At a job interview with online survey company Questback, Jason Burch said, the CEO noted that Burch was from Texas and asked if he was religious. When Burch said yes, the CEO asked if he would mind working for a bunch of atheists.

Burch got the job as senior account executive at Norway-based Questback, which has an office in The Woodlands. But, he alleged in a lawsuit filed this week in state district court in Harris County, he was fired five months later after he threatened to file a religious discrimination and retaliation complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Andrew W. Reed, a Houston lawyer  representing Burch, said his client was stunned by the interview question about religion. “But he felt like he had to answer because his future boss was asking,” Reed said.