What is Religious Discrimination?

Many people are not sure what constitutes religious discrimination in the workplace. There are many ways to discriminate against people; some are very obvious and others are more subtle. The subtle discriminations are often hard to recognize and harder still to prove in a religious discrimination claim. Therefore, we will look primarily at more outward forms of religious discrimination.

Religious discrimination includes, but is not limited to, the following: firing an employee because of that employees' Christian beliefs; loss of promotion due to one's Christian witness at work; failure to give an employee a raise until the employee no longer spends free time (such as breaks or lunch) discussing religious beliefs with other employees; harassment of employees because they wear religious clothing, such as a Christian shirt or a cross around the neck; continual mocking of a person's religious convictions or intentionally using offensive language around someone in order to mock one's religious beliefs.

Like sexual discrimination, religious discrimination is often hard to describe and harder still to define. This makes it complicated to prove that religious discrimination has occurred. Therefore, I recommend you carefully document any religious discrimination in preparation for a claim against an employer. While we as Christians are warned that those who desire to live godly lives will be persecuted, we should also understand that it is against the law in this country for a person to be refused a promotion or a raise or be fired due to his religious beliefs.

Many Christians are not aware they may have a religious discrimination claim against their employer if they have been harassed or fired due to their religious convictions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the government agency in charge of investigating claims of racial, sexual, or religious discrimination in the work place. Most Americans were probably not aware that the EEOC existed until the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. As you will recall, Justice Thomas was the head of the EEOC at one time.