edible-gingerbread-toy-soldier-12-12-06.jpgThe latest highly-publicized suspiciously-well-timed battle in the War on Christmas involves a woman in Florida who says she was fired from her job for saying Merry Christmas:

Tonia Thomas says she was terminated two weeks ago from her job at Counts Oakes Resort Properties in Panama City after balking at the rule because it went against her religion. She is suing for lost wages, she said.

Thomas offered to use a generic greeting or say "Merry Christmas" to callers instead, but that offer was denied by company President Andy Phillips, according to the Liberty Counsel — the Christian-based legal group representing her.

"She said, 'That goes against my religious beliefs; I’m participating in secularizing Christmas,'" Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mathew Staver told FOXNews.com. "She asked him for an accommodation ... and he refused."

Although actually, it's not secularism Ms. Thomas has an issue with so much as it's other religions:

"I hold my core Christian values to a high standard and I absolutely refuse to give in on the basis of values. All I wanted was to be able to say 'Merry Christmas' or to acknowledge no holidays," she said Tuesday. "As a Christian, I don't recognize any other holidays."

Her employers, on the other hand, felt that accommodating Ms. Thomas' wish to express her disrespect for their religious traditions with customers was an undue hardship on the conduct of their business, so they required her (as many employers do) to use a script:

Andy Phillips, the company's President said what is being reported in the media is false and said he fired Thomas for different reasons.

"We have a situation with a disgruntled employee who was terminated for insubordination and gross misconduct. She was not terminated and I want to make that very clear, she was not terminated for saying Merry Christmas," Phillips said.

Phillips says the greeting his employees are supposed to say changed after Thanksgiving and he felt the need not to single out any other holiday this time of the year.

"But there's also Hanuka and we want to make sure we put a script in place that was not offensive to someone who did not celebrate Christmas," Phillips said.

But hey, Liberty Counsel is on the case:

Liberty Counsel is a non-profit public interest law firm and ministry that provides free legal assistance in defense of Christian religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the traditional family... A close partnership exists between Liberty University, its newly formed Jesse Helms School of Law, and Liberty Counsel. Liberty University was founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Mat Staver serves as the law school's Dean. In 2006 Liberty Counsel's payroll was taken over by Liberty University/Falwell Ministries and Liberty Counsel became Jerry Falwell's in-house religious liberties advocacy group.

Which is kind of ironic. Because the lawsuit, except for the hit of yuletide publicity, is apparently not going to accomplish much.

Thomas could have hard time winning the case, said G. Thomas Harper, a Jacksonville-based labor attorney who writes a newsletter on Florida employment law.

"I wouldn't think an employee has the right to insist (on saying Merry Christmas) unless that really is a tenet of their faith. She would have to make a strong case that was part of her beliefs, if not, it becomes insubordination," he said.

. . . because Florida is a employment-at-will state:

The "employment-at-will" doctrine in Florida is based on the general rule that employment can be terminated by either the employer or employee for any reason. No reason is required for a company to fire an employee in Florida... The employment-at-will relationship between employer and employee changes if there is a contract between the parties, or if both parties are subject to a union contract, in which case the relationship is governed by the contract terms.

. . . and Thomas doesn't have a union contract. Florida is a Right to Work state where the laws make it very difficult to have an active union.

There is hope for the future Liberty Council lawsuits, though. The Right to Work movement recently lost two of its strongest champions: National Right to Work Committee board member Jerry Falwell, and "staunch ally" Jesse Helms.

And God bless us, every one.