Pregnant woman fired for not getting married

Henrico County, Virginia, couple Apryl Kellam and James Coalson.

A pregnant woman who was recently fired by a Virginia church's daycare center for not setting a date for her wedding to the father of her unborn baby says she might take legal action.

Apryl Kellam was fired from her position at the chid development center just days after she said she received a raise on Jan. 7.

James Coalson, Kellam's fiancé and the father of her soon-to-be born child, told The Christian Post that they've been mulling the idea of seeking legal counsel after Staples Mill Road Baptist Church's firing for her violation of the center's employee handbook.

"We are considering legal action, but have not talked to an employment law attorney, but have been in contact with the law office of Maciej Zebrak," Coalson said. "The church did not follow correct hiring practices by not giving Apryl the proper paperwork stating the rules and regulations that the church daycare abides by. Therefore, she cannot be in violation of a rule that, in theory, doesn't exist."

Last September, Kellam took a job at Staples Mill Road Baptist Church's daycare center wherein she had to agree to set a date to marry her fiancé.

According to WTVR CBS 6, the couple have children from previous marriages and are expecting their first child in April.

Over the past couple months, the church had told her that in order to keep her job she had to set an official date for when she and Coalson would marry.

Kellam explained to CBS 6 in an interview aired last week that it was hard to agree to such given circumstances regarding family attendance.

Pastor James Booth, head of Staples Mill Road Baptist Church, defended the daycare's position for employee moral conduct to local media.

"They don't know our heart. We're not trying to be hurtful, we're just following our personnel handbook which is rooted in our statement of faith and our biblical beliefs," Booth explained.

In a statement shared with CP, Booth stressed that the "church's employment practices are consistent with state and federal employment regulations for a religious employer."

"Our personnel policies are based our church's Statement of Faith and biblical values, and the policies reflect a need for our teachers to maintain a lifestyle in accordance with the biblical values which they teach," continued the statement. "If an employee is found to be in violation of policies, administrators have discretion to weigh the circumstances and act immediately or grant the employee time to correct the situation."

Regarding the church's objection to their marital situation, Coalson told CP that the issue was "never about setting a date to be married, it was about us getting married on our own terms and not forced to set a date."

"We want to do it on our own terms. In following to this, afterward, the church-daycare is now stating there's also an issue with me and my fiancé living together out of wedlock," said Coalson. "The church-daycare was aware of Apryl's and I living arrangements before she was hired as well as Apryl already having one child out of wedlock."

If the couple tries to sue Staples Mill Road Baptist Church, they may have trouble making their case, given U.S. Supreme Court precedent on employment with church organizations.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that government cannot interfere with religious groups' internal affairs.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority, ruling against an EEOC antidiscrimination lawsuit against a church and its school.

"Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs," wrote Roberts. "By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the Free Exercise Clause, which protects a religious group's right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments."