The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit against a Tulsa lighting store charging that the company required prospective workers to be Christian, the Tulsa World reports.

The EEOC claims that when Edward Wolfe applied to be a supervisor at Voss Lighting's Tulsa store in 2011, two local managers made numerous inquires "both subtle and overt" about his religious activity and beliefs.

He was allegedly asked to identify churches he had attended for several years, whether he was "saved" and whether he would have a problem coming to work early to attend Bible study, the newspaper reports.

In one alleged conversation, the EECO charges, Wolfe was told that while most Voss employees were Southern Baptists, that would not be required of him, as long as he was a "born-again" Christian.

The EEOC claims that the same manager expressed "overt agitation and disapproval" to Wolfe's responses to such questions and that Wolfe was ultimately denied employment on the basis of his religious beliefs.

Steve Sanderson, vice president and general manager for the Nebraska-based company, told the World in a written response that the person who was hired for the position was more qualified than Wolfe, and that religious belief was not a factor.

The company's website notes that its Biblical mission is "to 'sell' our lighting products so that we may 'tell' everyone we can about God's soul-saving, life-transforming gospel message as Jesus instructed believers to do."

It also says that Henry Voss, who died in 1997, was an early pioneer in the lighting specialty industry and was "the man God selected to found Voss Electric in 1939."

The EEOC is seeking damages in the lawsuit and a court order prohibiting Voss from discriminating against job applicants on the basis of religious beliefs.