A Minnesota correctional facility abruptly canceled a Christian rehabilitation program for teaching inmates about manhood and masculinity through a Biblical worldview.
Now volunteers with the program have filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) for violating their First Amendment rights.Â
The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) and co-counsel True North Legal (TNL) filed a complaint challenging DOC officials for canceling the “Quest for Authentic Manhood” program at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud.Â
According to UMLC, the program was “designed to instill principles of authentic manhood” according to the Bible and had “remarkable success.”
“More than a thousand inmates completed the program, reporting restored families, healed resentments, and transformative experiences,” UMLC explained.Â
Anthony Schmitt and other volunteers had been running the program within the jail for the last 10 years.Â
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But in July, Schmitt received an email from the Minnesota DOC Assistant Commissioner Jolene Rebertus announcing the cancellation of the program.Â
She stated the program “directly conflicts with the diversity, equity, and inclusivity values of the DOC by defining manhood, or the study of masculinity, through a biblical lens of what
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