(RNS) — A Chicago-area church led by bestselling author and pastor Dane Ortlund must pay $93,000 in back wages and damages to a former staffer after a judge ruled the church retaliated against her.
Administrative Judge Azeema Akram of the Illinois Human Rights Commission ruled last week that Naperville Presbyterian Church’s firing of Emily Hyland in 2021, after she claimed she had been mistreated because of her gender, qualified as retaliation and violated Illinois law.
“Complainant successfully proved retaliation by a preponderance of the evidence, as she was able to show that she engaged in a protected activity when she complained about sex-based discrimination, that Respondent knew about it, and that there was a causal nexus between her complaints and her subsequent termination,” Akram wrote in her decision.
Akram also ruled that Hyland failed to prove the church had discriminated against her. Church officials argued that Hyland was fired for poor job performance and denied any retaliation.
Emily Hyland. (Courtesy photo)
The ruling came just over five years after Hyland was terminated from her role at Naperville Presbyterian, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation, where she had worked for seven years as a director of operations. She had also been a member of the congregation for about 15 years at the time of her firing.
“I feel vindicated that what I believed to be true years ago was supported by testimony and evidence,” Hyland told RNS.
The ruling describes a fraught working relationship between Hyland and Ortlund, who became pastor of Naperville Presbyterian in 2020. Tensions between the two began a few months after Ortlund started as pastor, according to the ruling, mostly over a lack of communication.
Ortlund did not immediately respond to a texted request for comment.
Hyland claimed that Ortlund rarely spoke to her at the office but often sent emails after she had left for the day, making it hard for her to do her job. She also worried that Ortlund would meet with male staff members but not her, according to court records.
“Conversely, Pastor Ortlund — who was apparently an avid e-mail user — was frustrated t …