Christian state trooper sued, therapist suspended from work for sharing faith

A U.S. state trooper was fired and a therapist in the U.K. was suspended from her job. Both were open about sharing their Christian faith, something that was apparently not welcomed.

Indiana state trooper Brian Hamilton is facing another lawsuit for sharing his faith to drivers he encountered. According to the Christian News Network, this second lawsuit lodged by the American Civil Liberties Union against Hamilton is in behalf of complainant Wendy Pyle.

In January, the trooper reportedly asked Pyle to pull over for speeding. He didn't give her a ticket, just a warning, but then inquired if she was saved and if she attended church.

"It was unwanted," she said. "It was also extremely upsetting."

The first lawsuit the ACLU filed against Hamilton was in 2014 for allegedly violating complainant Ellen Bogdan's constitutional rights. It was reported that the trooper asked her if she had already accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. He also gave her a tract that said "realize you're a sinner."

In an interview with the IndyStar, she said, "I'm not affiliated with any church. I don't go to church. I felt compelled to say I did, just because I had a state trooper standing at the passenger-side window. It was just weird."

A settlement was reached, but Hamilton was ordered to not "question others regarding their religious beliefs nor provide religious pamphlets or similar advertisements."

The state trooper was fired from his job on April 7, but Chief Public Information Officer Captain David Bursten of the Indiana State Police told Fox59 that Hamilton's termination was due to an internal investigation and not due to the lawsuits against him.

"It needs to be clearly understood that the state police internal investigation and the public announcement of the ICLU lawsuit against Mr. Hamilton are independent and separate issues," he said. "Today's termination of Hamilton's employment with the state police was the result of a thorough internal investigation and would have occurred regardless of any legal action initiated by the ICLU against Mr. Hamilton."

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the appeal of occupational therapist Victoria Wasteney lodged before an employment tribunal was denied. She was suspended from work for nine months following a complaint by Muslim co-worker Enya Nawaz for allegedly trying to convert her to Christinity.

According the Christian News Network, Wasteney believed that her conversations with Nawaz were part of "the normal process of building a relationship with someone, to talk about primarily things we were interested in outside of work." She offered to pray for Nawaz, to which the latter agreed, invited her to church, and lent her a book about a Muslim woman to converted to Christianity.

While Wasteney did not see these actions as abnormal, they were deemed as "bullying and harrassment" by her employers at the St. John Howard Center in London. Moreover, in her appeal, the employment tribunal sided with her employers' decision to give her a warning and let her return to work but not in her field of specialty.

"I believe the NHS singled me out for discipline because Christianity is so disrespected," Wasteney said. "Previously a Christian worship service that I set up for patients was closed down, but accommodation for Muslims to practice their faith wholly facilitated and encouraged."