For more than a decade, Anthony Schmitt led hundreds of inmates at the St. Cloud state prison through a 12-week orthodox Christian class titled “The Quest for Authentic Manhood.”

Schmitt and his colleagues say they helped more than a thousand men rehabilitate and transition back to the community through teaching them how to lead lives “of ‘authentic manhood’ as modeled by Jesus Christ and directed by the Word of God.”

That suddenly ended last year when the Department of Corrections (DOC) stopped allowing the program after finding that it “directly conflicted” with the department’s “diversity, equity, and inclusivity values” by defining manhood in a way that excluded homosexuals and cast women as “weak” and best suited as submissive to husbands in charge of households.

Schmitt, with the backing of the conservative nonprofit Upper Midwest Law Center, this week sued Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell and Assistant Commissioner Jolene Rebertus in a bid to resume the program while arguing that the DOC is violating his free speech rights.

“[Schnell and Rebertus’] actions have caused harm to Schmitt’s dignity by violating his constitutional rights and thus treating him as a lesser member of society than others with different viewpoints,” Schmitt’s lawyers wrote in a civil complaint.

DOC spokesman Aaron Swanum said the department cannot comment on pending litigation.

Rebertus, who is an assistant commissioner in charge of health, recovery and programming, notified Schmitt in July that he could no longer teach the program in St. Cloud. In an email cited in Schmitt’s lawsuit, Rebertus said that in all sessions reviewed by DOC leadership, it was “evident that throughout this curriculum, manhood can only be achieved through heterosexual relationships.”

She wrote that women were blamed for creating “soft males” and the wife’s ideal role in a marriage was to be the submissive “helper” for the male head of the household.

“While the teachings do describe the woman in this role as ‘honorable,’ the reinforced stereotypes and biases can be hurtful and downright dangerous for those participants who either committed acts of violence, domestic violence or may be victims of violence by women,” Rebertus wrote.

Schmitt’s attorneys want Senior U.S. District Judge John Tunheim to rule that Rebertus and Schnell violated Schmitt’s rights under the U.S. and Minnesota constitutions and to order them to reinstate the program and let Schmitt resume his teaching.

They point to a 2021 unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision that found the city of Philadelphia violated Catholic Social Services’ First Amendment religious rights when it stopped referring foster parents to the program over a refusal to certify parents in same-sex relationships.

“That sort of targeting of religious beliefs is unconstitutional pretty much every time,” James Dickey, an attorney for Schmitt, said Thursday in an interview. “That’s exactly what happened here, so really what we’re looking for is the application of existing precedent.”

Rebertus told Schmitt in her email last year that “just because a program identifies as a religious program does not mean the DOC must provide it.”

Schmitt’s lawyers quote scripture throughout the civil complaint, particularly when outlining Schmitt’s religious viewpoints. Schmitt, they say, believes that God created “uniquely distinct human beings” and that men and women “occupy distinctly different roles in family and society.”

The man has a “biblical command” to serve as head of the household, the lawyers write, and the “male leadership role is critically important for a healthy marital relationship, as it sets the tone for and fosters mutual respect where men are to submit to and love their wives, and women are to submit to and love their husbands.”

According to the lawsuit, Schmitt and a colleague, Bruce Robinson, began teaching the 12-week, twice weekly course in 2012 after approaching the prison’s chaplain. The course involved a blend of DVD videos and hourlong discussions.

The DVD sessions are narrated by Quest founder Robert Lewis, a pastor based in Little Rock, Ark. Schmitt and Robinson taught the program through 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic paused all religious programming at the prison. They said they resumed the program last year and continued until Rebertus halted the program in July.

A 2018 review of the program by Charles Sutter, statewide recidivism project supervisor for the DOC, gave it high marks for supporting offender change, empathy and fairness. However, he raised concerns that a chapter titled “Remembering Dad” might violate state human rights laws by describing homosexuality as an “injury” that can be caused by growing up in a home with an absent father.

“It should be noted that, [sic] some jurisdictions are now stating that treatment that addresses homosexuality as a treatable character defect are psychologically damaging and illegal,” Sutter wrote at the time.

Schmitt’s lawsuit said that he agreed with the program’s description of homosexual acts as being sinful according to the Bible, but he decided to “fast-forward through that one small segment” of the program to avoid conflict.

“He’s clearly shown a willingness to where if it’s not going to impinge on his particular religious views, work with the DOC and we … don’t see that happening on the other end,” Dickey said Thursday.

He said Rebertus refused to reconsider halting the program after a follow-up email from Schmitt last year.

In her original message, Rebertus wrote that Quest’s “complete disregard” for identifying anyone as a “successful man” who doesn’t fit the picture outlined in its sessions “completely defies our mission of a person-centered approach to transforming lives.”

“Quest teaches participants about manhood through a lens of discrimination, exclusivity, gender biases and stereotypes that not only contradict the DOC’s mission of providing transformational programming, but can be hurtful to participants, their families, and victims,” she concluded.