A Christian Group Was Banned from Participating in Oxford College Student Fair
- Updated Oct 13, 2017
A Christian group was banned from holding a stall at Balliol College’s welcome week event, known as the freshers fair.
According to the Catholic Herald, student leaders who are part of the Junior Common Room (JCR) at Balliol College, a school associated with Oxford, claimed the Christian Union was banned from holding a stall at the fair due to “harmful” links with “neo-colonialism” and “homophobia.”
Other students took issue with the JCR’s decision and criticized the group for “barring the participation of specific faith-based organisations” and committing “a violation of free speech [and] a violation of religious freedom.”
The opposing students even proposed a motion that condemned the JCR’s decision. The motion passed unanimously.
Although the pushback did not cause the JCR to completely reverse its decision to ban the Christian Union, it did settle on a compromise allowing the Christian Union to man a stall at the fair as part of a “multifaith” display.
“Ultimately, it was reached to have a multifaith stall rather than a CU stall specifically,” wrote JCR president Hubert Au in a Facebook post. “We didn’t want to monopolise the presence of any individual faith/belief society,” he added.
Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
Publication date: October 12, 2017
