A pastor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said an employer fired him after he refused to call a female co-worker by her preferred male pronouns.

Luke Ash, the lead pastor at Stevendale Baptist Church, said the East Baton Rouge Parish Library fired him on July 10, he told podcast host Tony Perkins on a July 15 episode of Washington Watch.

Ash, who worked as a library technician, said that on July 7 he and a co-worker were talking about a new female trainee who preferred to go by male pronouns. During the conversation, the co-worker repeatedly corrected Ash.

“I refused to use preferred pronouns through the course of conversation,” Ash said, according to WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge. “They got back with me on Thursday morning by giving me the dismissal.”

The pastor had worked at the library fewer than six months.

“I said, I’m not going to lie.”

Pastor Luke Ash, Lead Pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, shares how he was fired from his job last week at the local library for not using preferred pronouns. pic.twitter.com/xZqv8MSr3r

— Tony Perkins (@tperkins) July 15, 2025

Ash said his employers gave him the chance to call the trainee by her preferred pronouns, and that his manager gave him a copy of the library’s inclusivity policy, according to WBRZ-TV.

But he refused to bend the knee.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to lie. I cannot do it,'” Ash told Perkins.

Local pastors raised a furor on behalf of Ash during the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board meeting on Thursday, according to WAFB-TV.

During the comment portion of the meeting, Pastor Lewis Richerson fervently defended Ash.

“We believe there are two genders that God created. So, asking me to affirm something contrary to the Word of God is asking me to violate the text, scripture, and deeply held religious convictions,” Richerson said.

Richerson and more than 30 other Louisiana pastors wrote a letter to the board, insisting Ash get his job back.

“A group of religious leaders from our parish and around this state requested two things: immediately reinstate Pastor Ash, and two, change your policy that led to his removal,” Richerson said at the meeting.

Board President Candace Temple continually interrupted Richerson, saying that Ash’s termination was not an agenda item that evening.

“Sir, do we need to get security for you? Because you are not following open meeting laws,” Temple said.

Board member Darryl Hurst also interrupted Richerson, citing Louisiana’s Open Meetings Law, which states that public comments must pertain directly to items on the agenda, WAFB-TV reported.

“Germane to the topic, sir. Germane to the topic,” Hurst said. “Look, I live for Jesus and love Jesus with all my heart, but you have to stay germane to the topic, sir. If you’re not going to respect leadership in here, then we’re not going to respect your comment. You are welcome to have a seat.”

In his interview with Perkins, Ash cited the teachings of Jesus.

“Jesus said you have to serve God or mammon, and a lot of times there’s a fork in the road and we decide to compromise for the sake of mammon,” Ash said.

“And I think that we’re very good at being lawyers to ourselves and deceiving ourselves into saying, ‘You know what? What I’m doing is actually the more loving thing. If I just concede on this thing, I’m actually being more loving.’ And I would just say no, the loving thing is to tell the truth,” Ash said.

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