How 'Christ' Cost This Man His Job

A security officer at an Iowa sex offender treatment center was fired because his email signature at work included the words "In Christ."

Michael Mial was well-liked by his supervisors who praised him for helping many patients. That all changed after he decided to end his emails with "In Christ" and he was put on six months probation. 

"When his supervisors had a meeting with him and made an issue of it, then the ball got rolling. No one ever complained about it to supervisors and no one complained about it to his face," Jeffrey Janssen, the lawyer who represents Mial in a lawsuit against his former employers, told the Sioux City Journal.

It was not long until Mial's supervisors fired him. 

Those supervisors "attempted to persuade (Mial) from his religious beliefs," the lawsuit says. "They even stated that he should separate his beliefs from work or just separate his personal and professional lives."

However, Mial was still fired.

The lawsuit argues that allowing Mial to use "In Christ" in his  email signature is not  a state endorsement of a religion, and Mial's firing is a federal violation of his rights to free speech and religion.

Mial hasn't been unable to find employment since his firing.