In Peterson v. Wilmur Communs., Inc., 205 F. Supp. 2d 1014 (E.D. Wis. 2002), a telemarketing firm demoted an employee when it discovered through a newspaper account that he was a “reverend” in the virulently racist World Church of the Creator, which preaches “racial holy war” and instructs its adherents that virtue consists in advancing the interest of the white race. The employee supervised eight workers, including three non-whites, and the employer said it felt that the latter employees would not be confident of having their work evaluated objectively under his supervision. A federal court held that although the man’s “church” professes no belief in a god, supreme being, or afterlife, what matters was that it holds itself out as religious and inculcates moral and ethical precepts which its adherents sincerely embrace with an intensity comparable to religious belief. The court concluded that the employer had violated federal law against religious bias. A law firm newsletter comments that henceforth employers “may risk allegations of religious discrimination if they fail to protect employees’ religious rights to believe in white supremacy. At the same time, they may risk allegations of race discrimination by nonwhite employees supervised by white supremacists. The decision also opens the door for other groups to reformulate themselves into religions.” (“White Supremacy Held To Be Religion Under Title VII”, McLane law firm newsletter, Nov. 2002 (PDF); Wimberly Lawson newsletter, Sept. 2002, GoogleCached; Holland & Knight Employment, Labor and Benefits newsletter, Jul. 29, 2002 (PDF); HRCalifornia.com (California Chamber of Commerce), “Can You Believe This? Truth Beats Fiction in Employment Law” (list of strange and unusual labor law cases), Nov. 2003) (via Employer’s Lawyer). An account from the Southern Poverty Law Center downplays the significance of the ruling (“Race as Religion“, undated).

Filed under: religious discrimination, workplace