- What do you call a student
who believes that marriage is between
one man and one woman?
If you're a professor of public speaking
at Los Angeles City College,
you call that student a "fascist bastard,"
refused to grade paper,
and threatened to expel him.
That's what happened
to freshmen student Jonathan Lopez
in Professor John Matteson's
"Public Speaking 101" course.
A few weeks earlier,
California voters passed
a ballot proposition
that affirmed marriage as being
between one man and one woman.
Professor Matteson had
assigned his students
to deliver a brief, informative speech
on any topic of their choice.
Jonathan decided to share the ways
in which he had seen God act in his life
and in the lives of people
he knows through miracles.
He also described his
personal religious views.
As a faithful Christian,
Jonathan believes that marriage is
between one man and one woman.
He mentioned this belief
during his speech.
He even read the dictionary
definition of marriage
and cited two verses from the Bible.
The other students in the class
listened respectfully to Jonathan.
Professor Matteson, not so much.
The professor interrupted Jonathan,
called him a "fascist bastard,"
and refused to let him finish his speech.
The professor told the other students
that if they felt offended
by Jonathan's speech,
they should leave.
When no one left,
the professor angrily dismissed the class.
As Jonathan gathered his belongings
and prepared to leave,
He noticed that Professor Matteson
had left a grading sheet on his backpack.
The professor refused to issue a grade
and instead wrote,
"Ask God what your grade is."
Just to be clear, Professor John Matteson,
a government official
employed at a government funded college
who supposedly opposes fascism
censored Jonathan's speech
because of his religious beliefs.
When Professor Matteson found out
that Jonathan told the
Dean of Academic Affairs,
Allison Jones, about what happened,
He confronted Jonathan
and threatened to get him
expelled from the college.
That did it.
Jonathan decided that
he had to do something
to make the college protect
his First Amendment rights.
Professors can't threaten
and bully students
just because they happen to
disagree with their beliefs.
Not in America at least,
and especially not at a public university
where professors make their
living on taxpayer dollars.
So Jonathan and his legal counsel
at Alliance Defending Freedom
sent a letter to the college's leadership
demanding that they take action
to correct Professor Matteson's
discrimination and threats,
plus a public apology from the professor.
College officials refused,
saying that two students in the class
were offended by Jonathan's views.
And that if the college decided
to discipline Professor Matteson,
it would be done in private
and at the college's own discretion.
So to recap,
a professor at a public college punished
Jonathan, a student and
a believing Christian,
for exercising his First Amendment rights.
And that college funded by taxpayers
did nothing to protect his rights,
and instead criticized him
and defended the professor.
Sounds pretty fascist, wouldn't you say?
So Jonathan and his attorneys
filed a federal lawsuit against
Los Angeles City College
and its employees who were violating
his First Amendment rights,
and discriminating against him
on the basis of his religious views.
After years of litigation,
the court ruled against Professor Matteson
and in favor of Jonathan,
awarding him damages for the professor's
violation of his rights.
Jonathan finished his semester
at Los Angeles Community College,
refused to drop Professor Matteson's class
and received an A.
It sounds like a happy ending.
And it is, but think about this:
there are countless other students
on taxpayer funded American campuses who,
like Jonathan, just want to be able
to express their religious beliefs
without risking unjustified
and discriminatory punishment
from professors and administrators.
That shouldn't be too much to ask for.
But today, even in the
United States of America,
the land of the free,
on many public campuses
for millions of students,
apparently it is.
