The 3 - October 6, 2024

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, includes good news for a teacher in Virginia fired for declining to use "gender" pronouns of a female student presenting as male.  Also, a local judge in Georgia has struck down the state's pro-life heartbeat law. Plus, a consortium of Christian employers have won a court case against a federal government agency. 

Fired VA French teacher receives massive payday in pronoun flap

Peter Vlaming was a French teacher in Virginia, but he lost his job because he chose not to lie to a student on the basis of biology.  The Daily Citizen reports that Vlaming...

...was a well-liked teacher at West Point High School. In 2018, when one of his female students began presenting as a male and using masculine pronouns, Vlaming wrestled with how to respond. He believes – for religious, philosophical and scientific reasons – that sex is an innate biological trait.

He chose to call the student by her new, assumed name, but did not use the requested pronouns.

But that wasn't satisfactory. The article says, "The superintendent demanded Vlaming refer to the student using pronouns inconsistent with her sex. When he refused, the school board fired him. In response, Vlaming filed a lawsuit against the school board with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom..."  The article says:

Last December, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Vlaming’s favor, issuing a landmark decision affirming that the Virginia Constitution protects public employees’ right to free speech and freely exercise their religion.

And, the news got better.  As The Daily Citizen notes:

Following that decision, the West Point School Board agreed to pay $575,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees to settle the lawsuit. The school board also cleared Vlaming’s record and changed its policies to conform to Virginia’s new education policies protecting parental rights.

Local judge strikes down Georgia's heartbeat law

The Georgia law that had as its goal to protect life, banning abortion after a heartbeat is detected, has been under scrutiny recently.  There has been misinformation about the law's protection of not only unborn children, but of women in emergency situations concerning their pregnancy.

Now, a local judge has decided that the law is unconstitutional.  Live Action News reports:

Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney, who struck down Georgia’s LIFE Act in 2022 before the state Supreme Court reversed his decision, has again ruled to strike down the Act as unconstitutional. This means abortion is now legal in Georgia up to 22 weeks gestation.

The article says: 

McBurney noted in his ruling that the plaintiffs in the case had asked the court to declare that a ‘right to abortion’ is included within the state constitution’s “protections for liberty and privacy.” And, consistently, McBurney repeatedly emphasized the ideas of a woman’s liberty and privacy over the very existence of a developing human being.

In its analysis, Live Action News also relates that the judge...

...went on to argue that until a preborn child is ‘viable’, the only person who can assume that child’s care is the mother, and she cannot be forced to do so… because she has “fundamental rights” to make “healthcare choices” that include ending the life of her child in the womb until that child can be cared for by someone else.

Of course, intentionally and directly killing a defenseless human being cannot reasonably be considered “health care.”

The article, published last Monday, included these responses:

Governor Brian Kemp sent a statement to Newsweek today following Judge McBurney’s decision, with spokesperson Garrison Douglas stating, “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge. Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

NBC News reports the state’s plans to appeal, writing, “Kara Murray, a spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, said, ‘We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional, and we will immediately appeal the lower court’s decision.'”

On Monday afternoon, October 6, the Georgia Supreme Court, for the second time, overruled Judge McBurney, and reinstated Georgia's pro-life heartbeat law.  

Christian employers' lawsuit finalized after positive ruling

An organization representing Christian businesses, coming off a court ruling in its favor, has been on the receiving end of an agreement from a federal agency to pay an amount of $210,000 for "attorneys' fees and costs."  The Alliance Defending Freedom website notes that...

...a federal district court decision earlier this year that stopped the administration from forcing nonprofit and for-profit religious employers and health care providers to violate their religious beliefs by paying for and performing harmful “gender transition” surgeries, procedures, counseling, and treatments.

The website reports: 

The lawsuit, Christian Employers Alliance v. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, filed in October 2021, argued that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is misinterpreting and improperly enforcing discrimination based on sex in Title VII to force religious employers to pay for and provide health insurance coverage for such surgeries and procedures. Additionally, the lawsuit challenged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ reinterpretation of “sex” in federal law to include gender identity, thereby forcing religious healthcare providers who receive federal funding to physically perform or facilitate surgeries and procedures that conflict with their deeply held beliefs.

The article quotes Shannon Royce, Christian Employers Alliance President, who said: “We are overjoyed our members will not have to choose between the biblically based employee benefits and quality healthcare they provide, and the threat of federal enforcement and massive costs for practicing their faith..."