[ICE-FLYER]

Gays hate it when you discriminate against their lifestyle choice for any reason especially when you have a constitutionally protected right to your religious belief. There is no evidence that this man did so but none the less when the militant left can shoot down some Bible believing Christian its ALL GOOD to them.

[Blood of Tyrants]

If he had an ounce of sense, he would have left his workplace and gone to the nearest lawyer's office. Allstate will pay for this one.

[Spok]

I think the termination was absolutely reasonable. How could a person work for Allstate and believe in God, too? (humor)

[massgopguy]

Allstate just committed suicide.

[Brilliant]

If he associated the Allstate name with his letter, I might understand this. But seems like both Allstate and the complaining employee ought to be sued.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Short story, my brother had a fender bender on a country road where a fellow with no insurance came around a blind curve too fast, crossed over the middle of the road and struck my brother head on. My brother filed a claim on his uninsured motorist policy since he only had liability and uninsured motorist coverage. Allstate then hired a lawyer to represent the GUY WHO RAN IN TO MY BROTHER so they wouldn't have to pay the $900 repair cost.

I dropped Allstate within the week.

[HairOfTheDog]

Having a political life, including writing editorials and opinion pieces for public consumption, might be looked down on by workplaces that don't want to have to deal with your political life. Everyone should be aware of this risk.

[hispanichoosier]

My e-mail message to Allstate's HQ:

Since you terminated Matt Barber's employment merely because of his Christian opposition to homosexual marriage, I will henceforce tell friends and family that Allstate is an anti-Christian company and that doing business with Allstate is tantamount to supporting religious bigotry.

[Capn TrVth]

If Archie Bunker were only here:

He would read the subject line, whince and say:

"Aw Jeeze!!"

[SteveMcKing]

This is religious-based discrimination, which is a federal civil rights violation.

[johnk]

He should give Allstate some aflac on this one....

How did they find out who he worked for.....

[Gefreiter]

This:
"On his own time, and without identifying himself as an employee of Allstate, he wrote a column posted on several websites which was critical of same-sex marriage."

Doesn't jibe with this:

"An outside homosexual group complained to Allstate about the column."

If he was unidentified, how did the homos connect him to his company?

[Dr.Hilarious]

Employers can fire people for whatever reason they like, more or less (or they SHOULD be allowed). They don't want this guy to work for him, for whatever reason? Fine with me--since when are we the ones saying government should be in the position to tell private companies who to hire and fire?

Consequently, these folks should also know that we as private citizens have every right to drop them as our insurers and spread the word that they are a No Christians Allowed zone, which hires and fires based on personal politics. If that's how they wanna play...

[GSHastings]

I'll be happy to cancel my Allstate insurance (of many years) if this is true. How do I verify this is true and not attempted urban legend?

[TChris]

This appears to be the closest thing to an e-mail address for Allstate: https://messaging.allstate.com/Corp/Corp_ProcessEmail.asp. It's a web form -- incorrectly called e-mail on this and far too many other websites -- for submitting comments to Allstate.

Oh, and the guy has filed a lawsuit over this.

While I think it was a stupid decision to fire him, I still maintain that the right of a business to terminate an employee when ever they feel like it, for what ever reason, should stand. The consequences for stupid and/or biased decisions should come from somewhere other than the legal system, IMO. Customers may express their opinions about the matter with their wallets.

[Antonello]

I vaguely remembered reading the article he wrote. It can be found here. While he didn't claim affiliation or to be representative of Allstate in the article, it did mention his place of employment in the biographical byline at the end.

In my opinion that shouldn't be enough to warrant firing, but certainly solves the mystery of how the offended reader was able to know where he worked.

[Spiff]

Here's one of the articles.

I support what Matt said and his right to say it. Where he goofed up is that he allowed the name of his employer to be associated with his article. See the information at the end of the article in MensNewsDaily.

J. Matt Barber is a non-practicing attorney, an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer (Matt "Bam Bam" Barber), and a professional jazz drummer in the Chicago Land (IL) area. In addition to his Law Degree, Barber holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy. Matt Works for Allstate Insurance Company as a Territorial Senior Manager in Allstate's Law and Regulation Corporate Security (Internal Fraud Investigations) Department.

I think this is grounds for a stern warning, but certainly not grounds for firing someone. If this had been a pro-deviant lifestyle article, or pro-jihadist screed, I'm doubtful that the employee would have even received a warning let alone get fired over it. So, I'm not excusing Allstate for their obvious political correctness, but Barber really opened himself up to having this happen to him.

[AD from SpringBay]

What happens when someone is fired for being pro-gay marriage? Has it been tried?

[Outland]

Well, good thing I don't use crooked Allstate anyway. I never have, I never will.

Thank God that I work for a place that doesn't care what I do and think on my time. Thankfully, my boss and I agree on most issues anyway.

[bray]

That's ok, Allstate doesn't need any Christian customers.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[stinkerpot65]

Allstate advertising targets homosexuals

http://www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html?record=419

Allstate gives to GLAAD

http://www.gaybusinessworld.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=2&typeofsite=snippetdetail&ID=1293&snippetset=yes&region=0

Allstate promotes "tolerance," "inclusion," and "diversity"

http://www.taclearinghouse.org/clearinghouse/funding.nsf/0/812CFEFFE059831887256CF30065D6EB?OpenDocument

Allstate large donor for LAMBDA

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:rcIImSqLnCMJ:www.touchstonemag.com/blogarchive/2002_10_13_editors.html+allstate+homosexual&hl=en

Allstate insures same sex couples as married

http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200407/CUL20040707a.shtml

Allstate marketing toward homosexuals

http://www.v7n.com/gay.php