When classes start two weeks from today at Jackson-Reed High School in Washington, D.C., students will have the option of joining the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), thanks to a July ruling from a U.S. District Court.

FCA is an international ministry with more than 7,000 student chapters—called huddles—on middle school, high school and college campuses across the United States alone. FCA’s website states: “We are a community working to see the world transformed by Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes.”

FCA invites all students to participate in its programs, but any student leader must affirm his or her agreement with FCA’s statement of faith, which forbids, in part, “sexual relations outside of marriage (whether involving individuals of the same or opposite sex) and “any sexually immoral act … including homosexuality.”

According to court documents, FCA had an intermittent presence at Jackson-Reed for years. In 2022 several administrators and employees expressed interest in FCA returning to campus, and the school approved the application for official recognition. But after FCA invited coaches to a breakfast that October, an assistant coach messaged an FCA staff member, saying, “There is no place for a group like FCA in a public school.”

The assistant coach filed a grievance with the district’s Comprehensive Alternative Resolution and Equity Team (CARE), alleging that FCA “openly discriminates against the LGBTQ community” and “makes [its] participants sign a sexual purity statement which prohibits homosexual acts.”

After an initial review of the complaint, CARE requested that Jackson-Reed immediately cease operations of FCA, and Principal Sah Brown removed FCA’s website listing and suspended FCA, pending a formal CARE investigation.

A CARE specialist told FCA that “The premise of what the organization stands for is discriminatory in that the pledge says you must turn away from an impure lifestyle of which they list as homosexual activities.” In November 2022 CARE issued its decision, ordering Jackson-Reed to “disassociate from the national Fellowship of Christian Athletes … organization.”

Over the next few months, FCA appealed several times, stating that the district was in danger of violating the Equal Access Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Constitution’s Free Exercise and Free Speech clauses.

The district said that FCA could possibly be reinstated if, among other things, it could assure that any member of the school community could be a leader, regardless of sexual orientation, religious affiliation or personal belief.

In May of this year, FCA filed suit in U.S. District Court, asking that FCA be reinstated as an official club before the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

In July, the court ruled in favor of FCA. Judge Dabney L. Friedrich found the district’s defense unconvincing in multiple ways. He noted, for example, that the school allows other clubs to limit not only leadership but even membership to those who agree with the club’s values and mission.

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, if a plaintiff proves that the government has substantially burdened his exercise of religion, the government must then show that the burden it is imposing furthers a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.

The judge found that FCA met its burden of proving that it was substantially burdened by having its huddle being removed as an official school club and by the district’s requirements for reinstatement.

But he said the district, on the other hand, failed to show that its interest is compelling, nor did it prove that its actions were the least restrictive means it could have used to further its interests.

In short, the judge found that FCA is “likely to succeed” in its claim that the district’s actions violate both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Free Exercise clause of the U.S. Constitution.

FCA, which has won other, similar cases around the country, issued the following statement: “This is yet another big win protecting equal access for FCA and for all student groups. As a matter of both civil rights and common sense, student groups should be able to pick leaders who believe in their mission. FCA is grateful to return its efforts to serving D.C. students, coaches, teachers and school communities.”

Above: Students and an FCA leader kneel in prayer during a 2022 multi-sport camp in the Black Hills.

Photo: Courtesy of Fellowship of Christian Athletes