LITERATURE + LECTURES

Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church presents Kilgore Lecture Series: Ordained Discrimination, Friday, October 28 at 7:30pm.

This season's free lecture is by University of Houston law professor and legal ethicist Leslie C. Griffin, J.D., Ph.D. (pictured). She will address a recent U.S. Supreme Court case alleging employment discrimination by a Lutheran school.

"Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission" has far-reaching implications involving the relationship between church and state, specifically whether the church can exempt its employees from national employment laws. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are expected to begin October 5.

The case involves a former teacher who was fired under the rule of “ministerial exception” to employment laws. The plaintiff asserts, however, that the church is retaliating against her because she was allegedly insubordinate in filing a disability claim. The EEOC sued the school on her behalf.

Prof. Griffin believes the central issue is whether organized religion has to follow the law, or whether the argument of “ministerial exception” allows it to discriminate against teachers, organists, secretaries and other employees. Prof. Griffin has enlisted 63 professors of law and religion and has filed an amicus brief supporting the EEOC position. Friend-of-court briefs have also been filed by the ACLU, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Prof. Griffin holds the Larry and Joanne Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston Law Center, where she teaches constitutional law, law and religion, torts, and professional responsibility. Her J.D. is from Stanford University and her Ph.D., in Religious Studies, is from Yale University. Prof. Griffin is a passionate advocate of the separation of church and state, which she believes is being increasingly overlooked in American society.