By Jennifer Parson

As a chaplain and person of faith, religion is an important part of my daily life and a source of strength and inspiration.

I deeply appreciate the value of religious institutions in the lives of many students, including those who attend state colleges and universities in Kansas.

Also, I firmly believe that faith communities must be allowed to grow and change over time at their own pace.

I cannot support SB 175 because it will require post-secondary institutions to provide public funding to student organizations that discriminate, including allowing discrimination against women.

Campus groups can be important sources of social interaction and can help students develop leadership skills. They are an integral part of the higher education experience that can help put students on a pathway toward success by ensuring that they have well-rounded and positive experiences in college.

But not all groups offer those opportunities equally, and taxpayers shouldn’t be required to financially support groups that choose to discriminate, whether that discrimination is based on gender, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

I know from firsthand experience that gender-based discrimination is real in some religious student organizations.

During my first year as a student at Kansas University, I, for a short time, participated in Campus Crusade for Christ along with several of the students from my residence hall. In general, I found kind, well-intentioned people who worked to develop community among students.

On Valentine’s Day, the leaders separated the men from the women. Leaders talked to the men about being the head and master of their relationships. They talked to the women about being subservient and obedient to the men in their lives.

In my experience and according to the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, that idea has been used to pressure women into staying in relationships with male abusers. When I spoke up, leadership made it clear that it was not my place to question their teaching, and I was no longer welcome at Campus Crusade for Christ.

Today, faith communities remain deeply divided about the role of women in religious leadership. And those communities have the right — guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Kansas Constitution — to follow the convictions of their faith.

What they don’t have the right to do is harm someone else.

SB 175 isn’t about protecting religious freedom of students and student organizations. They already can have exclusionary policies and turn people away. But they cannot expect public funding to support those discriminatory activities. That’s what SB 175 would allow.

Institutional change is often slow and sometimes lags years or even decades behind cultural and individual change.

The role of women in religious communities continues to change and grow. And neither the government nor people of other faiths can dictate to any church who it chooses as its leaders, who it ordains, or how it interprets scripture.

At the same time, schools should not be compelled to provide public funding to discriminatory organizations.

Public universities should be places where all people have equal opportunity to participate in campus life and pursue leadership opportunities regardless of classifications like gender, race, and sexual orientation.

When public money is used to fund organizations that discriminate, it undermines equality for people throughout the educational community.

Public colleges and universities should not — must not — provide funding or other resources which violate their own non-discrimination policies. Instead, they must ensure that everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and given an opportunity to fully participate in campus life.