‘I’m Not Going to Lie’: Louisiana Pastor Fired From Public Library over Trans Pronouns

Last week, a Christian pastor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, found himself fired from his job at the local public library after he refused to use the preferred pronouns of a co-worker who identified as the opposite sex. The firing occurred despite a growing legal precedent supporting the free speech rights of those who say they cannot be forced to utter language that they believe is wrong.

On July 7, Luke Ash, who serves as lead pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, had a conversation with a co-worker at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library about an individual who was in training. After being informed that the female individual preferred to be called “he,” Ash continued to use biologically accurate pronouns in reference to her. When Ash’s co-worker attempted to “correct” him into using the individual’s preferred pronouns, the pastor declined to use them. After being reprimanded by his supervisor for violating the library’s code of conduct, Ash received notice that his job was terminated on July 10.

The issue of compelled speech surrounding transgender identities involving the usage of pronouns contrary to an individual’s biological sex has been at the center of immense controversy for at least the last decade. The issue reached a new level of cultural visibility in 2016, when Canadian psychologist and college professor Jordan Peterson released a series of viral YouTube videos that criticized a Canadian law that classified the refusal to use transgender pronouns as discrimination against those who identify as trans, saying that the law violated civil rights by compelling speech.

In the years since, numerous individuals have lost jobs over their refusal to use trans pronouns in the U.S. and the U.K. People like Peter Vlaming, a high school teacher in West Point, Virginia, who was fired in 2018 for refusing to refer to a student with trans pronouns, chose to fight back and filed a lawsuit against the public school district for wrongful termination over his religious beliefs not to use pronouns at odds with biological sex. Last year, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Vlaming’s favor, and the West Point School Board agreed to settle with Vlaming for $575,000.

Despite the rising legal precedent toward freedom of speech and religion in states like Virginia, people like Ash are finding themselves swiftly out of jobs over an entrenched gender ideology in the public education and library sectors, even in red states like Louisiana.

“There were several things that were happening at the library to make me know that this was not a place that was necessarily hospitable for a Christian or even a conservatively-minded person, but I just kind of kept my mouth shut and just tried to do a good job and respect everybody that came my way,” Ash explained during Tuesday’s edition of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “But, as Jordan Peterson kind of famously said in a thing that went viral, there’s a difference between telling me what I can’t say and then telling me what I have to say, and so that was the line for me at that point.”

Ash went on to state that his rationale for not using trans pronouns was simple: “I’m not going to lie. I cannot do it. I will not do it.”

The pastor further observed that his firing over trans ideology was in line with a thinly veiled pattern within the library of a bias against all things conservative.

“They’re very clever,” he explained. “They think it’s a sin to ‘ban’ books, and if you talk about banning books, putting a book on a list, then that’s well within their wheelhouse to call you a Nazi or whatever. But they’re absolutely limiting access to books by which books they decide to purchase for the library or even on the promotion of [the] books displayed. So there’s a continuum of access. It’s not just about banning a book on a piece of paper. If you can pretend that that book doesn’t exist, that’s even more effective.”

Ash also pointed out that despite the declining popularity of public libraries due to the rise in audiobooks and ubiquitous internet access, libraries still largely act as a community and cultural hub in most cities, even as they emphasize LGBTQ+ Pride material for children and young adults, including Drag Queen Story Hours.

“[T]hey’re trying to pivot so that they can still continue to have a purpose for existing as a community center,” he noted. “In a lot of ways … they are trying to replace the local church as a community center. The main library in Baton Rouge Parish has stained glass in it. Instead of doing Vacation Bible School, we have [the] summer reading program. Obviously, we want our children to read, but we don’t want the library to be taking the place of the local church.”

Still, the pull toward holding down a secure career in a taxpayer-funded public library is something that is very appealing even for conservative Christians, the pastor acknowledged. But in the end, he underscored, God must be honored above all things.

“Jesus said you have to serve God or mammon,” he emphasized. “And a lot of times there is a fork in the road, and we decide to compromise for the sake of mammon. And I think that we’re very good at being lawyers to ourselves and deceiving ourselves into saying, ‘You know what? What I’m doing is actually the more loving thing … if I just concede on this thing, I’m actually being more loving.’ And I would just say no. The loving thing is to tell the truth. Jesus said that he’s the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father except through him. And so if we back off of the truth, then we back off the visibility of anything at all—but especially Jesus.”

As to what advice Ash would give to others who may find themselves in his position, the pastor urged believers not to be afraid to engage the culture if the moment calls for it. “There are those who would say, ‘You’re going to have to choose a lane between being a culture warrior or a pastor or a culture warrior and a Christian.’ And I would just say, we don’t go out looking for a fight, but those who desire to live godly [lives] will suffer persecution. And whenever it comes time to fight, find a group of happy warriors and go to battle.”

Originally published by The Washington Stand

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