The Chicago Bulls cut Jaden Ivey last week for saying the NBA's Pride Month was "unrighteous."
Most Christians don't play in the NBA.
This week, Trump's government went to bat for the ones who don't.
EEOC Sues Two Companies for Christian Religious Discrimination in the Workplace
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit this week against the Cogar Group, a Virginia-based private security company, for forcing a disabled veteran to resign rather than honor his request not to work on Sundays.
The man had been a Baptist deacon since 2021.
He told the company when he was hired that Sunday church services were non-negotiable.
The company said fine – then changed his schedule to mandatory weekends in February 2024 anyway.
When he refused to abandon his faith, they made him choose between his church and his job.
He chose his church.
The same week, the EEOC sued Blue Eagle Contracting, a California postal delivery company, for doing the same thing to a Christian truck driver who needed Sunday mornings for church.
The company gave him weekday routes for months, then reassigned him to Sundays and refused to switch him back.
He resigned in December 2022 rather than miss another service.
Two men – not celebrities, not athletes – who asked to keep their faith and their paycheck at the same time.
Both told no.
Now have the federal government standing behind them.
How Trump's Executive Order on Anti-Christian Bias Rebuilt the EEOC
None of this happened by accident.
On February 6, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14202 – "Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias" – creating a task force chaired by the Attorney General to identify and eliminate anti-Christian conduct across American workplaces.
Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas has driven the results.
Under her leadership, the EEOC filed 11 religious discrimination lawsuits in fiscal year 2025 – the highest total in nearly a decade – and recovered more than $55 million for workers whose rights were violated by Covid vaccine mandates alone.
Lucas said: "During the previous administration, workers' religious protections too often took a backseat to woke policies. Under my leadership, the EEOC is restoring evenhanded enforcement of Title VII – ensuring that workers are not forced to choose between their paycheck and their faith."
That is the opposite of what Biden's EEOC did.
Under Biden, the agency received more than 10,000 religious accommodation charges tied to vaccine mandates and processed almost none of them aggressively.
Christians who refused the Covid shot on religious grounds – citing the use of aborted fetal cell lines in testing and development – were fired in massive numbers while Biden's regulators looked the other way.
The Supreme Court raised the bar in 2023, ruling that employers must now prove any religious accommodation would cause substantial increased costs before they can say no – a far higher standard than Biden's regulators had been applying.
Trump's EEOC is pressing that standard hard, in every industry, in every state.
EEOC Religious Accommodation Lawsuits Are Now Hitting Every Industry
The EEOC's recent enforcement goes well beyond two lawsuits.
Apple was sued for refusing to let a Jewish employee observe the Sabbath.
Marriott was sued after forcing an employee to choose between observing the Sabbath and keeping her job.
Omni Hotels granted a Sunday accommodation, then revoked it and cut the employee's hours to near zero.
Columbia University paid $21 million – the largest EEOC religious discrimination settlement in nearly 20 years – to resolve antisemitism charges brought directly by Lucas.
The companies getting sued span every region and every industry.
Lucas wants every HR department in America reading these press releases and asking whether their policies would survive a federal lawsuit.
The Deacon the NBA Will Never Cover
Former Chicago Bull Jaden Ivey will land somewhere.
He is 24, a former fifth overall pick, and good enough to play in the NBA.
His story got national headlines because he has a platform.
The Baptist deacon from Virginia has no platform.
He has a faith that told him Sunday belongs to God, an employer who told him that was unacceptable, and a Trump administration that told him his rights still mean something in this country.
That man is why Trump signed the executive order.
That man is why Andrea Lucas took the job.
The EEOC drove to a federal courthouse this week and filed a lawsuit on his behalf.
Donald Trump’s administration has made it clear that anti-Christian bias in the workplace is over.
Sources:
- EEOC Press Release, "EEOC Sues The Cogar Group for Religious Discrimination After Baptist Deacon Forced to Resign from Security Job," U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, April 3, 2026.
- EEOC Press Release, "EEOC Sues Blue Eagle Contracting for Religious Discrimination," U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, April 3, 2026.
- EEOC, "200 Days of EEOC Action to Protect Religious Freedom at Work," U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, August 22, 2025.
- Ryan Gaydos, "Jaden Ivey Claims He Was Cut for Preaching Gospel, Claims Bulls' Reason for Release Is a Lie," Fox News, April 2, 2026.
- Liam Griffin, "Bulls' Ivey Released After Questioning NBA's Pride Month Initiatives," Washington Times, March 31, 2026.
- White House Fact Sheet, "President Donald J. Trump Eradicates Anti-Christian Bias," The White House, February 6, 2025.
- Bloomberg Law, "EEOC to Ramp Up Religious Bias Suits With Republicans at Helm," August 13, 2025.
