A federal appeals court will hear a case today that epitomizes the worst fears of evangelical Christians about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the workplace.
Snyder v. Arconic involves the claim of Daniel Snyder of Davenport, Iowa, against his former employer, Arconic, a manufacturing company based in Pittsburgh with more than 13,000 employees and $9 billion in annual revenue.
Snyder and his attorneys at the Thomas More Society claim he was fired in 2021 for “expressing his religious beliefs.” The company claims he was dismissed for violating its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
On June 3 that year, while working an overnight shift, Snyder posted a comment to the company’s intranet — accessible by all employees — complaining about the company’s use of the rainbow to promote gay Pride month.
He stated: “Its a abomination to God. Rainbow is not meant to be displayed as a sign for sexual gender.”
A manager saw the post the next day and removed it, and that began a journey of disciplinary actions that culminated in Snyder’s involuntary termination June 12.
Snyder, who is a part-time pastor, later claimed his employer “was not considering his feelings and religious beliefs in using the rainbow to promote ‘Gay Pride Month.’”
According to court documents, Gerald McNamara, a senior labor relations specialist with the company, said the company’s decision rested in part on concerns that “there would be future violations of the policy based upon his behavior. He had violated the policy three times, and he … hadn’t shown me that he understood what he did was wrong and why he should not do it going forward.”
Also according to court documents, Arconic has a diversity policy and other policies aimed at combatting workplace harassment. These policies define harassment to include written material that “denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward a person or group because of any protected characteristic” and “sharing unsolicited opinions about a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.”
Snyder, who is a part-time pastor, later claimed his employer “was not considering his feelings and religious beliefs in using the rainbow to promote ‘Gay Pride Month.’”
There are nuances to the facts of the case, including questions about whether Snyder intended to post his comment to the company wide intranet or somewhere else and about how he and company supervisors interacted after the event.
The main question, though, is whether Snyder’s anti-LGBTQ comments are allowable grounds for termination, based on the company’s policies and his own rights to free speech.
A news release from Thomas More Society explained: “For Daniel, the rainbow is a sign of the covenant between God and man, given to Noah after the Great Flood. Daniel’s comment was a restatement of Genesis 9:13-16 and stands with the mainstream Christian teaching that the rainbow should not be used to promote ideologies contrary to the teachings of the Bible.”
Many evangelical Christians believe God created humans strictly for heterosexual sexual relationships. They believe being gay or lesbian is a sinful choice that should not be celebrated because it is an affront to God.
Thus, Snyder and his attorneys have flipped the claim to allege he is the victim of religious discrimination, not those other employees who might have seen his intranet post.
“Arconic’s actions clearly violated Mr. Snyder’s right to be free from employment discrimination based on religion,” said Michael McHale, senior counsel for Thomas More Society.
An earlier court did not agree with Snyder or his legal counsel. When he brought a Title VII suit asserting that Arconic failed to accommodate his religion, the district court granted Arconic’s motion for summary judgment and denied Snyder’s motion for partial summary judgment.
The court said Snyder provided no “evidence that Arconic employees who made comments expressing hostility toward protected groups for non-religious reasons were punished less severely.” The court also found that Snyder’s religion did not “require” him to object to the rainbow image, therefore he was not acting on a religious mandate but instead on his own personal religious views.
His attorneys argue the court should follow a rule “that all discipline responding to religious expression in the workplace amounts to discipline ‘because of’ religion” and should therefore be protected.
He appealed the summary judgment, which set up today’s case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth District.
His attorneys argue the court should follow a rule “that all discipline responding to religious expression in the workplace amounts to discipline ‘because of’ religion” and should therefore be protected.
The Thomas More news release states: “What Arconic did to Daniel is a blatant violation of federal and state law — a clear case of religious discrimination. Daniel’s comment comes straight out of the Books of Genesis and Leviticus. Daniel wrote God’s Truth, as he understood it — but to his Fortune 500 employer, Daniel had committed a grievous offense.”
This case combines multiple elements of the culture wars between evangelical Christians and secular society, including what constitutes protected religious speech in the workplace, the role of diversity initiatives, the presence and blessing of gay employees, and how to celebrate Pride Month.
The latter has been a concern of evangelicals in other settings, including opposition by Southern Baptist Convention elected leaders who wanted to cancel a contract with a secular firm because of a single tweet wishing their gay employees well during Pride Month.
