US court upholds firing for anti-gay Bible quotes

Reuters via forbes ^ | 1/6/04 | Reuters

[machman]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that Hewlett-Packard Co. did not violate the rights of a devout Christian employee when it fired him for posting Biblical scriptures on his cubicle that were critical of homosexuality.

The San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that HP did not discriminate against Richard Peterson when it fired him after he posted quotes from the Bible in his cubicle in response to company posters featuring gay employees.

The HP posters, which carried the slogan "Diversity is Our Strength," were part of an effort to promote the computer and printer maker's bid to hire and retain a diverse work force.

Peterson was fired for insubordination after refusing to remove the biblical postings, which managers determined could be viewed as offensive.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that Peterson, a veteran HP employee who worked in HP's Boise, Idaho office, had failed to provide evidence he was sacked for his religious beliefs.

Instead, Reinhardt held Peterson was fired for repeatedly disregarding instructions to remove his biblical postings, including one from Leviticus explicitly addressing homosexuality.

A passage, which Peterson had conceded was "intended to be hurtful," reads: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

Judge Reinhardt said it would have been an "undue hardship" for HP to have accommodated Peterson's demands that he be allowed to post scriptures in response to the posters, or that he remove his postings in exchange for HP taking down its posters promoting diversity.

Either option would have also hurt the company's efforts to "attract and retain a qualified, diverse work force, which the company reasonably views as vital to its commercial success," Reinhardt wrote.

Lawyers for Peterson and Palo Alto, California-based HP could not be immediately reached for comment.

Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service

[Jorge]

There's a difference between fighting the culture wars and evangelizing. Yes, they cross over, but when you're fighting homosexual deviants without scruples and their demonic agenda, you have to be willing to bare your own rhetorical knuckles too.

Well make up your mind. You rejected my criticism of this guy with a statement about Christ's command to preach the Gospel in and out of season.

I still disagree that these sort of tactics will win anybody to Christ.