The court of appeals affirmed a district court judgment. The court held that a nonprofit entity qualified for the statutory exemption from Title VII’s prohibition against religious discrimination in employment where it established that it was organized for a self-identified religious purpose, was engaged in activity consistent with, and in furtherance of, those religious purposes, and held itself out to the public as religious.
World Vision, Inc. was a self-described Christian humanitarian organization that worked to reduce poverty and injustice. Silvia Spencer, Ted Youngberg, and Vicki Hulse (Spencer) worked for World Vision, handling various clerical, administrative, and shipping tasks. World Vision discovered that Spencer held religious beliefs that were incompatible with the organization’s doctrinal beliefs, namely that there was a trinity of one God that existed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As a result, Spencer was terminated.
