The Trump administration has been asked to investigate after a reverend was fired from a Michigan hospice center for posting his beliefs on marriage and sexuality to his personal social media.
Ordained minister and board-certified chaplain Richard Blue moved his family to start a pastoral role at Heartland Hospice in May 2026. Forty-eight hours into the position, his supervisor and a Human Resources representative confronted Blue over a “religious post” he made to his personal Facebook account discovered by another employee. When he was told to leave his post two weeks later, Blue’s employer would not specify a reason for the firing. Blue believes it was for his post.
First Liberty Institute announced it filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of Reverend Blue on November 11. “Chaplains should not be forced to give up their religious beliefs to do their job,” said Cliff Martin, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, in a press release. “Heartland Hospice cannot single out and terminate an employee for expressing their religious beliefs in their own time and on their own personal social media page.”
Blue described his commitment to giving all patients equal and fair treatment. “HR proceeded to ask how, in light of my religious beliefs expressed within the post, I could effectively care for LGBTQ patients. I replied that I am a professional chaplain and my religious beliefs do not prevent me from giving compassionate, respectful, and equal care. No specific patient or family complaint, refusal of care, discriminatory act, or deficient visit was identified at any time during my employment,” the chaplain wrote.
He further shared that his faith is the north star and guiding point in his life. “I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and my faith informs every aspect of my life. As a minister, I take joy in sharing the Gospel, shepherding the church members and patients entrusted to my care, and God’s transformative work in my own life.”
President Donald Trump has made clear that religious liberty is an individual right he wants every American to feel is protected. In May 2025, the president established the Religious Liberty Commission to help “identify emerging threats to religious liberty, uphold Federal laws that protect all citizens’ full participation in a pluralistic democracy, and protect the free exercise of religion,” according to the Department of Justice.
Trump further emphasized the importance of faith expression, stating, “We’re bringing back religion in our country, and we’re bringing it back quickly and strongly — because for America to be a great nation, we must always be one nation under God.”
With Democrats set to take power in both houses of Congress in January, many are wondering if a renewed crackdown on Christians expressing their views in the public square is on the horizon. Experts like First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel Cliff Martin say this scenario is unlikely.
“I would like to think that religion will not lose its status as a protected class, in part because Democrats had to find religious people to win some of these elections,” he told The Washington Stand. “So I am hopeful that the administration will not back off of what has been great work defending religious people. It was only in 2023 that the Supreme Court handed down the Gross v. Detroit decision, where they established the undue hardship standard that employers have to accommodate religious practices unless they can prove an undue hardship, which the Supreme Court defined as a substantial increased cost. I think that employers are still getting the message of that 2023 case, and some of them have been slow to respond. But I believe that that case will still be useful in defending employees, regardless what the vibes are in the nation.”
“It’s possible that an HR employee or some individual manager in the corporate environment could misread the situation as, ‘Oh, we won the election. Now I have carte blanche to treat these people as second class citizens,’ but I think they’re going to be sorely mistaken and they’re going to find out otherwise through the legal system,” Martin added.
