(RNS) — A Chicago-area church led by bestselling author and pastor Dane Ortlund must pay $93,000 in back wages and damages to a former staffer after a judge ruled the church retaliated against her. Administrative Judge Azeema Akram of the Illinois Human Rights Commission ruled last week that Naperville Presbyterian Church’s firing of Emily Hyland in 2021, after she claimed she had been mistreated because of her gender, qualified as retaliation and violated Illinois law. “Complainant successfully proved retaliation by a preponderance of the evidence, as she was able to show that she engaged in a protected activity when she complained about sex-based discrimination, that Respondent knew about it, and that there was a causal nexus between her complaints and her subsequent termination,” Akram wrote in her decision. Akram also ruled that Hyland failed to prove the church had discriminated against her. Church officials argued that Hyland was fired for poor job performance and denied any retaliation. Emily Hyland. (Courtesy photo) The ruling came just over five years after Hyland was terminated from her role …