Four teachers and seven other workers at a Southern California religious school have been fired because of differences in biblical interpretation and incompatible beliefs.
Most of the dismissed workers were Roman Catholics whose beliefs conflicted with those of Corona’s conservative evangelical Crossroads Christian Schools, which last year lost its autonomy and came under the umbrella of the 8,000-member Crossroads Christian Church next door.
“To me, it feels like religious cleansing,” said the Rev. John Saville of St. John’s Episcopal Church, where fired elementary teacher Marylou Goodman is a parishioner.
The fired employees had been told a year ago of the school’s closer relationship with the church and a requirement that they attend a “Bible-believing church,” meaning born-again.
Still, they were distressed.
“I just loved the sense of family, or what I thought was family,” said fired kindergarten teacher Sue Fitzgerald, a Catholic who worked at the school for 14 years.
School superintendent Beth Frobisher said officials took a closer look at the religious beliefs of employees in an effort to make school and church teachings compatible.
“How can the school be a ministry of the church if what is spoken and taught into the hearts of the children isn’t consistent with what is taught in the church?” Frobisher said.
There’s more on the firings, plus reaction, here.
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