Posted by Hemant Mehta in Cacy Cantwell was hired as a manager for Maine Contract Farming in 2003. Maine Contract Farming is a subsidiary of DeCoster farms, which is the “region’s largest brown egg producer.” Cantwell was fired in 2006 for “poor job performance,” even though he had never received any written warnings about this.
What was the real reason he got fired?
According to the Maine Human Rights Commission, there are reasonable grounds to think Cantwell was fired because he was an atheist.
The owner of the farms, Austin “Jack” DeCoster, a Christian, did not approve of the fact that Cantwell was living with a non-married partner. Not to mention the fact that during a conversation about religion, Cantwell said he was an atheist. DeCoster’s response:
“I can’t have someone like you here. We might need to part ways.”
Seems like Cantwell has a pretty strong case.
[tags]atheist, atheism, Cacy Cantwell, Maine Contract Farming, DeCoster farms, Maine Human Rights Commission, Austin “Jack” DeCoster, Christian[/tags]
I never lose faith in ignorance and stupidity…..you can always count on them!
[...] Then there is the guy in Maine who was allegedly fired for being an atheist. The Boston Globe has a story on this. It has also been blogged about at Atheist Revolution and at Friendly Atheist. [...]
Without anti-religious-discrimination laws and access to the courts, this kind of thing would be everywhere.
[...] Unfortunately, there are consequences to sharing disbelief – The Friendly Atheist mentions this story of a worker potentially fired over being an atheist. The information currently available seems to indicate Cacy Cantwell was fired primarily for not sharing management’s religious beliefs. [...]