On The Front Lines
John W. Whitehead Appears on NPR'S Morning Edition
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR's Religion Correspondent, Interviewed John W. Whitehead and Rutherford Institute Client Albert Buonanno For The Program.Note: The segment aired on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 on most NPR stations. Listen to an audio recording of the segment, entiled "When Faith Clashes with Corporate Policy" on NPR's website.
For more than two decades, NPR's Morning Edition has prepared listeners for the day ahead with two hours of up-to-the-minute news, background analysis, commentary, and coverage of arts and sports. With nearly 13 million listeners, the morning program draws public radio's largest audience.
John W. Whitehead and Rutherford Institute client Albert Buonanno appeared on Morning Edition in a segment focusing on religious discrimination in the workplace. In April 2004, Rutherford Institute attorneys helped Buonanno win a religious discrimination lawsuit against his former employer AT&T Broadband. In January 2001, Buonanno was fired after he refused to sign off on portions of the company's employee handbook regarding homosexuality that he felt violated his sincerely held religious beliefs. The ruling awarded Buonanno with back pay and lost 401(k) matching contributions.
"This issue is about more than an objection to homosexuality. It concerns the freedom of conscience--the right of individuals to object to something they believe is wrong, especially when it contradicts their religious beliefs, whether it is war, abortion, homosexuality or a number of other issues," said Whitehead in a statement after the ruling. "This was just one case among many in which employees continue to be wrongfully denied accommodation and the right to freedom of conscience because of their religious beliefs--rights guaranteed both under federal law and under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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