(AgapePress) - A public school employees union in Washington state has backed down on its attempt to force a school bus driver to send his annual dues to the American Civil Liberties Union, despite his religious objections to the liberal organization.

Ivan Poisel is a part-time bus driver as well as pastor of the Hilltop Church of God in Sunnyside. He had requested that his $15-a-month union dues be donated to a local food bank called Second Harvest. However, the union said it recognized only the ACLU and will send his dues there.

Rick Chisa with the Public School Employees union told the Washington Times the union was not refusing Poisel's request, but merely doing what the law tells them to do. "PSE doesn't want to be in the business of identifying which organizations or charities are legitimate," Chisa said. "We use selected charities that don't pose any question that it's an accountable organization."

But late Friday, according to the Washington-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation -- which was overseeing Poisel's case -- PSE decided it "makes sense" to approve of contributions to food banks. That move came after what EEF calls a "barrage" of media calls to the union.

A spokesman for EEF says union officials knew in advance that their position was indefensible. "The union has lost cases like this before," Dan Cook says, "and is out-of-line to insist on one charity -- particularly one as controversial as the ACLU."

Poisel had stated before the union's decision on Friday that he was being unfairly singled out and forced to do something he disagrees with because of his conservative beliefs. He had also stated he would in no way support a group that seeks to undermine the rights of Christians nationwide -- and that the ACLU goes against everything he stands for.

"They're pro-abortion; I'm pro-life. They are anti-Christian, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "They worked on getting prayer out of the schools, and they have raised all kinds of things about exercising our religious rights in various places -- and they've stood against that."

Now that he has won his case, he says he wants to make sure other workers do not have to go through the same trouble he did. “No one should have to endure this kind of harassment for their religious beliefs," Poisel says. "I want to make sure PSE officials respect religious liberty.”

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