Posted on 07/24/2014 12:37:37 PM PDT by Objective Scrutator
A born-again Christian who was fired from South Tipperary County Council has been awarded €70,000 compensation after the Equality Tribunal found he was discriminated against over his religion.
According to the council, John McAteer was dismissed after repeatedly failing to comply with senior staff members who told him to stop speaking about his faith to workers and members of the public during office hours.
Mr McAteer said the tenets of his religion require him to speak to people about Jesus and share the Gospel with them.
The complainant had been working as a civil engineer in the Clonmel Borough Council from December 2007 until his dismissal in July 2010. In April 2008, he was informed by the council’s human resources officer that a complaint had been received over him speaking about his faith in the office.
He was told not to talk about religion during the working day, including during his lunch break.
Mr McAteer said he found this particularly difficult as speaking to others about his faith was integral to the practice of his religion.
In June 2008, he attended a disciplinary meeting to discuss a number of instances where he spoke about his religious beliefs to members of the public during working hours and his failure to comply with the direction of a senior member of staff.
He was warned if he continued to disregard instructions from senior management and share his faith with people during normal working hours he would be sacked.
In August 2008, he left the office to check on the construction of a footpath. While doing so he met a man with a motorbike to whom he spoke about religion.
This resulted in another disciplinary meeting and a final written warning. In June 2009, Mr McAteer was suspended without pay for two months and was ordered to see a professional to help him with his compulsive behaviour after he was spotted talking to a man outside a coffee shop about religion.
In June 2010, the borough council manager informed Mr McAteer that he was to be dismissed after speaking to a man working as a contractor at the council offices about Jesus.
Counsel for Mr McAteer submitted that he was an evangelical Christian and that he sought to manifest his beliefs by sharing his faith with others and that this type of practice constituted a fundamental tenet of his belief system.
It was argued that Mr McAteer was not facilitated in the practice of his beliefs by the council and as a result of practicing them was accused of gross misconduct.
The council submitted that Mr McAteer was not dismissed because of his religious beliefs but because he continually failed to comply with the directions of senior members of the council.
The council also said declarations concerning human rights protect the right to hold a religious belief but that no right is absolute and unlimited.
The equality officer Marian Duffy noted that European charters on human rights and freedoms protect a right to manifest one’s religion and, therefore, the manifestation of religion is covered within the Employment Equality Acts.
Ms Duffy said she was satisfied the “treatment of the complainant and the monitoring of him by council staff directly related to his religious beliefs and the manifestation of these beliefs”.
She said the ban placed on him from sharing his faith between 9am and 5pm impacted disproportionately on people of his religious faith. Ms Duffy added: “For these reasons, I am satisfied that the complainant has established a prima facie case of discriminatory treatment in relation to his conditions of employment and dismissal.”
In calculating redress, she noted that Mr McAteer, whose salary had been €54,000, has only succeeded in finding part-time work since his dismissal.
Ms Duffy said that an award of €70,000 was appropriate.
On the other hand, if government is going to have these tyrannical laws, they should at least apply them to someone who is being discriminated against for illegitimate reasons, and Mr. McAteer was certainly persecuted unjustly in this scenario. If his proselytization does not cost the company money (e.g. when he did it during lunch break), then he should be allowed to do so. Since Ireland does not tolerate dissent from Socialist doctrine, the outcome of this case is the best Christians can hope for.
As a slight aside, if you believe that Jesus is the Only Way and you refuse to spread the Word, are you not complicit in your fellow man's damnation? The LORD will certainly ensure that Mr McAteer has his place in heaven, while those who tried to stop the spreading of the Gospel will face a grueling reckoning on Judgment Day.
Amen!
Could you cite the passage that supports this view?
1 Thes 4:11: and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you
I have seen far too many Christians who make pests out of themselves instead of doing the work they are paid to do. If he is on the clock he should do what he is paid to do. During breaks and lunch he should be free to spread the Gospel.
Ezekiel 33
You can BET that the employers in Ireland will find some way to ferret out these people who insist on inflicting their views, whatever they are, on others.
Scotch tape over his mouth?
Ear plugs for the people around him?
Send him to herd sheep in the Himalayas?
Taffy candy taster?
LOTS of ways to get his mouth to stop proselytizing on the job. TIME and place.
He may actually do MORE harm than good with his overt proselytizing.
Just so I understand your contention here, you take the Jewish "Watchman on the Wall" prophetic office as applying to all Gentiles who now trust Christ? Is this not directed at "...O house of Israel" (vs. 11) Do you not think it odd that this admonition is NOT repeated in the NT anytime after the cross when Gentiles are grafted into the Body of Christ?
There are the Christian bloggers who INSIST that St. Francis NEVER said this. I wonder how ANYONE knows exactly all the words that St. Francis said and didn't say. We do know that he is SAINT Francis and he DID practice what he preached.
We should be so saintly. I am ON OCCASION, for VERY, very, very short periods of time. I get far too annoyed, irritated, irked, galled, angered, feather-ruffled, nerve-racked, hackle-raised, nettled, piqued and otherwise exasperated by my fellow human BEANS. SOMETIMES I would just love to grind them up and feed them to the birds.
Other than THOSE times, I can easily tolerate my fellow human BEANS beings.
I also find this part of the article quite funny:
He was warned if he continued to disregard instructions from senior management and share his faith with people during normal working hours he would be sacked.
In August 2008, he left the office to check on the construction of a footpath. While doing so he met a man with a motorbike to whom he spoke about religion. ...
I was led to Christ by a fellow employee who unabashedly shared his faith while we were working in the same room.
It didn’t stop our ability to do our job. We could do it and talk at the same time.
Ran him down?
Knocked him over?
Stole his purse?
Goosed him?
Pinched his butt?
Dumped a cream pie over his head?
Grabbed his front?
Dropped a spider down his back?
Kicked him in the shin?
Goosed his wife?
Whaaat? :o)
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19,20)
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19,20)"
I've been gone for a while, so just got this. I appreciate your contribution here (and elsewhere)and see what you are getting at. But the original post claimed that if a person knows Christ and fails to share that with a neighbor, that person may be "complicit" in the neighbor's damnation.
James is clearly encouraging believers to advise other believers (...if any among you strays...) who have wandered off the truth and be a part of saving them from disciplinary death. This is not salvation, but aiding other from being rendered useless and being taken home.
It seems that the OP was intended to use that old familiar scare tactic to encourage believers to "share their faith" or God will get you, too. While sharing is commendable, there is absolutely no possibility of being "complicit" with an unbeliever's damnation. Jacob will not be held accountable for Esau. God hated Esau before he was born or had done anything good or bad...that is divine determination and it is clearly Paul's message to all believers. There was no way to reverse his destiny, not even when he sought repentance with tears. God decided to send him to destruction. That, Paul says, should make us fear God because He has mercy on whom He has mercy and He hardens to hell those whom He will. Rom. 9
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