Education · Lynchburg, VA Metro · August 25, 2026
Virginia Colleges Deny Grants Over 'Too Religious' Degree Choices
Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom and the National Legal Foundation have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Johnson v. Fleming, a case brought by three Virginia college students, according to National Review. Cameron Johnson (pastoral leadership) and Luke Thomas (music and worship), both students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, were denied Virginia Tuition Assistance Grants because the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia deemed their degree programs 'too religious,' even as similar secular-adjacent degrees remained eligible. A third plaintiff, Trace Stevens, a Virginia Army National Guard chaplain candidate and Liberty graduate student, was denied a grant for his Master of Divinity by the Virginia Department of Military Affairs under a similar policy. A federal district court ruled against the students, relying on the 2004 Supreme Court precedent Locke v. Davey. The plaintiffs argue the state is drawing an unconstitutional line between religious study it will fund and religious study it won't, and are asking the Supreme Court to revisit Locke v. Davey directly.
Source: National Review
Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
This case exposes a government policy that penalizes students for pursuing pastoral, worship, or chaplaincy training with taxpayer-funded aid available to other majors. Bible-believing Christians should recognize this as a direct church-state jurisdictional dispute: the state is not merely declining to fund religion in general — it is singling out ministry-track education as disqualifying while funding comparable secular study. If courts uphold this distinction, public funding programs nationwide could continue treating pastoral and theological training as second-class, discouraging students from entering ministry and chaplaincy. Christians should watch this case closely, as its outcome will shape whether religious vocation students retain equal access to otherwise neutral government programs.
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From the book
Defensively, Christians have to support legal defense organizations that fight strategic cases to establish precedent, building a wall of case law that protects the rights of conscience. This is Counter-Rule 13 operating across institutions rather than individuals.
— Chapter 20, “The Legal Arena”
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