One of these peoples’ jobs depends on the success of their marriage and it’s definitely not his.
When Alyce Conlon’s marriage hit a rough patch, she didn’t expect that her job would, too. But when she told her supervisors at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, where she had worked since 1986, about her marriage problems, they put her on paid leave and told her to go fix her marriage, citing their commitment to the sanctity of marriage.
Later that year, Conlon tried to come back to work – only to be told that she “did not make efforts to reconcile her marriage” and put on unpaid leave. Eventually, she was fired, in a letter that sadly noted that “reconciliation” had “proven unsuccessful.” (Her husband filed for divorce a month later.)
Weirdly, two men in her organization weren’t fired when they divorced. So Conlon went to court, alleging sex discrimination.
Tough luck, the court said – you count as a minister, and ministers are exempt from nondiscrimination law.
Welcome to the truly frustrating world of religious employment post Hosana-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and Schools v. EEOC, the 2012 court case that extended the ministerial exemption – which previously only applied to ordained ministers – to a wide range of people working in religious capacities, such as teachers at private schools and employees of religious charities. Since then, religious organizations can basically fire anyone for any reason and not get sued for it. They have mostly used this newfound power to fire gay people and their supporters, but apparently women can get in on the discrimination fun, too.