Jesus would have forgiven Jarretta Hamilton. Had Jon and Julie Ennis lived in biblical times, they might have stoned her. Ms. Hamilton is the fourth-grade teacher whom the Ennises fired last year because she got pregnant before she got married. The Ennises run Southland Christian School in St. Cloud, Fla., near Orlando. Ms. Hamilton filed suit against the school last week in federal court for gender and marital status discrimination and invasion of privacy. The privacy complaint is based on her allegations that administrators told other teachers and parents that she had conceived out of wedlock. The school says that it did not discriminate against Ms. Hamilton, and claims that she was let go because of her immoral behavior, which violated school rules. 'Jarretta was asked not to return because of a moral issue that was disregarded, namely fornication, sex outside of marriage,' Julie Ennis, Southland's administrator, wrote in a letter to Ms. Hamilton's attorney. 'Our student handbook requires all students to sign they will refrain from immoral actions or risk expulsion, and we can expect no less from the teachers in leadership at Southland Christian School.' I might have been inclined to shout 'Amen!' had Ms. Hamilton not married the father of her child three weeks after conceiving. Southland has every right to hold its students and employees to certain standards. It is a Christian school, and is entitled to set what the school considers a Christian moral code. Ms. Hamilton, however, did do the right -- supposedly Christian -- thing after she did the wrong -- supposedly un-Christian -- thing. Not that I'm judging her. To each his or her own libido. I use the terms 'right' and 'wrong' here because, based on what the Ennises believe, premarital sex is wrong. Only sex within marriage is right. Southland Christian School could have acted as Jesus did when the scribes and Pharisees brought to him the woman who had committed adultery and asked what they should do. Moses' law, they noted, required that she be stoned. 'He that is without sin among you,' Jesus said, 'let him first cast a stone at her.' Of course, they all had sinned. So no stones were cast. And Jesus refused to condemn the woman, telling her, 'Go, and sin no more.' Why, then, couldn't the Ennises be that charitable? It's not likely that Ms. Hamilton's class of fourth-graders -- or any other students, for that matter -- would have known when Ms. Hamilton conceived, given how close the conception was to her wedding date. Not that her sex life is any of their business anyway. And when Jon Ennis, Southland Christian's principal, asked Ms. Hamilton when she conceived, she told the truth when she could have lied. (I'm still trying to imagine any boss of mine asking such a personal question and getting an answer at all.) The holier-than-thou-ness of some Christians never ceases to amaze. 'We request that Jarretta withdraw her complaint,' Julie Ennis wrote, 'and consider the testimony of the Lord.' But would the Lord have fired a newly married, pregnant woman -- leaving her with no income and no health insurance -- just because she and her husband didn't save themselves for marriage? Ms. Hamilton, by the way, is still unemployed. Her attorney, Edward R. Gay of Orlando, said she has been unable to find a job. A popular song by gospel artist Donnie McClurklin says a 'saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up.' That fits with Jesus' teachings about love and forgiveness. When Jesus' disciple Peter asked how many times he should forgive his brother who sins against him, Jesus told him: 77. That would have been a better lesson for Southland Christian's students than the one the school taught by firing Ms. Hamilton -- one strike and you're out. Why didn't they consider that testimony of the Lord? Rhonda Swan writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: rhonda(underscore)swan@pbpost.com. 