Woman Wins Religious Discrimination Case

[Rhino]

Nov 16, 4:45 AM EST

Woman Wins Religious Discrimination Case

By DANA FIELDS
Associated Press Writer

SAVANNAH, Mo. (AP) -- Three years after she was fired for refusing to work on Sundays, Connie Rehm has won back her job on the staff of this small town's public library, and her employers have received a costly education in employment rights law.

No less a legal team than the same Florida attorneys who represented the parents of Terri Schiavo - the brain-damaged woman at the center of last year's right-to-die case - took up Rehm's cause, suing Rolling Hills Consolidated Library on a claim of religious discrimination.

A federal jury found in her favor after a three-day trial in May, and last month she was reinstated on a judge's order to the staff assistant job she had held for 12 years before her religious practice and the library's adoption of Sunday hours collided in 2003.

To Rehm, a 54-year-old former junior high school math teacher who still attends the Lutheran church where she and her husband were married 34 years ago, the outcome of her case is a victory for any employee whose conviction against laboring on the Sabbath is tested by workplace demands......http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NOT_ON_SUNDAY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[DeclinetoState]

"To Rehm, a 54-year-old former junior high school math teacher who still attends the Lutheran church where she and her husband were married 34 years ago, the outcome of her case is a victory for any employee whose conviction against laboring on the Sabbath is tested by workplace demands......"

Actually, Saturday, not Sunday, is the Sabbath, but I suppose that's a matter for another time and place.

[Timberwolf]

Her work hours didn't interfere with the Sabbath, which is Saturday. I believe that is one of the reasons why Christians worship on Sunday...because getting to church was (a loooooong time ago) viewed as a form of work and we are to rest on the Sabbath day (the 7th day of the week...Saturday).

If the judge had done a bit of research, she would have lost her case...and rightly so. But, ony because SHE brought "Sabbath" into the case. Sabbath does not mean "worship". It is from the Hebrew for "to rest".

I do not think she should've been put into the position of having to choose between work and worship, in the first place. Especially when she'd been employed there for 12 years. But, it sounds to me as if she's been working on the Sabbath for her entire life...not just at the library.