Minneapolis pastor George Nathaniel III has been fired from his job as a school bus driver after leading the students he drove in prayer, even after he had been warned by his company more than once to stop.
According to the Star Tribune, Nathaniel, 49, was in his second year of working for the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district. The district complained to the bus company, Durham School Services, about the prayers. The company then warned him to stop and gave him new routes for schools in Burnsville, Nathaniel told the paper.
But the Christian pastor continued to tell the children they could pray with him. “I let them know I am a pastor and I am going to pray,” he told the Star Tribune. Then, on Oct. 30, he received a formal letter, letting him know that he has been fired.
“There have been more complaints of religious material on the bus as well as other complaints regarding performance,” the letter read. “In accordance with the previous final written warning you received, your employment is hereby terminated.”
Nathaniel told CBS Minnesota that he never forced the children to pray with him. “A couple of routes I had children that chose not to pray and that was fine,” he said.
According to The Huffington Post, Nathaniel claimed that the bus company wasn’t allowing him to express his religious beliefs. “They are trying to take away every right the Christian has to express our Christian belief in this supposed to have been Christian nation,” he told CBS Minnesota.
Surprisingly, ACLU legal director Teresa Nelson sided with the bus company, saying that it was Nathaniel who was violating the First Amendment. “The school bus is a captive audience,” she told CBS. “When he is driving the bus he is acting like a school official and he does not have the right to proselytize or promote religion in that context.”