The Undergraduate Council last night approved its first slate of student group aid this semester but tabled two grants to religious student groups after one representative questioned the groups’ policies for selecting leaders.

The grant package awarded nearly $20,000 in cash and $2,000 in Harvard University Dining Services food vouchers to 53 organizations that applied in the first wave of funding this semester.

After minimal debate, the bill had nearly come to a vote when Jason L. Lurie ’05 warned the council that approval might jeopardize its tax-exempt status.

Lurie said that two groups receiving grants—the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship and the Harvard Asian Baptist Student Koinonia—discriminate on the basis of religion and that supporting these organizations would violate the council’s constitution.

According to excerpts from their constitutions that Lurie read at the meeting, members of both organizations have to subscribe to the groups’ faiths to be eligible for leadership positions.

“If we violate our charter, we’ll lose our tax-exempt status,” Lurie said. “It’s the law.”

The council ultimately decided to approve the grants package but set aside those two groups for consideration at a future meeting.

Membership in Christian Fellowship is open to all, said Deborah C. Morton ’03, a member of the group’s executive board.

But she added that Lurie’s claims raise complex questions about her group’s leadership policies.

“I don’t believe that a non-Christian could really lead the group,” she said. “The point of a religious organization is to be faithful to the religion.”

“It is kind of discriminating against religious organizations,” Morton said of Lurie’s claims.

During the meeting, council Treasurer Eric J. Powell ’04 said every student group that receives a grant from the council signs a pledge that the group does not discriminate on a number of bases, including religion.

Leaders of the Harvard Asian Baptist Student Koinonia could not be reached late last night.

In other activity on the grants bill, Rory S. Donald ’04 proposed an amendment to subtract $150 from the Harvard Friends of Scouting grant and divide the money equally between the cheerleading squad and Crimson Dance Team.

“Some of you will question my motives,” Donald told an amused council. “But they provide a really valuable service to the Harvard community.”