Women File Suit Against UTA Over "Religion"

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning, and attorneys from the Liberty Legal Institute, the University of Texas at Arlington has fired two women for praying at their work location after work hours.

The Liberty Legal Institute is a right-wing fundamentalist organization dedicated to trying to force fundamentalist christianity into our schools, workplaces and other public venues. I would expect their attorneys to tell only the part of the story that fits the needs of their clients, as many attorneys do. But I am disappointed in the reporting of the Star-Telegram.

Do they really believe that these two women were terminated for having an innocuous prayer after work? I certainly don't. I can't believe that UTA would fire anyone simply for praying with a co-worker. There has to be more to this story, and the newspaper should have dug deeper and gotten both sides before they even printed this story.

Going into the reader's comments section of the story, we are able to learn a little more. It seems these women weren't simply praying. They were making a public display of their religion, harassing employees [probably repeatedly], and even admitted themselves that they performed an "exorcism" on another worker's cubicle, spreading oil in it and claiming he was demon-possessed. This kind of behavior is over the line.

You do have the right to pray unobtrusively at or after work. But you do not have the right to harrass co-workers who do not agree with you. You also don't have the right to enter a co-workers space without permission to spread oil around. I'll bet these women were repeatedly warned to stop bothering their co-workers by trying to force their religious beliefs on them.

You have the right to pray. You do not have the right to try to force your religious views on your co-workers.