Ethical Discrimination

Published on March 3, 2006

A job advertisement for the University of Charleston in West Virginia that ran in The Chronicle of Higher Education this week stipulates that applicants for the Herchiel and Elizabeth Sims “In God We Trust” Chair in Ethics “must embrace a belief in God and present moral and ethical values from a God-centered perspective.” After legal […]

A job advertisement for the University of Charleston in West Virginia that ran in The Chronicle of Higher Education this week stipulates that applicants for the Herchiel and Elizabeth Sims “In God We Trust” Chair in Ethics “must embrace a belief in God and present moral and ethical values from a God-centered perspective.” After legal experts told Chronicle-competitors, Inside Higher Ed, that such a requirement violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars secular institutions from discriminating on the basis of religion, the University ended the illegal job requirement. University President Edwin H. Welch explained that the “In God We Trust” Chair had been endowed with “more patriotic than spiritual” intentions by the Sims family, but that in any case, the phrase would no longer be used as employee test, and that those who don’t “trust in God,” such as atheists and agnostics, will be equally eligible for the position.

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