Christian nonprofit World Vision has agreed to pay $120,000 as part of a settlement to help move an employment dispute through the appeals process, according to a motion filed jointly with a candidate whose job offer was withdrawn in 2021.
Photo via social media @World Vision
In January 2021, World Vision hired Aubry McMahon to fill an open position as a customer service representative. Before officially starting, McMahon emailed the ministry inquiring about maternity leave, indicating that she and a woman she identified as her “wife” were expecting. World Vision then revoked the employment offer since McMahon was in a same-sex marriage and did not meet the ministry’s conduct criteria. She sued a few months later, claiming discrimination based on her gender, sexual orientation, and marital status.
In court documents, World Vision claimed that if McMahon had been employed, her actions would have contradicted the ministry’s rules of behavior, which confine sexual activity to the union of one man and one woman in marriage.
In December, MinistryWatch reported that a federal judge ruled that the ministry’s policy, reflecting its sincerely-held religious belief that marriage is a Biblical covenant between a man and a woman, discriminates based on sex, sexual orientation, and marital status in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) and the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD).
World Vision says that to be eligible for employment, all individuals must agree with its core religious principles, and staff members are given a handbook with related guidelines.
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World Vision is appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that, while historically liberal, upheld the right of the student group Fellowship of Christian Athletes to require its leaders to be Christians.
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