A summer camp in Colorado has won the right to maintain and live out its Christian and commonsense beliefs about biological sex.
As the Daily Citizen reported last month, Camp IdRaHaJe (short for “I’d Rather Have Jesus”), filed a lawsuit on Monday, May 12, to prevent the state of Colorado from forcing it to “surrender its religious character, beliefs, and exercise to maintain a license to operate in Colorado.”
The Colorado Department of Early Childhood recently amended its regulations to require children’s camps to “allow campers to access bathing, dressing, and sleeping facilities designated to the opposite sex.” In other words, males must be allowed to invade girl’s private spaces.
The updated regulations stipulate that resident camps must allow campers:
- The use of gender-segregated showers that are consistent with their “gender identity.”
- To sleep in the same room or tent with individuals whose gender identity is consistent with their gender identity.
- The use of gender-segregated toilet facilities that are consistent with their gender identity.
- To sleep in the same room or tent with individuals that are consistent with their gender identity on backpacking or camping trips.
However, Camp IdRaHaJe, which has operated in Bailey, Colorado since 1948, can do no such thing.
As a nonprofit organization created “exclusively for religious, charitable, and educational purposes,” Camp IdRaHaJe cannot in good conscience comply with the state’s “Gender Identity Rules.”
To do so would hinder its mission and purpose. Indeed, the camp is a “Christ-centered organization” that “believes in the power of camp ministry to win souls to Jesus Christ.” It serves roughly 3,000 children each year.
Camp IdRaHaJe says it exists “so that all who enter its gates would experience God in a new way and would say, ‘I’d rather have Jesus more than anything!’”
Allowing males to access girl’s bathrooms, locker rooms, dressing areas and sleeping quarters would significantly hamper its evangelical purpose – and violate its Christian charter.
To protect its ministry, Camp IdRaHaJe filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado last month.
But before the lawsuit could even proceed to trial, the camp’s attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) reached a favorable settlement with state officials allowing the camp to continue operating according to its Christian beliefs.
As a part of the settlement, Colorado agreed not to take any enforcement action against Camp IdRaHaJe. Furthermore, the state agreed to clarify in a memo on a website and in administrative guides that “churches, synagogues, mosques, or any other place that is principally used for religious purposes” are exempt from the requirements.
“Government officials should never put a dangerous ideology ahead of kids,” said ADF Legal Counsel Andrea Dill in a statement.
She added, “State officials must respect religious ministries and their beliefs about human sexuality; they can’t force a Christian summer camp to violate its convictions. We’re pleased that Camp IdRaHaJe is again free to operate as it has for more than 75 years: as a Christian summer camp that accepts all campers without fear of being punished for its beliefs.”
We hope Colorado officials have learned an important lesson here.
When state officials attempt to force Christians to violate their faith, surrender their constitutional rights, and accept state-mandated gender ideology insanity, it probably won’t end well for them.
Three cheers for Camp IdRaHaJe and its bold and brave Christian witness in the face of an overtly hostile government and a truly radical state mandate. Its actions should be a reminder to all of us that standing up for truth and the protection of children is always the right thing to do.
Daily Citizen is a news division of Focus on the Family that provides a faith-based perspective to counter the mainstream media’s anti-Christian bias.
