A well-deserved settlement is finally being awarded to Venita Short, a former employee of New Life Baptist Daycare in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Short, whose job was to tend to preschoolers, was fired for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. But in classic, morally-upstanding Christian fashion, those who did the firing had “sinful” pasts of their own, and that mattered to the jury.

In May of 2012, Short revealed to Cindy Wilson, wife of Pastor Ed Wilson, that she had become pregnant. Mrs. Wilson told Short that, “Fornication is a sin, but [your] baby is a blessing, of course.” She then asked Short if she was going to marry the baby’s father. Short had no plans for getting married and was upfront about this with her boss. One week later, Short was told she was being let go because she was “pregnant and not married.”

The lawsuit that followed played out in court last month:

The Wilsons’ lawyers argued that church policy called for dismissal of any church staff member who violated the church’s moral code, including premarital sex or “fornication.” But jurors learned Thursday that 27-year-old assistant pastor James Wilson, aka “J.R.,” had an affair with another day care worker, the woman who trained Short, according to testimony from his parents and ex-wife Sarah McCloskey. McCloskey, who has a daughter with J.R. Wilson, said he also contacted prostitutes, in testimony that went unchallenged. J.R. Wilson’s parents say he was “terminated” from his many church duties in 2011 but acknowledged he was only away a month. He is back in full standing and preaching again. The day care worker received no punishment or reprimand and worked for years in the day care until she moved in January.

As much as they try to repress it, church workers are equipped with human sexuality, so no surprise there. But surely there’s something juicy from the past of holier-than-thou, judgment-wielding Cindy Wilson?

Myron B. Pitts of the Fayetteville Observer found out:

Juror James Piatt told me in the hallway afterward that Thursday’s revelations had him leaning toward Short. He said the kicker for him was finding out that the Wilsons themselves had a son “out of wedlock” in 1987, which Ed Wilson shared on the stand. Piatt said he made an audible gasp.

Whoops! Cindy really should have been more careful back in 1987 (or maybe 1986) when she was stumbling around naked in the dark and mistakenly tripped and fell on Ed’s penis.

Venita Short lost her baby shortly after being fired, though she is close to giving birth again.

The settlement amount is undisclosed.

(via Christian Nightmares)



