Video:
http://www.abc27.com/story/14951461/have-mayors-religious-convictions-crossed-the-line?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5978361
By Chris Cekot
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - Harrisburg's mayor certainly doesn't hide the fact she's a religious person. Linda Thompson plans to fast and pray for three days. She hopes that will help her guide the city. Does her faith-based approach cross the line? Thompson reportedly told an employee he needs forgiveness for not accepting Jesus.
Stover Clark, the man who wrote grants for the city, quit in February after filing a complaint with the ACLU. He said it was Thompson's practice of opening staff meetings with a prayer.
Clark resigned from city hall and applied for unemployment. The state denied it, and Clark appealed. There was a hearing on the matter Monday. A man who left the city for similar reasons testified.
"I believe Stover was entitled to his unemployment because he was certainly uncomfortable in the work environment," said Thompson's former Communications Director Chuck Ardo. "Her religious practices don't belong in the office."
Something that happened in Thompson's office came to light at the hearing. According to the Patriot-News, Thompson and staffers prayed for Clark while he was there, asking for him to seek forgiveness for not accepting Jesus as his savior.
Ardo had already quit, but doesn't doubt it happened.
"It would not surprise me," Ardo said.
"As to the issue of religious intolerance in the workplace, that's absurd," Thompson's Communications Director Bob Philbin wrote in a news release. "Anyone employed by the City of Harrisburg knows there is no religious, gender, race, or sexual orientation bias in the city workplace."
Thompson isn't abandoning her religious convictions.
"The prayer and fast is really a vision that I had," Thompson told abc27 News on Monday.
She's planning three days of sacrifice to encourage cooperation among government leaders on Harrisburg's financial fix.
"Everybody in city government has known for months that the city was going to run out of money, that the budget was untenable, yet no one has done anything about it," Ardo said. "That needed immediate actions, not immediate prayer."
As of Tuesday evening, abc27 News could not reach Philbin or Clark for comment.
Here’s the full press release:
