Library worker alleges discrimination due to her faith
- Aug 27, 2008 - 1
Southern Baptist files federal lawsuit after taking stand over Harry Potter
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo.—A Missouri Baptist is suing after she says she was discriminated against and suspended from her job for refusing to promote a book she believes promotes “worship of the occult.”
Deborah Smith, a member of Temple Baptist Church, filed suit in May in U.S. District Court against the director of the Poplar Bluff Public Library and the City of Poplar Bluff. This followed a series of events after the library’s release party of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last summer. The lawsuit alleges that participating in the event would be “promoting worship of the occult” and “promoting witchcraft to children.”
The suit, filed on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, alleges that after securing time off from her immediate supervisor so as to not be involved in the library’s after-hours Harry Potter event, the library’s director Jacqueline Thomas, said Smith would be required to attend, “but in a way that [Smith’s] church community would not know she had participated. [Thomas] told [Smith] that hiding her participation from other church members should be sufficient to overcome any religious objection.”
Smith refused to participate in the event in any role.
“It doesn’t matter to me who else knows it,” Smith told The Pathway. “I know it, and my Father knows and that’s all that matters.”
Smith said although she refused to participate in the event, she did not refuse to check the books out to anyone or refuse anyone service. She said she is aware that not even all Southern Baptists are in agreement when it comes to the best-selling Harry Potter series. But, she said, this isn’t the issue.
“It’s not about what other people think and it’s not about pushing my view or theology on other people,” she said. “There are scores of Southern Baptists who are for Harry Potter and there are scores who are against. For me it’s wrong. The Bible says to not be involved in witchcraft and I’m not.”
According to the suit, Thomas allegedly “belittled” Smith’s religious beliefs and threatened to discipline her if she did not participate in the release party and asked whether Smith’s beliefs “were so strong that she would allow herself to be suspended.
“I told her, ‘My family and I desperately need this job. I have a daughter in college, but I would be willing to lose this job completely rather than abandon my faith’” Smith said.
The suit alleges that Smith did not participate in the Harry Potter event and was suspended without pay for 10 days. It also says that once she returned to work, she was assigned new and different hours and duties that were specifically excluded from her regular duties. Smith allegedly suffered “stress and medical complications due to the suspension, reduced hours and increasingly laborious tasks,” and “passed out at work while performing physically demanding page/shelver duties.”
She resigned Sept. 6, 2007.
According to the suit, Smith suffered injuries including loss of income, pain and suffering, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment and violation of her constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion.
Thomas declined to speak to The Pathway, referring questions to her attorney, D. Keith Henson of St. Louis, who is also representing the City of Poplar Bluff in the case. Henson also declined to comment on the case, referring instead to his legal response to Smith’s charges that was filed June 27.
According to those documents, Thomas and the City of Poplar Bluff deny all Smith’s major allegations. They also contend that because Smith voluntarily resigned her claims of First Amendment infringement does not hold up. The documents also claim that the district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction in the case against Thomas and that her “conduct was objectively reasonable, taken in good faith, and did not violate any clearly established rights” of Smith. Smith, the documents continue, “was provided reasonable accommodations for her religious beliefs.”
Smith said she is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, but she says she and her attorneys have not discussed an amount. She said she hopes the suit will move forward late this fall. Coincidently, the movie based on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the book that precedes Deathly Hallows, will be released Nov. 21.
This article is reprinted from the August 12, 2008, issue of The Pathway, the newspaper of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Further Learning
Learn more about: , Faith, Citizenship, Religious Liberty
1 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Aug 28th, 2008, at 9:55pm, Austin wrote:
Just a question to the ERLC: Who is representing Deborah in this case? The ACLU… isn’t that right? Hmmm… I thought the ACLU was Satan’s brainchild to destroy Christian America? Oh, wait… maybe they aren’t so bad after all…