Saturday, October 14, 2006

Only in Texas - Baptist gender discrimination

An unmarried woman working as a preschool teacher was asked inappropriate personal questions about her sex life and marital status when she became pregnant. Then her employer ordered her to stop having sex.

A church preschool teacher who became pregnant out of wedlock sued her employer, saying she was forced to sign a statement that she would stop having sex until marriage.

Source: ABC13.com - Church teacher says boss told her to stop sex life until marriage

The issue in the case is do churches get some kind of pass on proper workplace behavior because of their spiritual nature or unique values? Would it matter if the unmarried woman was a teacher or a janitor, a Christian or a non-believer? Are workers required to take a faith test because they work in a church or a church run enterprise like a pre-school? It is a complex issue, and one that I think is greatly affected by one's world view.

Suffice it to say that if I did any of these things at my place of employment, I would lose my job and find myself a defendant in a civil suit. Not to mention that my wife would kick my ass. So what is fair in a democracy? My guess is - treat all businesses, including faith based businesses, the same.

I honestly don't go looking for these Texas based Christian nutball stories. They just appear in my news filter under the search term "Texas is crazy".