Twenty-three-year-old Christopher Word lost his job just nine months into his career. While most newlyweds with a mortgage payment due June 1 would be scrambling to figure out how to pay the bills, Word and his wife, Julie, are juggling TV interviews and a massive media frenzy. The question is: Was Word fired because he wears a Ten Commandments lapel pin or because of his connections to former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore?
The Word family and the Moore family are good friends. The Words and the Moores are members of Cross Point Community Church, Gadsden. The Ten Commandments are important principles for both Word and Moore.
Word was fired May 18 from the Hoover Chamber of Commerce for “[using] his position … to advocate his personal political views about … Moore,” according to a May 19 statement from the chamber.
But Word, who served as membership services director, claims he was fired because of his pin. He said he wears the pin because of his personal faith in Jesus Christ and his obedience to God’s commandments, not to make a political statement. “I was singled out because my principles were different from someone else’s opinion.”
“I respect the chief justice tremendously, but this does not have anything to do with him,” Word said. “I did not go into any of this with any political intentions.”
According to Word, the Ten Commandments pin had basically gone unnoticed for more than four months, when the chamber’s executive director, Don Powell, asked Word not to wear it. “I had received nothing but positive comments, never any negative comments,” said Word, who initially removed it.
“I took it off for about a week but had a lot of mental anguish,” Word said. “I knew I had tried to take a stand and had backed down.”
Powell, who is an active member of CrossBridge Church of Christ in Birmingham, allowed Word to continue wearing the pin. But a casual conversation May 10 between Powell, Word and Don Levy, a chamber member, led to a comment about Word’s pin. Levy connected the Ten Commandments to politics, Word explained, “not me.”
“He said, ‘That pin is a pretty political pin,’ and commented about what was going on in Montgomery,” Word said. “I knew he was referring to Judge Moore, so I explained to him that the pin was representative of my faith but that Judge Moore and my family are friends.
“We went on to talk about … football, and I thought nothing about the conversation,” Word said. “In fact, I would have never thought about it again had this not happened.”
Levy, a member of Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El, said he would have never thought about the conversation again either. While declining to comment on exactly how the conversation went, he said Word mentioned the pin, politics and other information but “nothing offended me whatsoever. It didn’t mean one thing to me.”
“I would have never thought about it again, but 20 minutes later the executive director called me and asked me some questions,” Levy said, noting “when you go out and try to sell, you have to be absolutely neutral.”
Attempts to reach Powell were unsuccessful, but according to Word, on May 17 Powell asked him not to wear the pin at work. When Word refused, he was terminated.
“This termination is not about religion or Christopher’s particular beliefs in support of Judge Moore, as the chamber is not against religion or Judge Moore,” according to the chamber’s statement. “Rather, Christopher was terminated for making political statements while he was in the course and scope of his employment.”
Chamber officials confirmed that employees are allowed to wear pins with religious symbols and pins representing various organizations.
But “the chamber cannot allow any employee at work to wear a lapel pin expressing a partisan political position,” the statement said.
Word’s father, Bruce, fears this occurrence is only the beginning. “It has already moved from the chief justice to an ordinary citizen,” he said. “This is a conviction issue.
“All along in a person’s walk of faith, God gives them occasion to do the right thing,” said Bruce Word, executive pastor of the 2,000-member Cross Point Community Church.
Christopher Word, who accepted Christ at age 14, has always planned a future in politics. In fact, his dream job is to be a U.S. Senator, but he never anticipated being thrust into the middle of a media frenzy because of the Ten Commandments.
“It’s stressful to lose your job, but imagine it being broadcast all over the world.
“I don’t regret my decision, and I will just take it day by day.”
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