Atheism, employment discrimination, and New Albany's embryonic Human Rights Commission.

Jerry DeWitt was a small-town Louisiana building inspector and a firebrand preacher. When his faith disappeared, so did his job.

From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader, by Robert F. Worth (New York Times Magazine)

On Dec. 1, his boss asked to meet him at a diner in town. Sitting at the table, the man took out two printouts from secular Web sites with DeWitt’s name on it. “He told me: ‘The Pentecostals who run the parish are not happy, and something’s got to be done,’ ”DeWitt recalled. “Half an hour later I was out of a job.” (His former boss did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.)

New Albany's new human rights ordinance prohibits discrimination on the basis of religious belief. Atheism is an absence of religious belief. But doesn't the DeWitt case amply illustrate that employment discrimination can be based on atheism?

If so, shouldn't the human rights ordinance be amended to boldly say precisely that?

33.145 - Public policy and purpose.
It is the policy of the city that it does not discriminate in the provision or implementation of its programs and services on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It is the public policy of the city to provide all citizens equal opportunity for education, employment, access to public accommodations and acquisition through purchase or rental of real property, including, but not limited to housing, and to eliminate segregation or separation based on race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, since an equal access to and use of public accommodations and equal opportunity for acquisition of real property are hereby declared to be civil rights.