The Senior Vice President of Communications for the National Religious Broadcasters (NBR) was fired today for making pro-vaccine comments on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Show, according to the RNS, in violation of a contractual agreement to not speak on the matter.
Spokesperson Dan Darling was let go from NBR, the run-of-the-mill, loosey-goosy, organization that bills itself as “a nonpartisan, international association of Christian communicators whose member organizations represent millions of listeners, viewers, and readers” that “works to protect the free speech rights of our members by advocating those rights in governmental, corporate, and media sectors, and works to foster excellence, integrity, and accountability in our membership by providing networking, educational, ministry, and relational opportunities.”
Nearly a month ago, Darling expressed his happiness at having been vaccinated, telling Joe Scarborough: “I believe in this vaccine because I don’t want to see anyone else die of COVID. Our family has lost too many close friends and relatives to COVID, including an uncle, a beloved church member, and our piano teacher.” Around this time he also wrote an op-ed in USA Today, arguing his belief that every Christians ought to be vaccinated.
This, allegedly, was cause to terminate him without severance, with RNS noting:
Earlier this week, leaders at NRB, an international association of Christian communicators with 1,100 member organizations, told Darling his statements violated the organization’s policy of remaining neutral about COVID-19 vaccines. According to the source, Darling was given two options — recant or sign a statement admitting he had been insubordinate. When he refused, Darling was fired and given no severance.
Prior to joining the NBR in 2020, Darling spent 6 years at SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which prompted Ex-ERLC president Russell Moore to respond:
NRB has not commented on the story, other than to confirm that Darling was no longer employed with the company.
Editor’s Note. We modified this headline and added a line, as the original headline was not clear that he was fired for violating the company’s policy on being vaccine neutral, not for speaking out in favor of vaccines perse.
