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A notable legal battle involving LGBTQ college students and a religious school has come to an end.
Yeshiva University, a Jewish college in New York, announced Thursday that it will recognize an LGBTQ student club and allow it to be run like other clubs on campus moving forward.
The club, called Hareni, “will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University’s senior rabbis,” the school’s statement said, per The Associated Press.
The name comes from a phrase that’s recited before certain Jewish prayers.
The phrase “translates to ‘I hereby undertake to fulfill the positive commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself,‘” according to Forward.
Yeshiva’s unexpected announcement resolved a yearslong clash between school officials and LGBTQ students — and a lawsuit that made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The lawsuit began in April 2021, when students involved in what was then called the YU Pride Alliance sued Yeshiva, alleging that school leaders were violating the New York City Human Rights Law by refusing to treat their group like other student clubs.
The law outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as I reported in September 2022.
Campus leaders claimed Yeshiva University was eligible for a faith-based exemption to the Human Rights Law and argued that recognizing the club would force the school to violate its religious beliefs and harm similarly situated schools across the country.
Yeshiva faced a setback at an early stage in the case when a trial court ruled that it likely didn’t qualify for the religious exemption and needed to recognize YU Pride Alliance as the lawsuit played out. The ruling noted that the school confers many secular degrees and accepts non-Jewish students.
Yeshiva officials rejected the idea that their school wasn’t religious and appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. But the justices allowed it to stand, determining that school leaders had not yet exhausted their legal options in the lower courts.
After the Supreme Court ruling, Yeshiva officials temporarily suspended all student clubs on campus. But then YU Pride Alliance offered to forgo court-ordered recognition so that other campus groups could operate as usual.
Now, two and a half years later, the school has reached a settlement with the LGBTQ club. The exact terms of the agreement have not been made public, but students have confirmed that they will be free to host a variety of events on campus and choose their own adviser.
“The club confirmed the agreement and said it will enjoy the same privileges as other student organizations on campus. It plans to host charitable events, movie nights, panel discussions and career networking events and will publicly use ‘LGBTQ+’ on flyers and advertisements,” the AP reported.
“This agreement affirms that LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University are valued members of the community,” Schneur Friedman, a president of the group, told the AP.
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Term of the week: Serenity Prayer
The Serenity Prayer is a famous prayer that is best known for its use in Alcoholics Anonymous. The most popular version goes like this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to tell the difference.”
In a recent essay for The Conversation, Scott Paeth, a professor of religious studies at DePaul University, explained the prayer’s backstory, noting that it was written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr for a worship service in the summer of 1943.
But Niebuhr’s original version used collective language instead of individual language and included a request not just for serenity, but also for grace.
“God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other,” he said.
Paeth wrote that the original version fits Niebuhr’s belief that, to change the world, we must work together.
What I’m reading...
When a memory involving my childhood church pops into my head, it’s about as likely to involve the church kitchen as the sanctuary. The kitchen was the site of some of my favorite events on the annual church calendar, from Wednesday night youth group dinners to the community barbecue in July. The church I grew up in still uses that kitchen, but kitchens are falling out of favor with many faith groups nationwide, according to Christianity Today. “It’s not part of the culture now, the church culture, where you have 20 women who come together and make a meal. Today we order Panera or Jimmy John’s,” said Katie Eberth, an architect with Aspen Group, a leading firm in the field of church design, in the article.
I have long been fascinated by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, and his recent dissent in a death penalty case only increased my interest. Gorsuch argued the district court had inappropriately engaged in theological interpretation on the path toward rejecting a Buddhist inmate’s religious freedom claim, according to Reason.
Want to be happier? Try reading happiness books. Cognitive scientist Laurie Santos recently listed several of her favorites in an interview with The New Yorker.
Odds and ends
I’m in Miami this week for a Faith Angle Forum event. I’m excited to share what I learn in future newsletters.