BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) — Luke Ash, the bivocational pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, was fired July 10 as a library technician by the East Baton Rouge Parish Library (EBRPL) because he declined to use pronouns with another library employee that did not reflect her biological sex.

Speaking to a crowd of pastors July 17, Ash indicated he was not looking for a fight, but that using male pronouns in speaking to a female coworker would have conflicted with his belief in the biblical truth about God’s creation of male and female and consequently would have been a lie.

The matter has drawn attention, with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murril weighing in.

In response to a social media post about Pastor Ash, Landry wrote on X on July 16: “Louisianans should never lose their job because they refuse to lie! Louisiana is the real world, and in the real world, preferred pronouns don’t exist — only biological ones!”

Murrill added her thoughts on X on July 17, writing: “Louisiana isn’t New York or California. State law prohibits discrimination based on religion in the workplace, especially as a public employee in a taxpayer funded public library. In Louisiana — Christians have rights just like everyone else.”

Even U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon expressed disbelief on X on July 15, with the simple statement: “What?!!”

The issue was first brought to national attention July 15 by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based pro-family research and education nonprofit, in a YouTube interview with Ash. Perkins is a Louisiana native and a Louisiana Baptist pastor.

Perkins hosted a breakfast in Baton Rouge on July 17, and Ash was a guest speaker to the crowd of pastors and elected officials in attendance.

Ash drove big rigs in Fort Wayne, Ind., until he became pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church earlier this year. He sought a local job to provide stability in his service to the small congregation and to create a source of income for his family with retirement and health benefits. He was hired by the East Baton Rouge Parish Library about three months ago, and although he was concerned about some of the library policies he had discovered, by his account he stayed focused on doing a good job for the library.

Ash shared an email with the Baptist Message that he sent July 10 to City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards outlining the events surrounding his firing and other concerns.

“I was fired today for refusing to use preferred pronouns,” Ash wrote, detailing how a coworker, who was training a new female hire, attempted to force Ash to refer to the trainee as a “he.”

Importantly, Ash shared that he did not speak with the trainee. His conversation was only with the trainer.

The next day he was reprimanded by three other EBRPL employees “for not upholding the library’s inclusivity policy by refusing to use preferred pronouns,” and was told that “upper management” would decide “how the library would proceed.”

He noted that he was fired that day, July 10, and that he believes “the library is not a hospitable place for a Christian or someone who is politically conservative to work” and offered to talk with Edwards about “clearly partisan and discriminatory” practices of EBRPL.

David L. Goza, pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge and president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, and Lewis Richerson, pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, drafted a letter that they distributed during the July 17 breakfast for pastors to sign. The document cited the firing as “a violation of religious liberty,” “a First Amendment crisis,” “a dangerous precedent,” and called for Ash to be rehired and the elimination of the diversity, equity and inclusion-directed policies “that led to (Ash’s) termination.”

A group of pastors attended the EBRPL Board of Control meeting that evening to deliver the letter. Richerson was ruled out of order because he was not addressing an item on the meeting’s agenda. He takes issue with that ruling because he brought it up during a discussion of the board’s budget, which was on the agenda.

Richerson said that “public dollars should not fund ideological coercion or religious discrimination” and that Ash’s firing “was not just unnecessary — it was wrong.

“We expect public institutions to serve all people — including those with traditional religious convictions. If the current budget sustains policies that exclude faithful Christians from public service, then the budget is part of the problem,” he said, above attempts by the board chair and other members to shout him down.

“God’s Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil’ (Isaiah 5:20). By requiring employees to use pronouns that reject the created order — male and female as made by God — the library has not only acted unjustly but has rebelled against the truth of God Himself,” he concluded.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Will Hall is editor of The Baptist Message, newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.)