Coercion In Kansas?: State Worker Claims She Was Fired For Non-Attendance At Christian Service
Rob Boston printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Mon Sep 14, 2015 at 01:20:37 PM EST

Let's say some people at a company want to get together during lunch hour and hold a Bible study. It's totally voluntary, and they don't pressure anyone else to attend. This is not likely to cause any problems.

But let's say the boss organized the Bible study and attends it regularly. Now we might have a problem if subordinates are coerced to attend overtly or even subtly. (If, for example, those who attend get in good with the boss and are first in line for promotions, raises, etc.)

Now let's say this is taking place at a government office. The problem just got a lot worse because government agencies are absolutely forbidden from using religion as a yardstick to judge employees.

A scenario like this is playing out in Kansas, a state that has been experimenting with a sort of de facto "faith-based" government under Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. Courtney Canfield, a business-filing specialist at the Secretary of State's Office, says she was fired in 2013 because she declined to attend a Christian service that was heavily promoted by Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rucker.

Canfield's complaint alleges that the Secretary of State's Office routinely invited employees to attend services conducted by Dave DePue, a minister who acts as a sort of "unofficial pastor" to Kansas lawmakers and officials, reported the Wichita Eagle.

"These invitations were distributed during normal business hours and included a `prayer guide' to be utilized at that week's service," Canfield's lawsuit reads. "Despite the repeated invitations, Plaintiff never attended such a service. While Plaintiff was a Methodist, she did not regularly attend church services or otherwise practice any particular religious beliefs in any way."

The lawsuit also asserts that Rucker even visited Canfield's grandmother, an official in the Kansas Republican Party, and informed her that Canfield would be fired and that the reason was that she "just doesn't go to church."

Kris Kobach, Kansas' secretary of state, has called the lawsuit baseless. Kobach insists that Canfield was fired for poor performance, but Canfield's lawsuits notes that she had regular promotions and no disciplinary actions until November of 2013, when a coworker accused her of a relatively trivial infraction of using an office phone to make a personal call.

It's not uncommon for the two sides to be polarized in employment cases like this. One side makes an allegation, and the other side denies it. One of the reasons we have a court system is to weigh the evidence, find out what really happened and make a judgment.

I'm willing to let that system play out and won't claim to know all of the facts here. But I do know that these are serious allegations, and if Canfield really was treated in the manner she claims, her civil rights were violated.

I also know this: All of this could have been avoided if officials in Kansas spent more time doing their jobs and less time worrying about the spiritual lives of their employees.

A good first step would be to send that "unofficial" chaplain packing. The capital of Kansas is Topeka, and the city and its surrounding metropolitan area have a population of about 234,000. There appears to be no shortage of houses of worship there.

If members of the Kansas government feel the need for spiritual solace, let them avail themselves of one of those.

 




Display:
(Laugh) that's about like being fired for attending a "Bible Study" put on by the company (privately owned public utility), and the company inviting a big-name dominionist megachurch pastor to lead it.  Big name started verbally abusing and insulting a catholic employee for not being fundamentalist-Pentecostal and for being an "idol worshipper", and then said something that contradicted the Bible - so another employee spoke up and pointed out the places in the Bible which showed that the big name preacher didn't know his own Bible as well as he should have (yeah, BIG mistake, especially defending a Roman Catholic).

Yeah, there were repercussions... including loss of the job after a few weeks (for incompetence), sudden intense pressure from the denomination to drop out of school and "get a real job" (pushed to work as night clerk in a convenience store, then in a shop run by a Good Christian who spent more time spying on his employees than trying to get new business and who beat one of them up for interrupting a non-private conversation about angels, and then in a place that was so badly contaminated that it later became a superfund site - while catching personal sermons and lectures about "submission to authority" and "God puts other people over you and you must obey them!").

From what I've seen, such things are very common.  The problem is the "system" believes the Good Christian business owner/CEO over the "horrible troublemaker-bad employee" almost every time.  If racist insults were involved and race was part of the issue, it gets even worse.  You almost have to have a gold-plated confession to win there.

I hope for Courtney's sake that the truth comes out and/or the people in the wrong are caught in lies.  It so rarely happens.  I hope she has good luck!

by ArchaeoBob on Sun Sep 20, 2015 at 10:35:58 PM EST

The Midwest reputation for common sense and ability to identify B.S. (vide: Missouri motto "The Show-Me State") is highly over-rated.

by NancyP on Mon Sep 21, 2015 at 12:51:16 PM EST
Parent

The first sentence got mangled.  

It should have read something like "(Laugh) that's about like being fired for attending a "Bible Study" put on by the company (privately owned public utility) where the company inviting a big-name dominionist megachurch pastor to lead it - and you showed that the pastor doesn't know the Bible nearly as well as he claimed.


by ArchaeoBob on Mon Sep 21, 2015 at 07:53:49 PM EST
Parent



Kansas an experiment we all get to see. Now maybe no Republican will ever get elected again to be governor/Pontifex of another US state. (Don't hold your breath.)

Some sects want to dominate and be the Religion-Govt of the states and country.

by Nightgaunt on Mon Sep 28, 2015 at 02:40:39 PM EST



WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (195 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (110 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (250 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (176 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (156 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (329 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.