Christian fired for sharing God, First Amendment rights Violated
Pastor Dale Morgan
Christian fired for sharing God, **First Amendment rights Violated*
University, agency that sacked woman on trial in federal court
Posted: March 28, 2007
Pacific Justice Institute
A Christian woman is battling a California university and state social
agency for terminating her internship because she shared her faith with
co-workers during off-hours.
Jacqueline Escobar was completing a master's degree in social work at
California State University Long Beach when she interned with the
Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS.
A straight-A student, Escobar was complimented regularly by the DCFS for
her work. But she came under scrutiny for sharing her faith with
co-workers during lunch breaks and after-hours, and for changing into a
shirt with a religious message – "Found" – after signing out for the
day, according to the Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing her.
A trial is scheduled to begin April 3.
"Through this case, we hope to send a powerful message to government
employers: you cannot trounce upon the First Amendment rights of people
of faith and expect to get away with it," said Brad Dacus, president of
Pacific Justice Institute.
Escobar was directed to stop speaking about her faith, even during
breaks and after work hours.
Also, the university ordered her to sign a document admitting she had
"an inability to separate her religious beliefs from her role" as an intern.
She refused to sign the document, arguing she couldn't agree to such a
sweeping prohibition that included her religious practice during
non-working hours.
Consequently, Escobar was terminated from her internship and threatened
with expulsion from the graduate program.
She then contacted Pacific Justice Institute and filed the federal suit.
Attorney Daniel R. Watkins argued freedom of religion is "the first and
most fundamental constitutional right."
"Unfortunately, as this case illustrates, religious beliefs are under
assault from every sector of government," he said. "It is our intent to
ensure that people of faith working in government are afforded the
protections our founding fathers intended."
As was previously reported, a Christian former employee of Allstate
settled a lawsuit claiming he was fired because of an anti-homosexual,
anti-same-sex marriage column he wrote on his own time.
J. Matt Barber was a manager in Allstate's Corporate Security Division,
its investigative arm, at the Fortune 100 company's headquarters in
Northbrook, Ill. After being called into a meeting with two human
resources officials who confronted Barber about the column, he was fired.
Though the original column's bio line did not indicate Barber worked for
Allstate, editors at one of the sites where it was posted added that
information, and a complaint about the piece made its way to Allstate
management.