Former football analyst Craig James, who currently works as a radio host for the anti-gay Family Research Council, has filed a lawsuit against Fox Sports alleging the network fired him based on his religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage.
James, who is represented by the anti-gay Liberty Institute, reportedly filed the lawsuit in state district court in Dallas on Monday morning.
Breitbart Texas reports:
“Fox Sports fired James for one reason only: his religious beliefs about marriage,” the 35-page suit charges. “In so doing, Fox Sports violated the law. Specifically, Fox Sports violated the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (‘TCHRA') and Texas contract law along with a myriad of equitable principles.” …
“This is very troubling as an employee when your boss holds against you something you said about your belief system nearly eighteen months before you were recruited and hired,” James told Breitbart Sports in an exclusive interview. “I said nothing about my belief system on the air at Fox Sports. So, the fact that they reached back in my past nearly eighteen months and responded to a comment about my biblical belief in natural marriage as a candidate—that's troubling.”
Fox Sports hired the former SMU and New England Patriots running back after his unsuccessful bid for one of Texas' U.S. Senate seats in 2012 in which the candidate responded to a question about gay marriage by stating, “I'm a guy that believes in a man and a woman,” and urging Christians to “stand up” on the issue. During the discussion of gay marriage, James asserted: “God's going to judge each one of us in this room for our actions.”
In September 2013, three days after hiring James, Fox Sports Southwest announced it was firing him. A Fox spokesman reportedly told The Dallas Morning News that the network let James go after learning of his anti-gay statements during his Senate campaign.
“We just asked ourselves how Craig's statements would play in our human resources department,” the Fox spokesman reportedly said. “He couldn't say those things here.”
After the Liberty Institute filed a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission on behalf of James, Fox Sports released a statement saying he was hired without proper vetting and that he's “a polarizing figure in the college sports community.” He was let go “based on the perception that he abused a previous on-air position to further a personal agenda,” the network said.
During his 2012 campaign for Senate, in which he finished last with just 4 percent of the vote (Ted Cruz won), James adopted a rabidly anti-gay platform, opposing both same-sex marriage and civil unions and saying he believed homosexuality was a choice.
“I think it's a choice, I do,” James said during one debate. “You have to make that choice, absolutely.… Same-sex marriage, if someone chooses to do that, then that's them, and God's going to judge each one of us in this room for our actions, but in that case right there, they're going to have to answer to the lord for their actions. We should not give benefits to those civil unions. It should not occur. We have to stay strong on this. This is important, man. I tell you what, we have a fiscal issue in this county, but we also have a moral issue in this country, and as Christians we better stand up.”
Since then, James has elaborated on his anti-gay views during his tenure at FRC, an anti-LGBT hate group. He's said he would die to prevent LGBT people from obtaining equal rights, that same-sex marriage is the work of Satan, and that “genital-worshipping” gay activists want to shut down Christianity.
More from Breitbart Texas:
James claims that despite briefly providing on-air analysis for Fox Sports the network never even paid him for that. He seeks that money, back pay with interest, damages of $100,000 or more, and attorneys' fees, among other types of remuneration.
James served as a mainstay of college football broadcasts for two decades on ESPN/ABC, CBS, and other outlets but he remains sidelined in the wake of Fox Sports's abrupt firing of him within a month of his hiring.
“I have tried to place some phone calls to friends in the broadcast industry,” James told Breitbart Sports. “Because of Fox's actions, my agent said I was ‘radioactive'—not a lot of people ringing my phone off the wall.”
