By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
(RNS) A California federal judge has ruled that the University of California had a “rational basis” for rejecting science and history courses taught at Christian high schools.
Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, Calif., and the Association of Christian Schools International had charged that the university had an unconstitutional admissions process because it refused to certify courses that taught creationism and other beliefs.
Private school students are required to meet certain high-school requirements before they can be eligible to apply to one of the undergraduate campuses of the University of California.
U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero ruled Friday (Aug. 8) that concerns about a course whose primary text was called “Biology: God’s Living Creation” was deemed by UC experts to have failed at teaching critical thinking or the theory of evolution in an adequate manner.
The judge also said UC reviewers found that a text published by Bob Jones University titled “United States History for Christian Schools” taught that “the Bible is the unerring source for analysis of historical events” and did not include modern methods for historical analysis.
In these cases, and in reviews of English and government texts, Otero said the Christian school defendants did not adequately refute the findings of UC’s reviewers. The judge also found that the university system did not reject the courses out of animosity.
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