A 19 year old student at Sonoma State University was told to take off her cross necklace because others might find it offensive.
I don’t know how Todd Starnes of Fox News finds all these types of culture war stories but he does do a pretty amazing job.
Audrey Jarvis, 19, a liberal arts major at the northern California university, said she had no choice but to seek a “religious accommodation” in order to wear the cross. Her lawyer said she deserves an apology, and the school seems ready to oblige.
“It’s amazing in this day of diversity and tolerance on university campuses that a university official would engage in this type of obvious religious discrimination,” said Hiram Sasser, an attorney with Liberty Institute, which is representing Jarvis.
Jarvis was working for the university’s Associated Students Productions at a June 27 student orientation fair for incoming freshmen when her supervisor told her to remove the two-inch-long cross necklace, according to Sasser.
Sasser said the supervisor told her that the chancellor had a policy against wearing religious items and further explained “that she could not wear her cross necklace because it might offend others, it might make incoming students feel unwelcome, or it might cause incoming students to feel that ASP was not an organization they should join.”
“My initial reaction was one of complete shock,” Jarvis told Fox News. “I was thrown for a loop.”
Jarvis said she is a devout Catholic and she wears the cross as a symbol of her faith in Christ.
“I was offended because I believe as a Christian woman it is my prerogative to display my faith any way I like so long as it is not harming anyone else,” she said. “I was very hurt and felt as if the university’s mission statement – which includes tolerance and inclusivity to all – was violated.”
On a second encounter, her supervisor told her she should hide the cross under her shirt or remove it.
At that point, Jarvis became so upset she left her student worker job early.
Sasser, who is representing the college student, said the university should apologize for their actions.
Whenever I read these types of stories I see that the Christian just wants an apology or they want their job back.
Maybe it’s time to start suing the pants off institutions that do this kind of stuff. Make other institutions afraid to mess with Christians because they will sue for mad cash. It’s not about greed, it’s about making institutions establish safeguards so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen every other week.
Unfortunately, if this kind of thing stopped happening Todd Starnes might be out of a job. Well, Todd can deal with that. I can’t worry about everything.
