obtaining a degree. This type of leftist zero-tolerance policy is in place at far too many universities, and it must stop. Jennifer’s only crime was to have the beliefs that she does.”
The Courage of Her Convictions
Keeton, 24, is pursuing her master’s degree in counseling at Augusta State. After her professors learned of her biblical beliefs, specifically her views on homosexual conduct, from both classroom discussions and private conversations with other students, the school imposed the re-education plan. Keeton never denigrated anyone in communicating her beliefs but merely stated factually what they were in appropriate contexts.
The plan assails Keeton’s beliefs as inconsistent with the counseling profession and expresses suspicion over “Jen’s ability to be a multiculturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (GLBTQ) populations.” The plan requires her to take steps to change her beliefs through additional assignments and additional “diversity sensitivity training.” It also orders her to “work to increase exposure and interactions with gay populations. One such activity could be attending the Gay Pride Parade in Augusta.”
Each month, Keeton is required to complete a report on how the “remediation” assignments have influenced her beliefs so that faculty can “decide the appropriateness of her continuation in the counseling program.” The plan concludes by noting that “failure to complete all elements of the remediation plan will result in dismissal from the Counselor Education Program.”
ADF attorneys filed the complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley with the U.S. District Court for the District of Georgia. ADF is currently litigating a similar case involving a counseling student at Eastern Michigan University and successfully resolved a case at Missouri State University. Also in litigation is a case involving a Georgia counselor fired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because she would not agree to affirm homosexual behavior as morally acceptable.
Join the Conversation
What are your thoughts about publically-funded institutions suppressing Christian beliefs?
Jennifer Keeton
I’ve worked as a therapist in secular nonprofit settings for over thirty years. I’ve been a professing Christian for thirty years. I’ve worked with many gay, lesbian and bisexual clients, and never found that my personal religious beliefs regarding the biblical prohibition of homo-sexual behavior has kept me from being “a multiculturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual” clients. The position of the Augusta State University Counselor Education program is an amazing example of prejudice in the name of diversity. They are doing TO her what they implicitly presuming she will do to “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (GLBTQ) populations.” Do they also require counseling students who honestly think that conservative, evangelical or fundamentalist religious beliefs are morally wrong to attend rallies and events that support those religious beliefs?
Chuck, Excellent points. I faced this 15 years ago at Kent State University in working on my Ph.D. disseration on Martin Luther’s pastoral counseling. Even though they stated that my ten-point case study historiographical process could be a model for all such disserations, they still did not want to approve the dissertation topic because I was studying an Evangelical. However, at the same time they had approved a study of Native American spirituality. When I would not relent and when I suggested that I needed to seek legal council, they eventually backed down and allowed me to write, present, and defend my dissertation. With matters even worse 15 years later, I’m not sure they would relent now. We need to pray for these two students and others like them.
It is a terrifying reality!
Bob, Great article and discussion. I fully agree with the content of both. However, the view of the state school seems consistent with the APA’s DSM-IV codes (which doesn’t view homosexuality as a disorder) and our military (which recently effectively dropped the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy). Sadly, I predict that in this decade, holding a Christian view of homosexuality as sin will be judged a hate crime.
Firstly I would like to state that I feel this story is being inaccurately skewed by many conservative journalists stating that Keeton must “change her Christian beliefs.” As a counseling student myself I profess to be a Christian along with many of my colleagues and take offense to this portrayal. Every counseling student has beliefs and values they take into the profession and it is an important part of the counseling education curriculum to be aware of these beliefs and how they might impact work with future clients. While I do not fault Keeton for standing true to her convictions, I disagree with the manner in which she is doing so.
The American Counseling Association and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs have made it explicitly clear for quite some time that counselors should be ethically and professionally competent in working with LGBT clients, just as they should be with clients of other diversity status. This has been expressed in the code of ethics as well as publicly acknowledged by ACA for quite some time now. As Keeton has just recently began her counseling studies I find it very misguided that she would then express that she is not willing to accept this and expect no course of action to be taken by the University. There is simply no room for this in the profession.
I certainly believe that Keeton is entitled to her beliefs about homosexuality, as are we all. There are other avenues within the human services field for which she would be a better fit and would be more in line with her beliefs, though it seems clear that the acknowledged counseling profession is not an appropriate arena for her.
Adam, I appreciate your willingness to state your opinion on this important issue. I don’t see how “conservative journalists” are skewing this. For one, CNN had a lengthy interview which included the very same thought–and CNN is hardly “conservative.” Plus, facts are facts–ASU is demanding that she change her beliefs. I’m glad that you profess to be a Christian. However, are you telling us that only your view of the homosexuality issue is the “Christian view”? No one is saying that this student should not be aware of her beliefs–she’s quite aware. However, ASU is telling her she must change her beliefs. In what way do you disagree with the manner in which she is standing true to her beliefs? All she has said is that she cannot and will not change her belief that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle which she believes the Bible says is immoral. As for the ACA, they are, as the last “A” denotes, simply an Association. They have no legal power, no licensure power. Are you and are they saying that the only professionally competent way to work with a LGBT individual is your way/their way? Again, as I’ve asked in several articles, what would you, and what would the ACA have counselors do when a counselee himself/herself sees the issue as immoral and wants to change. By ACA thinking, the counselor would have to disagree with and try to change the values of the counselee–exactly what they are saying this student would do (and there is zero evidence that she has done anything unethical in any counseling setting). Your conclusion is remarkable–only people who agree with you and with the ACA (again, simply an association, not a legally binding licensure board) can go into the professional counseling field. That is an amazingly biased conclusion that means that the 67% of Americans who are born again Christians who would agree with this student would all have to find another field of work. Plus, do you really think there is any other secular organization in the human services field that would give this student any more freedom to think on her own than the ACA allows?