A Michigan woman who posted an ad seeking a Christian roommate on her church bulletin board has been charged with violating the law.
    
The Fair Housing Center of West Michigan filed the complaint against the 31-year-old unnamed woman.

The complaint states the ad "expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths."
    
The Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the woman, calls the case "outrageous."

"Christians shouldn't live in fear of being punished by the government for being Christians," ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster said. "It is completely absurd to try to penalize a single Christian woman for privately seeking a Christian roommate at church -- an obviously legal and constitutionally protected activity."

"Not content to just lock Christians and their beliefs into the four walls of their church or home, some groups also want to invade those walls and force their own ideas upon them by force of law," he added.
 
The ADF is seeking to have the case dismissed.

"The First Amendment guarantees us Freedom of Religion, and we have the right to live with someone of the same faith," Oster said. "The Michigan Department of Civil Rights is denying her rights by pursuing this complaint."