Robbie Anderson

“I applied at the Bell Company out of school. When I talked to the HR people, I let them know I was a Seventh-day Adventist, and I couldn't work from Friday to Saturday night. They said it was okay and that they would work with me. I was hired on May 16, 1977.

I worked there for about six or seven years with no problems. They knew I was a Sabbath keeper. One day, my immediate supervisor called me in the office to tell me there had been schedule changes and now everybody had to work a shift on Saturday. I asked to speak to the district manager. I told him I appreciated working for him, but I am Seventh-day Adventist, and I would not work on Saturday.

‘My dentist is a Seventh-day Adventist, too,’ he told me. ‘I will go and look around to see if I can find something to place you in, so you don’t have to quit or get fired.’ And he did. He found me a job in the controller's department.

I enjoyed that job. Everyone in our unit worked really well together. Then we were called in a meeting to let us know that we would all have to start working on Saturday, with no exceptions. When the schedule was posted, my name wasn't up there the first couple of weeks. So, I thought, ‘Well, maybe they're not going to force me to work on the Saturday after all.’ After a while I didn’t really look at the schedule anymore because I thought I was fine. Also, I didn't really look at it because even if they put my name I was going to keep the Sabbath.

One Monday morning my supervisor called me in. ‘You know you missed work this week,’ she said. ‘You didn't come in Saturday.’ I once again explained that I was a Seventh-day Adventist and would not be working on the Sabbath. She gave me a warning that first time and told me I would be suspended if I didn't work the next three times. If at that point I still refused to work, then they would fire me.

“Some people at work offered to take my Saturday shift so I wouldn’t get in trouble, but I would say ‘no, that's okay.’ I explained to them that I wouldn’t work on the Sabbath, and I would not make others work on the Sabbath because of me either.

The fourth time I missed work, there was a note when I got to my office. It said, ‘please clean your desk, and come to the conference room.’ In there, there were people from the headquarters in Birmingham and Nashville, the district supervisors, and my supervisor. They told me because I was insubordinate, and I defied their orders to come in to work, I had two choices: I could stay on the job and work on the Sabbath, or they would fire me. I repeated, ‘I won't work on the Sabbath.’

One of them asked, ‘Why would you allow yourself to lose a job like this? How are you going to take care of yourself?’ I said, ‘The Lord promised to take care of me.’

So, they fired me. They also told me they were holding my severance and my pension because of insubordination. I think they thought that that would make me change my mind, but I still told them no. I turned in my badge, my clearance, and security escorted me out. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to my friends.

Eventually, the Southern Union and the General Conference’s religious liberty department and their attorneys arranged an arbitration hearing to talk to the company about their decision to withhold everything from me. I don’t remember all the details too well, but the hearing went in my favor, and they allow me to get my severance pay and keep some of my pension.

Still, I was left without a job for a whole year. 

I lost my car. My electricity was turned off, and I was almost kicked out of my home. But every time something like that happened to me, the Lord stepped in. He took care of everything because he promised He would. I didn't beg anybody for anything, and yet, there was always someone looking after me.

Eventually, I got a job at an apartment complex in Paducah. Evidently, the Lord had made that provision for me. The truth is, the Lord is going to take care of you because you're His child.”