Reply #86: They never came out and directly said it... [View All]

[PerpetualWinter]

Probably because they knew that I was very knowledgeable in the laws and "vicious" enough to come after them (I sure as hell tried, but the only practicing lawyer that was in my conservative area that would take it had just left the area), but I used to work for a Christian, Conservative, Country radio station as a long haired, agnostic/occultist, liberal, metalhead and when the new management came in when our station was sold it seemed that they waged war against all employees who didn't fit a certain mold.

One of the first things the CFO did when I met him was ask me where I went to church. Yeah, I laughed at him. Then he told me that I couldn't read any of my occultist literature on the job. Now this wouldn't have been a problem if it was a universal policy, but being that we generally did not work with the public and we were permitted to read non-obscene material (including the Bible) and do our homework, that didn't really fly with me either. Next he told me my pentagram was unwelcome because they didn't like "gang symbols." I proceeded to direct him to the Church of Satan and the First Church of Satan and told him that unless he took his cross off I wouldn't take off my pentagram. Yeah, I bucked his system, and they eventually fired me for not following a procedure that I would testify under oath that I did follow that night (there was a lot of up-roar when I was fired being that us part-timers and the chief engineer literally kept that station running).

Now, a little about the previous management. One of my responsibilities at the station was to be in the station at 5:30 am Sunday mornings to do news, play Christian music, and religious broadcasts (including some that I really pondered turning over to the IRS due to the political content). I never once interfered with the broadcasts, in fact I took pride in the fact that our religious broadcasts were virtually flawless (as were all broadcasts under my watch). One of the religious zealots who had a broadcast came into the station to record it. Now this guy is a piece of work (strangely he'll marry any straight couple in his highly conservative religious church, Apostolic Lutheran, and not long after a new high end water front sub-division was built he was one of the first to drop the $150,000 on just a plot... not that I'm insinuating anything) and I would torment him just for the fuck of it. Leave some CDs with inflammatory, yet not obscene, covers around:
or leave my copy of random occultist texts such as the Satanic Bible and the works of Aleister Crowley (among others) lying around where he would find them. (Note: This pastor and I have a bad history outside of this job as well.) After a while he went to the GM and demanded that I was fired. The GM laughed at him, and we all had a meeting together. Basically, the GM told the preacher that if he had a problem with the quality of the broadcast then he had some grounds for discussion. However, if he wanted to continue to try to push for my dismissal he could take his broadcast elsewhere and see if he could get the same price for his half hour of air time.

Yeah, thats not really discrimination at all is it? I was really fired because I was the best worker at the station, and I had more than one (now former) employee at that station that vouched for me. Of course, when I got canned I sorta flipped a desk in the lobby (there was nothing of value on or in the desk and no possibility of anyone except my self getting hurt... I don't completely lose it, everything I do is calculated) so I guaranteed that I would never even try to go back, but it sure as hell made a scene that will be burned into their minds forever. I guess I just figured if they were going to try to pigeonhole me as an evil psychotic non-believer I might as well have some fun in giving them a little evidence.