Cashier Claims Employer “Ridiculed” the Ten Commandments

Religious discrimination lawsuits in the United States can be quite complex, and something as simple as employee training can lead to serious disputes. This was made clear after a recent lawsuit involving a cashier who claims his beliefs were “ridiculed” by his employer. What can this lawsuit teach us about religious freedoms and the First Amendment in modern America?

Cashier Presented With “Ten Commandments” for Employees

In 2023, an employee began working as a cashier at a convenience store in Kansas. After a few months, his employer gave him a raise. Next, he sent him an image of the “ten commandments” of working as a cashier. This educational tool seemingly turned a core part of the Christian faith into a training exercise. The image featured 10 rules laid out on a format similar to stone tablets. It also featured wording like “thou shall” and “thou shall not.” 

The employee found this image offensive and inappropriate. Furthermore, he argued that the image implied that if he violated these rules, he would be subject to the same dire consequences associated with the biblical Ten Commandments. In the modern era, violating the Ten Commandments is considered a “sin” among Christians. However, people in the time of Moses could face the death penalty if they violated these rules. 

The employee was required to sign a document stating that he had read these “Ten Commandments” of working as a cashier. However, he did not feel comfortable doing so, and he communicated his concerns to his manager. In addition, he asked that he be granted a religious accommodation, and he requested a new document free from any religious connotations. Note that he did not ask his employer to change their rules for cashiers, and he merely asked them to present the rules in a way he found more appropriate. 

When his manager heard these requests, he took the matter to the district manager and the human resources department. The employee also communicated with the district manager, but she allegedly replied that his concerns were “not appropriate” and asked him to “please stop.” 

For whatever reason, the management team then locked the employee out of the computer payment system. This seemed to be directly caused by his refusal to sign the document, and the employee could not log any of his hours. As a result, he couldn’t get paid. Finally, they informed the employee that he would not receive any type of religious accommodation. They then told him that if he did not sign the document, they would fire him. He subsequently decided to sue, and the lawsuit is now proceeding in the U.S. District Court of Kansas.  

Is This Really Religious Discrimination?

This lawsuit is interesting for a few reasons. First, religious discrimination cases usually involve an employer preventing an employee from engaging in religious activities. For example, a manager might deny a Christian time off on Sundays to attend Mass. However, this particular lawsuit involves an employer’s active participation in a religious activity. 

The fact that this employer’s training materials are so entwined with religious ideology and speech makes this a unique lawsuit. Is it illegal for an employer to “ridicule” someone else’s faith? The answer in most cases is “yes.” However, one has to wonder whether the employee’s faith was ridiculed. The use of religious ideas in everyday life is nothing new, and we follow many rules that originated with the Bible. After all, “thou shalt not kill” is perhaps the most important rule in our criminal justice system. No one can realistically argue that following this rule is somehow an insult to Christian individuals. 

On the other hand, the use of biblical imagery and language is a strange choice for any employer in the modern era, and one has to wonder whether the convenience store could have chosen a different approach. After all, it would not have been difficult to rewrite these rules without religious connotations, and this is all the employee was asking for. 

The Goal of the Universal Life Church’s Blog

Each month, various cases test the nature of religious rights in this country. While the basis for many religious rights is the United States Constitution, there are still countless cases that question the exact nature of these rights. The Universal Life Church’s blog is focused on documenting the most noteworthy of these cases in an objective manner that can be easily understood by readers.