Students at a Georgia Christian college can access state aid

Students at Luther Rice College & Seminary, a Christian institution in Georgia, will now be able to access a state financial aid program after initially being denied due to a state prohibition on tuition assistance for divinity school students. 

In October, Luther Rice, supported by the religious liberty–focused legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a lawsuit challenging that prohibition, arguing that it required the college to abandon its religious mission and identity in order to access state funds—even for students who were enrolled in nontheological programs, which the college offers.

The parties settled the lawsuit, and the court did not rule on the legality of the ban.

“This endeavor was not just an opportunity to defend our religious freedom, but it was also an opportunity to demonstrate the value of a Christian education,” Luther Rice president Steven Steinhilber wrote in a statement.