-Caveat Lector- Christian Coalition bias case growing <http://www.sptimes.com/News/030801/Worldandnation/Christian_Coalition_b.shtml> By MARY JACOBY St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001 WASHINGTON - A former white employee of the Christian Coalition charged in federal court Wednesday that he was fired for refusing to eavesdrop on black employees who are suing the organization for racial discrimination. Trent Barton, 31, a former congressional aide and Gulf War veteran, said in an interview that he thinks Christian Coalition director Roberta Combs ordered his dismissal Feb. 28 for sympathizing with the black employees. "I believe they have a lot of factual information on their side," Barton said. Barton and two black former Christian Coalition employees filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday accusing the evangelical organization of discrimination and retaliation. Their complaint comes after a Feb. 23 lawsuit by ten current employees, all black women from the coalition's remittance/data entry department. The women allege they were prohibited from entering the front door of the coalition's Capitol Hill-area offices. The employees say they were told to enter the back door but were not given key cards to unlock it, forcing them to pound on the door for entry. The lawsuits said Combs made statements that black staffers would wear out an oriental rug in the reception area if allowed to come and go through the front door. Combs also allegedly said "she did not want important people seeing the 'girls' from remittance/data entry in the reception area." Furthermore, the black employees say they were segregated from whites in a break area because Combs thought they were "talkative and waste too much time in the kitchen." In the suit filed Wednesday, former employee Samantha Henson said Combs "became uncomfortable" when she and another black employee joined office prayer gatherings. Henson stopped attending the prayer meetings because she felt unwelcome. Soon thereafter, black employees stopped receiving notice of the meetings, the lawsuit said. On Feb. 27, four days after the first lawsuit was filed, Combs prepared a memorandum denying that the coalition had a policy against black employees entering the front door, according to the second complaint. Also that day, Combs issued key cards for the back door to the black staffers, the suit said. Barton, the white employee, said he was hired as a lobbyist in December but spent most of his first month helping to organize a Christian Coalition inaugural dinner celebrating the election of President Bush. He says in the lawsuit that Tracy Ammons, a consultant to the coalition who is Combs' son-in-law, asked him on Feb. 22 to eavesdrop on the black employees' conversations. When "Barton told Tracy Ammons that he was unwilling to spy on former employees," Ammons searched Barton's office, the suit said. Ammons phoned Barton at 10:30 p.m. Feb. 28 to dismiss him, the suit said. Ammons then told Barton that he was "a good Christian," the suit said. Barton took the comment to mean "that any support for the racial discrimination lawsuit would be contrary to Barton's religious and ethical beliefs," the suit said. Combs did not return phone calls Wednesday. But in a statement to the Washington Times last week, she said: "This pro-family organization, one of the most effective in the nation, is committed to fighting religious bigotry and defending expressions of faith in the public square, and we view any act of discrimination as morally reprehensible." The suits seek a combined $39-million in compensatory and punitive damages, an amount that will be virtually impossible to recover from the financially strapped coalition. A settlement seems more likely, since the coalition may not want to risk going to trial in the District of Columbia, a city that is predominantly African-American. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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