Agape Press reported yesterday on an appeal to the California State Personnel Board filed last week on behalf of a state employee by the Pacific Justice Institute. The employee, who works for a California state agency, read an article in a national magazine featuring a lesbian attorney and her partner. She was troubled by a statement in the article attributed to the attorney, "Hypocrisy occurs when religion is used to justify why two people should not be married." The employee e-mailed the attorney from work, expressing her beliefs concerning religion and homosexuality and quoting several verses from the Bible. The attorney contacted the state employee's supervisors, complaining about the e-mail and saying that the use of scripture was harassing. After an investigation, the employee was suspended for 30 days without pay.
The appeal argues that workers' rights to express their religious convictions -- "especially when they are acting in their personal capacity"-- should be preserved. Particularly because other state employees are permitted to send e-mails on other topics in their free time, the Pacific Justice Institute contends that this employee is being "punished simply because [her] opinion happens to be from a Christian perspective."
