A Christian nonprofit overseen by theologian Christopher Yuan has filed a lawsuit against a California-based technology company, accusing it of religious discrimination.
Yuan’s group, Holy Sexuality, filed a complaint against Asana, Inc. of San Francisco on Tuesday in the United States District Court of the Southern District of California.
According to the lawsuit, Asana refused to give Holy Sexuality a 50% nonprofit discount for the company’s project management software due to the religious nature of the organization.
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The lawsuit cited an entry on Asana’s website which excludes from their discount “organizations that exist to solely propagate a belief in a specific faith or do not provide services to people outside of a specific faith.”
Asana also bars from the nonprofit discount any hospitals, credit unions, educational institutions, and any groups “that advocate, support, or practice discrimination based on age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, disability, race, size, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background.”
The complaint claims that the barring of Holy Sexuality and other religious groups from the nonprofit discount constitutes “invidious religious discrimination” and is “illegal under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.”
“People of faith aren’t second-class citizens in California, and tech companies in San Francisco cannot provide lesser services to customers simply because they are religious,” added the lawsuit.
“This Court should thus grant judgment in favor of Holy Sexuality, declare Asana’s discriminatory denial and published policy unlawful, enjoin that policy, order Asana to remove its discriminatory advertisements and to reconsider Holy Sexuality’s application, and award Holy Sexuality damages and attorney’s fees.”
Holy Sexuality is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious freedom legal nonprofit, which has argued and won religious liberty cases at the U.S. Supreme Court level.
In an ADF press release on Tuesday, Yuan said that he believes the United States “was founded on the principle of the free exercise of religion — a cornerstone of our democracy.”
“Yet some corporations, emboldened by intersectional ideology and anti-Christian sentiment, choose to unlawfully discriminate based solely on religion,” stated Yuan. “This must stop. California law protects all religions from discrimination. Equal treatment is the bedrock of our society.”
The Christian Post reached out to Asana, Inc. for comment but did not receive comment by press time. This article will be updated if comment is received.
Yuan is the author of Out of a Far Country, a book that describes his experience from being an agnostic homosexual to becoming a Christian pastor, author and theologian.
In 2018, Yuan released a book, titled Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story, in which he outlined his concept of “holy sexuality.”
“I define ‘holy sexuality’ — not heterosexuality, not homosexuality, but holy sexuality — as chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage,” Yuan told The Christian Post in an interview at the time.
