For 40 years, evangelicals at Bowdoin College have gathered periodically to study the Bible together, to pray and to worship. They are a tiny minority on the liberal arts college campus, but they have been a part of the school\u2019s community, gathering in the chapel, the dining center, the dorms.<\/p>\n
After this summer, the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship will no longer be recognized by the college. Already, the college has disabled the electronic key cards of the group\u2019s longtime volunteer advisers.<\/p>\n
In a collision between religious freedom and antidiscrimination policies, the student group, and its advisers, have refused to agree to the college\u2019s demand that any student, regardless of his or her religious beliefs, should be able to run for election as a leader of any group, including the Christian association….\u201cIt\u2019s absurd,\u201d\u009d said Alec Hill, the president of InterVarsity, a national association of evangelical student groups, including the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship. \u201cThe genius of American culture is that we allow voluntary, self-identified organizations to form, and that\u2019s what our student groups are<\/b>.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n