This is the kind of story that mainstream media loves to use to show how mean and evil Christians are.
A Dallas-area volleyball coach and science teacher was fired by the Christian school at which she worked for becoming pregnant before being married, according to Yahoo.
Does the school have the right to fire her? It would seem so.
The recent Supreme Court Hosaanna-Tabor decision defended the right of Christian schools to hire and fire because they consider teachers to be “ministers in the classroom.” But it doesn’t look like that’s going to stop the young lady from filing some sort of case against the school.
Heritage Christian Academy headmaster Dr. Ron Taylor said in a news report something that I think sums up his very valid thoughts on this. He asked, “How’s it going to look to a little fourth-grade girl that sees she’s pregnant and she’s not married?”
If someone at my kids’ school was pregnant and unmarried I’d be thinking about what I’d have to explain to my kids. I’m not sure I’d leap to firing the teacher but I’d certainly have some thinking to do.
But the school terminated her based on a violation of her contract’s morals clause because it was determined her pregnancy meant she could not serve as “a Christian role model.”
Here’s the thing – it could be that the young lady doesn’t consider premarital sex a sin so she was unwilling to admit that publicly. In fact, a quote from her in a news story looks kinda’ like that.
“I looked it up and thought, ‘They can’t do this,'” the 29-year-old Samford told WFAA. “We all have different views and interpretations. It’s not necessarily the Christian thing to do to throw somebody aside because of those.”
Different views and interpretations of what? It’s unclear from the stories I’ve read. Does she mean different views and interpretations and the appropriateness of premarital sex? If so, then I think the school absolutely did the right thing.
Obviously, the last thing a Christian school needs is a teacher that’s unmarried and pregnant and unwilling to tell children that premarital sex is a no-no. But the last thing I’m sure these Christians want is to have a young woman pregnant, unemployed and uninsured.
She chose life and I’m thrilled for that.
The whole thing is a really tricky situation and it’s got some bloviating already about the eeeevil Christian school. But we don’t have enough information to form an opinion other than to say that the school absolutely has the right to fire her. But on the other hand I’m hoping the school does whatever it can to help this new mom out.
