This case is fundamentally about whether religious institutions can maintain their religious identity and mission. Liberty University, like all faith-based organizations, has the right to employ individuals whose beliefs and conduct align with its stated doctrinal teachings. That's not discrimination — that's the preservation of religious freedom.

The case was a “setup” from the beginning. Jonathan Zinski was already in the process of taking female hormones with a plan to “identify” as a “woman” when he accepted employment with Liberty University. Yet, he purposefully hid this fact, and signed the university’s employment documents, which included agreeing to abide by LU's doctrinal statement.

The doctrinal statement could not be clearer. In summary, God creates us in His image, male and female, and to identify as anything other than how God created you as birth is a sin. The premise behind this LGBTQ agenda is that God made a mistake and humans can create themselves in their own image.

Zinski planned to work through the 90-day employment probationary period, demand LU set aside its biblical doctrine on human sexuality, and replace it with his LGBTQ ideology. When LU refused, the ACLU sued.

From the beginning, this setup was about REBELLION and DEFIANCE, the deliberate nondisclosure followed by open defiance of known institutional standards.

The university didn't change the rules; LU simply held its employee accountable to the biblical standards he agreed to uphold when hired.

Judge Quattlebaum posed a hypothetical question to the ACLU attorney as to whether a “Christian church of 16 employees, one of which is a janitor, must hire a transgender employee even though their beliefs … would be contrary to their doctrine?”

The ACLU attorney said “Yes!”

Judge Wynn pushed back on the “must-hire” notion, that forcing a church to hire someone whose beliefs contradict its doctrine would effectively “force a church to do something.” Judge Wynn questioned whether the court would be “making decisions for the church” in these matters.

This case has implications far beyond Liberty University. Churches, synagogues, and other faith communities of all sizes depend on the right to employ people who support their mission. A ruling against religious exemptions threatens the autonomy of every religious institution in America.

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If Liberty University cannot enforce its doctrinal statement in employment decisions, they become hypocrites — teaching one thing to students while being forced to employ people actively living contrary to those teachings.

Religious institutions must have the freedom to live out their faith authentically.

Faith-based institutions don't exist merely to be whipsawed by every unbiblical doctrine; they exist to witness to their beliefs. That mission requires the freedom to employ people whose conduct and beliefs reflect institutional teachings. Without that freedom, religious institutions become indistinguishable from secular ones.

Because of the physical changes caused by female hormones, dressing as a woman, and the name change to Ellenor, Zinski would be coming to work every day with the equivalent of a protest sign that openly defies the doctrine of the LU. That is outrageous! But that is what the ACLU is asking the court to impose on Liberty and all Christian organizations.

We need your help to fight this case. A special Challenge Grant will DOUBLE the impact of every gift made today. Please, give generously so that YOUR church, Christian school, or institution is never forced to adopt false doctrine!

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

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SOURCES:

“Doctrinal Statement.”, Liberty University. Accessed March 19, 2026. https://www.liberty.edu/about/doctrinal-statement/.