The Chicago Bulls recently released Jaden Ivey from his contract for being outspoken about his Christian beliefs when he expressed discontent with the NBA’s Pride Month celebrations. Discrimination against Christians isn’t exclusive to the world of professional sports — and thankfully the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), following a Trump administration executive order, has begun to increase efforts to counter violations of Christians’ religious rights.
This week, the EEOC announced it is suing the Cogar Group, a private security company, after it allegedly forced a disabled veteran working as a security guard to resign over his Christian beliefs. In February 2024, the Virginia-based company told the security guard that his schedule would be shifted so that he would be required to work on weekends, according to an EEOC press release. The guard had previously informed the Cogar Group in March 2021 that he was unable to work on Sundays due to his religious beliefs, as he identifies as a devout Baptist and a church deacon. The EEOC says that the Cogar Group refused to honor the employee’s religious practice, forcing the security guard to resign.
Employers who don’t make accommodations for their employee’s religious beliefs are violating Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Other Cases
The EEOC has litigated several other similar cases recently, such as in September 2025, when it sued Apple for not allowing a 16-year-old to take Fridays and Saturday off in observance of the Sabbath.
Earlier this year, an EOCC investigation into the Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association of Washington Heights and Inwood resulted in the group paying more than $100,000 to a Christian employee who requested Sundays off to attend church services.
Executive Order
One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders was “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.” The order addressed recent examples of “Hostility, violence, and vandalism” against the Christian community.
The number of attacks on American churches have increased in recent years. The recorded numbers for 2023 and 2024 are significantly higher than those recorded from 2018-2022. Trump’s order was an acknowledgment that Christian discrimination has become more prevalent and an attempt to prevent its normalization.
The post-Covid era saw a spike in religious discrimination cases. Many Christians sought religious exemptions from Covid vaccine requirements, since vaccines were developed and tested using fetal cell lines that originated from aborted babies. Additionally, the vaccine went through an extremely limited testing phase, which didn’t align with the Christians’ belief that the body should be treated like a temple.
The True Meaning of the First Amendment
In the modern era, lies about the First Amendment have resulted in calls for the “separation between church and state.” The phrase is not in the Constitution but rather from a letter by Thomas Jefferson, and it has been deliberately misconstrued to remove Christianity from public spaces, including public schools.
On college campuses, Christian students have experienced discrimination, such as a recent case in which a University of Oklahoma teaching assistant who used they/them pronouns flunked a student for citing her Christian beliefs in an essay.
In reality, the First Amendment was created not to remove religion from public life, but to prevent the suppression of any specific denomination. Early American society was distinct for having a variety of devout denominations.
American identity is rooted in its Christian heritage. The Founding Fathers understood that the maintenance of a moral society would necessitate Christian values. They believed that freedom was inextricably linked to faith, and without faith, the constitutional republic would fail.
But America has become an increasingly secular nation. In the early 2000s, 42 percent of Christians reported going to church on a weekly basis. By 2023, that number had fallen to 30 percent. However, this decline is not unique to Christians, but reflects a broader decrease in religious participation among all faiths. A growing number of Americans now don’t identify with any religious group.
The Cogar Group’s unwillingness to accommodate their employee’s religious observance is a result of a culture that does not respect Christianity. Everything from television shows to sports teams have tried to undermine Christianity. The media goes out of its way to portray the religion as being bigoted.
Despite the backlash, the Christian community persists: The falling rates of Americans who identify as Christian has leveled off. Many political leaders, including President Trump and Vice President JD Vance, have spoken about the importance of Christianity in America. Recent polling has shown that people who are religious and attend church regularly are the most likely to report being happy. Now more than ever, it is necessary for Christians to keep fighting for their rights.
Brooke Brandtjen is a writer and journalist from Wisconsin who focuses primarily on culture, politics, and religion. She is extremely passionate about the arts and history, and is honored to write for a variety of distinguished publications.
