Counselling student sues after Missouri State expelled him over Christian beliefs
A Christian student is suing Missouri State University for ejecting him from its Masters in Counselling program in a case with huge implications for the counselling and psychotherapy professions. Andrew Cash was a student nearing completion of MSU ’s Masters of Counselling program in 2011 when he served his internship at the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute (SMFI), a Christian counselling center where he worked with couples while under supervision of the accredited staff. Cash got into trouble when he persuaded one of his teachers to let the institute give a class presentation on Christian counselling. One of Cash’s classmates asked the director what he would do if asked to counsel a same-sex couple. He responded that he would counsel them as individuals but not as a couple because of his religious convictions about marriage being necessarily heterosexual. Shortly SMFI was removed from MSU’s list of approved supervising agencies, Cash’s 51 hours of supervised cou