Trinity Broadcasting Network, the nation’s largest Christian broadcast network and home to endless praise-the-lord programming, has reached a settlement agreement with a former employee who claimed he was working in a not-so-Christian working environment.
It’s took bad Trinity doesn’t have it’s own version of Undercover Boss, where company leaders spend some time hacking it with the peons.
Brian Dugger sued Trinity last March, claiming he was harassed and discriminated against by employees of the world’s largest Christian broadcasting empire. Paul Crouch Jr. [seated, on right] allegedly taunted Dugger with pornography, said TBN was no place for fairies and declared that ‘Brian has a man-gina!’ ” In court paperwork, Crouch said those things never happened.
Dugger began working as a broadcast engineer for Trinity in Nashville in 1993, and grew “exceedingly close” to Paul Crouch Jr.’s daddy, Paul Crouch, the suit said. When TBN headquarters moved to Southern California, the senior Crouch insisted that Dugger come, too; but once here, the senior Crouch became less involved with the station, while wife Jan and son Paul Crouch Jr. took the reins.
That’s when things began to get difficult for Dugger, the suit said. Soon after his transfer to Tustin in 2001, Dugger was told not to dress so gay or to wear jewelry, to act more straight and to pay attention to girls, it said. “Brian has a man-gina!” Paul Crouch Jr. allegedly taunted Dugger (in front of a live video camera and a crowd of TBN workers). The junior Crouch (that’s him at right) also sent Dugger explicit pictures of genitalia – male, female and transsexual – as well as explicit images of copulating couples and other pornography, the suit said.
Dugger claimed that he was denied promotions, raises and responsibility because of his sexual orientation, and ultimately forced into a “sham independent contractor relationship” with TBN, so the network could keep its distance from him. That deprived him of the benefits afforded to employees under California and federal laws, the suit said.
Terms were not disclosed, and it’s likely Dugger signed a non-disparagement agreement. So sorry, no more man-gina talk.
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Josh
This isn’t the first time either.
Paul Crouch Sr. was accused of sexually harassing a male employee once and they settled that suit too.
Tom
“It’s took bad”??
You mean “It’s too bad.”
Invest in an editor maybe?