The former editor of the Newton Daily News has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming he was fired for expressing his religious beliefs. <br /> <br />In the complaint filed Wednesday, Bob Eschliman claimed religious discrimination and retaliation. <br /> <br />If the agency agrees with him it could order the newspaper's parent company, Dixon, Illinois-based Shaw Media Inc., to pay damages including back pay. Shaw Media President John Rung didn't immediately return a call. <br /> <br />"No one should be fired for simply expressing his religious beliefs," said Attorney Matthew Whitaker in a news release. "In America, it is against the law to fire an employee for expressing a religious belief in public. This kind of religious intolerance by an employer has no place in today's welcoming workforce." <br /> <br />Eschliman was fired May 6, a week after he wrote on a personal blog that gay organizations wanted to reword the Bible "to make their sinful nature 'right with God.'" <br /> <br />He is represented by Des Moines attorney Matthew Whitaker, a volunteer attorney with the Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization focusing on religious liberty issues.
