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08-18-05, 12:40 PM
Did fiery essay get author fired?
Allstate denies axing worker over anti-gay writing on the Web
By Michael Higgins
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 18, 2005
J. Matt Barber, a born-again Christian from Villa Park, hoped to get some reaction in December when he wrote a fiery online essay denouncing same-sex marriage and the "destructive nature ... of the homosexual lifestyle."
But the strongest response, Barber said, came from his employers at Allstate Corp. He said two supervisors slapped the article down in front of him, told him he was suspended without pay and had him escorted from the company grounds in Northbrook.
"I'm thinking, `What business is this of yours?'" said Barber, 36, who had worked for Allstate for five years, mostly in corporate security. "This is something I did on my own time. This was my own viewpoint. ... [One supervisor] said, `Well, you know, here at Allstate we have a very diverse community.'"
Allstate fired Barber three days later, setting off a dispute that shows signs of becoming the next legal cause celebre among religious conservatives. As the issue becomes a growing rallying point among conservatives, Christian groups have protested Barber's fate on Web sites and in newsletters, generating what they said are more than 240,000 e-mails and an unknown number of phone calls to Allstate.
Barber filed a lawsuit in May in federal court in Chicago alleging that Allstate's action constituted discrimination on the basis of religion, a novel argument, some legal experts said.
He is represented by David Gibbs III of the Florida-based Christian Law Association, which represented Terri Schiavo's parents in their high-profile efforts to prevent her feeding tube from being removed.
The story has attracted the attention of conservative Christian advocacy groups, such as the American Family Association. The group said its members have sent about 246,000 e-mails to Allstate since June 28, demanding that the company apologize to Barber and rehire him with back pay.
"Many, many consumers are changing insurance companies as a direct result of the information we have posted," said Randy Sharp, a spokesman for the association, based in Tupelo, Miss. "I think it's really going to explode when it goes to court."
Allstate officials call the protests misguided. In court papers, they said Barber was not fired for his beliefs, but for using company "resources for his personal journalistic activities."
Allstate spokesman Michael Trevino would not elaborate. But he said: "Allstate has never terminated an employee for expressing their personal views on their own time. Any allegation to that effect is false."
Trevino would not say how many e-mails or phone calls the company has gotten, but he said Allstate, which insures 17 million households, had not found the protests disruptive.
Barber said he wrote the articles at home but concedes that he sometimes sent personal e-mails, including some related to his writing, from his company laptop. Allstate policy allowed this, he said, especially among employees who traveled frequently. Barber said he made no more personal use of his laptop than his co-workers did.
The dispute has become the latest in a series of conservative protests that have hit companies such as Kraft, a sponsor of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago, and Procter & Gamble, which supported a local gay-rights proposal in Cincinnati.
To his supporters, Barber is a sympathetic figure. He is a former police officer, onetime Chicago-area professional boxer--he used the nickname Matt "Bam Bam" Barber--and father of three. He has degrees in public policy and law from Regent University in Virginia, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
Barber said he started writing opinion essays last year and sending them to Web sites such as theconservativevoice.com and americanthinker.com.
In the article "`Intolerance' Will Not Be Tolerated! The Gay Agenda vs. Family Values," he called same-sex marriages make-believe, "oxymoronic" and an example of "societal de-evolution." He praised "homosexual recovery organizations" and lambasted liberals for decrying the harm caused by tobacco, drugs and alcohol but not "the dreadful and preventable health related pitfalls, which stem from the homosexual lifestyle."
"With this one in particular, I intended it to be hard-hitting," Barber said in an interview. "I am kind of fed up."
Barber said he never mentioned his Allstate affiliation in the biographical information that accompanied his articles. But he said mensnewsdaily.com, which ran the same-sex marriage piece in December, knew where he worked and included the information without his permission.
After the essay appeared, complaints came in to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
The group found Barber's article biased and misinformed and criticized his confident pronouncements that sexual orientation is strictly a matter of choice, said spokesman Daryl Herrschaft.
"He's relying on junk science to concoct a rationale for whatever he has already determined that he believes," Herrschaft said.
The group contacted Allstate to ask whether it had endorsed Barber's article but did not voice an opinion on whether he should be fired, Herrschaft said.
Allstate would not comment directly. But Trevino said protesters were wrong to put stock in a determination by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, which found that Barber was fired "because an outside organization had complained about an article he had written while on his own time."
The department's finding isn't binding on any court, and state officials won't comment on it or explain how much investigation they did.
Barber has been looking for work since his firing six months ago, and he and his wife have put their house up for sale.
"What [Allstate officials] have done here is reach from Allstate into my living room and say, `You can't think this way,'" Barber said.
The strategy behind Barber's lawsuit is an unusual one, said Matthew Finkin, law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Contrary to popular belief, private companies in Illinois and in virtually every other state can fire workers for saying things that embarrass the company--a fact many bloggers have learned the hard way, he said.
Barber's theory is that his views on same-sex marriage constitute religious expression and thus are protected under federal civil rights laws.
The suit is phrased accordingly, saying Barber "felt led of God to write and submit [the article] for online publication."
Finkin said Barber's argument may be hampered by the fact that he does not quote Scripture to support his argument and instead roots his positions in statements about biology and traditional values. "Political polemics are not protected in Illinois," Finkin said.
That legal distinction means little to Barber's supporters.
Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family, said the group's true impact will be felt if Barber's story is included on its largest radio broadcast, which reaches 2 million to 3 million listeners.
"If Allstate does not do the right thing, we'll let a lot of people know what's going on," Minnery said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0508180182aug18,1,736944.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Allstate denies axing worker over anti-gay writing on the Web
By Michael Higgins
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 18, 2005
J. Matt Barber, a born-again Christian from Villa Park, hoped to get some reaction in December when he wrote a fiery online essay denouncing same-sex marriage and the "destructive nature ... of the homosexual lifestyle."
But the strongest response, Barber said, came from his employers at Allstate Corp. He said two supervisors slapped the article down in front of him, told him he was suspended without pay and had him escorted from the company grounds in Northbrook.
"I'm thinking, `What business is this of yours?'" said Barber, 36, who had worked for Allstate for five years, mostly in corporate security. "This is something I did on my own time. This was my own viewpoint. ... [One supervisor] said, `Well, you know, here at Allstate we have a very diverse community.'"
Allstate fired Barber three days later, setting off a dispute that shows signs of becoming the next legal cause celebre among religious conservatives. As the issue becomes a growing rallying point among conservatives, Christian groups have protested Barber's fate on Web sites and in newsletters, generating what they said are more than 240,000 e-mails and an unknown number of phone calls to Allstate.
Barber filed a lawsuit in May in federal court in Chicago alleging that Allstate's action constituted discrimination on the basis of religion, a novel argument, some legal experts said.
He is represented by David Gibbs III of the Florida-based Christian Law Association, which represented Terri Schiavo's parents in their high-profile efforts to prevent her feeding tube from being removed.
The story has attracted the attention of conservative Christian advocacy groups, such as the American Family Association. The group said its members have sent about 246,000 e-mails to Allstate since June 28, demanding that the company apologize to Barber and rehire him with back pay.
"Many, many consumers are changing insurance companies as a direct result of the information we have posted," said Randy Sharp, a spokesman for the association, based in Tupelo, Miss. "I think it's really going to explode when it goes to court."
Allstate officials call the protests misguided. In court papers, they said Barber was not fired for his beliefs, but for using company "resources for his personal journalistic activities."
Allstate spokesman Michael Trevino would not elaborate. But he said: "Allstate has never terminated an employee for expressing their personal views on their own time. Any allegation to that effect is false."
Trevino would not say how many e-mails or phone calls the company has gotten, but he said Allstate, which insures 17 million households, had not found the protests disruptive.
Barber said he wrote the articles at home but concedes that he sometimes sent personal e-mails, including some related to his writing, from his company laptop. Allstate policy allowed this, he said, especially among employees who traveled frequently. Barber said he made no more personal use of his laptop than his co-workers did.
The dispute has become the latest in a series of conservative protests that have hit companies such as Kraft, a sponsor of the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago, and Procter & Gamble, which supported a local gay-rights proposal in Cincinnati.
To his supporters, Barber is a sympathetic figure. He is a former police officer, onetime Chicago-area professional boxer--he used the nickname Matt "Bam Bam" Barber--and father of three. He has degrees in public policy and law from Regent University in Virginia, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
Barber said he started writing opinion essays last year and sending them to Web sites such as theconservativevoice.com and americanthinker.com.
In the article "`Intolerance' Will Not Be Tolerated! The Gay Agenda vs. Family Values," he called same-sex marriages make-believe, "oxymoronic" and an example of "societal de-evolution." He praised "homosexual recovery organizations" and lambasted liberals for decrying the harm caused by tobacco, drugs and alcohol but not "the dreadful and preventable health related pitfalls, which stem from the homosexual lifestyle."
"With this one in particular, I intended it to be hard-hitting," Barber said in an interview. "I am kind of fed up."
Barber said he never mentioned his Allstate affiliation in the biographical information that accompanied his articles. But he said mensnewsdaily.com, which ran the same-sex marriage piece in December, knew where he worked and included the information without his permission.
After the essay appeared, complaints came in to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
The group found Barber's article biased and misinformed and criticized his confident pronouncements that sexual orientation is strictly a matter of choice, said spokesman Daryl Herrschaft.
"He's relying on junk science to concoct a rationale for whatever he has already determined that he believes," Herrschaft said.
The group contacted Allstate to ask whether it had endorsed Barber's article but did not voice an opinion on whether he should be fired, Herrschaft said.
Allstate would not comment directly. But Trevino said protesters were wrong to put stock in a determination by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, which found that Barber was fired "because an outside organization had complained about an article he had written while on his own time."
The department's finding isn't binding on any court, and state officials won't comment on it or explain how much investigation they did.
Barber has been looking for work since his firing six months ago, and he and his wife have put their house up for sale.
"What [Allstate officials] have done here is reach from Allstate into my living room and say, `You can't think this way,'" Barber said.
The strategy behind Barber's lawsuit is an unusual one, said Matthew Finkin, law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Contrary to popular belief, private companies in Illinois and in virtually every other state can fire workers for saying things that embarrass the company--a fact many bloggers have learned the hard way, he said.
Barber's theory is that his views on same-sex marriage constitute religious expression and thus are protected under federal civil rights laws.
The suit is phrased accordingly, saying Barber "felt led of God to write and submit [the article] for online publication."
Finkin said Barber's argument may be hampered by the fact that he does not quote Scripture to support his argument and instead roots his positions in statements about biology and traditional values. "Political polemics are not protected in Illinois," Finkin said.
That legal distinction means little to Barber's supporters.
Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family, said the group's true impact will be felt if Barber's story is included on its largest radio broadcast, which reaches 2 million to 3 million listeners.
"If Allstate does not do the right thing, we'll let a lot of people know what's going on," Minnery said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0508180182aug18,1,736944.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed