The Human Rights Council, created by the United Nations and known previously as United Nations Commission on Human Rights, released a proposal at the end of last year. Its title is “Blueprint For Positive Change 2020.”
The appropriateness of the word “positive” is in the eye of the beholder.
While most of the eighty-five recommendations of the “Blueprint” refer to treatment of the LGBTQ community, one under the section Department of Education has the subtitle “Ensure Nondiscrimination Policies and Science Based Curricula Are Not Undermined by Religious Exemptions to Accreditation Standards.” That portion reads as follows:
Language regarding accreditation of religious institutions of higher education in the Higher Education Opportunity Act could be interpreted to require accrediting bodies to accredit religious institutions that discriminate or that do not meet science based curricula standards. The Department of Education should issue a regulation clarifying that this provision, which requires accreditation agencies to “respect the stated mission” of religious institutions, does not require the accreditation of religious institutions that do not meet neutral accreditation standards including nondiscrimination policies and scientific curriculum requirements.
To break that language down to something less obfuscating, it says that a Christian school (it does not go back and specify “higher education”) will not be accredited if it teaches according to its faith that God created all things. Science has determined that evolution is not a theory but a fact. Never mind that the theory does not meet the standards to transfer from theory classification to fact classification. Of course, a Christian school cannot teach evolution as a fact. Therefore, it will lose its accreditation. Does this matter?
According to Learn.org,
When an institution is non-accredited, however, there is no way to verify the quality of their education or their integrity. Because of this, students attending the school aren’t eligible for student aid because the federal government only grants funds to accredited institutions. Pursuing a degree from a non-accredited program can be a risk. For example, becoming a child psychologist requires a license and some states won’t grant licenses for graduates of non-accredited programs, or the application process can be more difficult for them. (Emphasis mine.)
There are associations that provide accreditation for private schools, such as The Association of Christian Schools International, The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, and the Catholic Dioceses. I doubt the proposal, if adopted, would affect either the Christian Schools or the Catholic Dioceses accreditation, but would that be sufficient to be accepted by a college of your choice?
The First Amendment text of the Bill of Rights says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The United Nations is clearly trying to subvert our Constitution and the Judeo-Christian traditions and beliefs as based on Holy Scripture. If you read their statement as it stands, it could refer to marriage being only between a man and a woman, and there are only two genders and they are not fluid. I can anticipate the supporters of this proposal would say, “You can teach that all you want, but you won’t be accredited.” The ramifications of that are far-reaching. This must be opposed and defeated.