Debate over on-the-job religious speech has been fueled by the firing of a Hoover Chamber of Commerce employee for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments lapel pin.
Christopher Word said he started wearing the lapel pin daily in January. He recruited new business for the chamber.
Chamber Executive Director Bill Powell noticed the pin in March and asked Word to remove it. Powell said either Word or the pin had to go. Word refused to remove it and lost his job. The chamber's attorney said Word had been making "political statements" at his job and the chamber isn't against religion.
For many in Alabama, work is often another place of worship.
At Southern Comfort Conversions in Trussville, for example, every work day starts with company executives meeting in prayer. Friday mornings begin with a voluntary 20-minute Bible study for employees who care to join.
"Everything we do, we try to honor God," said Tim Taylor, company president.
All 150 employees are free to wear religious items, such as shirts embroidered with "Jesus" or Ten Commandments lapel pins. The same goes for the 50 workers at the company's Oneonta branch.
Just wearing the pin should not be a problem, said lawyer Eric Johnston, president of the Southeast Law Institute, which handles religious civil liberties cases.
"That is an expression of religious speech," Johnston said. "You can't burden that expression unless you have a really good reason."
But if the pin prompted overbearing behavior with offensive overtones, as the Hoover Chamber alleged, some would say it's over the line.
"In that situation, he is a representative of the city, he should present himself in a politically and religiously neutral stature," said Larry Darby, president of the Atheist Law Center in Montgomery. "When he took that job he should have known the purpose of the chamber is to advance relations in the business community and people come from a wide variety of backgrounds."
The Foundation for Moral Law, which started as a legal defense fund for ousted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, sells the distinctive Ten Commandments lapel pins for $12.90 apiece on its Web site.
Word's father is executive pastor of the Gadsden church attended by Moore.
A.W. Bolt, an attorney for the Hoover Chamber, described the chamber's point of view in a press conference last week.
"This termination was not about religion or Christopher's particular beliefs in support of Judge Moore, as the chamber is not against religion or Judge Moore," Bolt said. "Rather, Christopher was terminated for making political statements while he was in the course and scope of his employment."
Word, 23, of Alabaster, said he got married within the last year and was in no position to lose his job over principle.
"I felt strongly about my personal beliefs and that's why I wore it to begin with," Word said.
"The reason for my firing was that my principles were different than someone's opinion," he said. "I lost my job for standing up for what I believe in."
Johnston said wearing a lapel pin, even if it prompted a political conversation, shouldn't be out of bounds.
"You have to look at the circumstances," Johnston said. "He doesn't want to do anything to offend people, but at the same time, it's a highly religious community."