{"id":219,"date":"2009-09-03T11:52:24","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T11:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/09\/miss-california-look-pretty-do.html"},"modified":"2009-09-03T11:52:24","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T11:52:24","slug":"miss-california-look-pretty-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/09\/miss-california-look-pretty-do.html","title":{"rendered":"Miss California: Look Pretty, Don’t Preach–Anything Wrong With That?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I should begin by noting that I hate beauty pageants. Judging women, in whole or in large part, by appearances is a sexist and anachronistic affront to an entire gender.<\/p>\n

I must admit, however, that the latest wrinkle in the Carrie Prejean, former Miss California USA, controversy has grabbed my attention. Prejean, who was a finalist in the Miss USA Pageant in April, made a statement in opposition to same-sex marriage during the question and answer segment of the contest. Religious Right groups immediately began complaining<\/a> that she came in second because of the content of her answer and that she deserved to win the competition.<\/p>\n

After the event, Ms. Prejean suffered some embarrassment in regard to a series of “modeling” photographs that appeared on the Internet, but Pageant officials supported her continued activity as Miss California USA.  Then, several weeks later, her employment was terminated, with officials claiming<\/a> that she had failed to participate in several public events that she was contractually obliged to do and that, on the other hand, she had made some unauthorized media appearances.<\/p>\n

Ms. Prejean has now sued<\/a> Miss California USA officials Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler, as well as publicist Roger Neal for what she claims was an illegal firing.  I have no opinion about this contract dispute.  However, she is also claiming that the company dismissed her because of an anti-religious bias.  She is asserting<\/a> that the company told her not to discuss God and her religious values even before the night she gave the infamous anti-same sex marriage answer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I find this claim utterly preposterous. Since when can a private
\nemployer not tell an employee that within the scope of his or her
\nemployment, certain activities are forbidden?  She wasn’t told that she
\ncouldn’t go to the church of her choice on her own time, nor was she
\nforbidden to read the Bible on her lunch hour. She was told that
\ntheological discourse was not a part of her duties. \n<\/p>\n

Can’t a life insurance company tell its employees that they can’t
\nevangelize on company time, or does every insurance agent have a
\n“right” to not only try to sell you life insurance but also chat you up
\nabout “eternal life”? Could an actor hired specifically to play Hamlet
\njust replace Shakespeare’s lines with Bible verses and claim some “free
\nexercise of religion” right to do so?<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong.  If Ms. Prejean showed that contestants were
\nnever chosen if they were adherents of a particular faith or that no
\nefforts were made to accommodate religious observances in setting
\nup  her public appearance schedule, she might have a legal leg to stand
\non.  But from what I’ve seen, she decided that preaching on the
\npageant’s dime is a constitutional “right.”  \n<\/p>\n

From that postion, I must dissent.<\/p>\n

To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I should begin by noting that I hate beauty pageants. Judging women, in whole or in large part, by appearances is a sexist and anachronistic affront to an entire gender. I must admit, however, that the latest wrinkle in the Carrie Prejean, former Miss California USA, controversy has grabbed my attention. Prejean, who was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,7,4],"tags":[243,246,247,244,245,51,67,248],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-establishment-clause","category-gay-marriage","category-religious-freedom","tag-carrie-prejean","tag-donald-trump","tag-lawsuit","tag-miss-california-2009","tag-miss-usa-pageant","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-religion-in-the-workplace"],"yoast_head":"\nMiss California: Look Pretty, Don't Preach-Anything Wrong With That? - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/09\/miss-california-look-pretty-do.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miss California: Look Pretty, Don't Preach-Anything Wrong With That? - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I should begin by noting that I hate beauty pageants. Judging women, in whole or in large part, by appearances is a sexist and anachronistic affront to an entire gender. I must admit, however, that the latest wrinkle in the Carrie Prejean, former Miss California USA, controversy has grabbed my attention. 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Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. 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