XPost: rec.scouting.usa, alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.california
XPost: sac.politics
Dr. Mike Adams explains how a gay manager at Cisco Systems got
Dr. Frank Turek fired for opposing same-sex marriage. Adams
explains what happened in a letter addressed to the President of
Cisco.
Excerpt:
I want to bring to your attention a recent decision made by your
HR team that I think does not reflect your leadership of Cisco.
Dr. Frank Turek was fired as a vendor for his political and
religious views, even though those views were never mentioned or
expressed during his work at Cisco.
[…]In 2008, Dr. Turek was hired by Cisco to design and conduct a
leadership and teambuilding program for about fifty managers
with your Remote Operations Services team. The program took
about a year to conduct, during which he also conducted similar
sessions for another business unit within Cisco. That training
earned such high marks that in 2010 he was asked to design a
similar program for about 200 managers within Global Technical
Services. Ten separate eight-hour sessions were scheduled.
The morning after completing the seventh session earlier this
year, a manager in that session —who was one of the better
students in that class—phoned in a complaint. It had nothing to
do with content of the course or how it was conducted. In fact,
the manager commented that the course was “excellent” as did
most who participated. His complaint regarded Dr. Turek’s
political and religious views that were never mentioned during
class, but that the manager learned by “googling” Dr. Turek
after class.
The manager identified himself as gay and was upset that Dr.
Turek had written this book providing evidence that maintaining
our current marriage laws would be best for the country.
Although the manager didn’t read the book, he said that the
author’s view was inconsistent with “Cisco values” and could not
be tolerated. (Dr. Turek is aware of this because he was in the
room when his call came in.) The manager then contacted an
experienced HR professional at Cisco who had Dr. Turek fired
that day without ever speaking to him. The HR professional also
commended the manager for “outing” Dr. Turek.
This firing had nothing to do with course content—the program
earned very high marks from participants. It had nothing to do
with budget constraints—the original contract was paid in full
recently. A man was fired simply because of his personal
political and religious beliefs—beliefs that are undoubtedly
shared by thousands of your very large and diverse workforce.
Chastity vs sexual immorality
Let me tell you about the difference between chastity and sexual
immorality. In my life, I have decided to be chaste, and what I
have found is that there is a constant stream of negative
judgments coming from the culture, the education system, and so
forth disapproving of my decision to be chaste. But you will
never see me trying to use the law to censor and coerce people
who disagree with me. That is because I know that chastity is a
virtue, and that chastity is necessary for a stable marriage –
strictly on the peer-reviewed research.
No amount of disagreement from anti-chastity activists will make
me feel bad about what I have decided to do, because I have the
facts. I am not offended by incorrect views because it’s a
factual question, and I’m right. And I also don’t want other
people who disagree with me to celebrate my views, because they
don’t hold my views. And I don’t mind that they disagree with me
– my Christian worldview has a place for tolerance. Even God
himself allows people to rebel against him – he doesn’t swoop
down on sinners and demand obedience. He lets people decide for
themselves. I want the right to voice my disagreement with
others – I would not force anyone to agree with me and celebrate
my views against their own will.
I think we can all see how sexual immorality is different from
chastity. When people do something wrong that they know is
wrong, they have a different response to being judged. Instead
of ignoring the judgment as I do, they try to censor, coerce and
overpower those who disagree with them. This can include the use
of courts or even the use of force. The feeling of being
offended is so strong for some sexually immoral people that any
concerns about tolerating diverse opinions, or permitting
disagreement goes out the window. Even to hear the words of
disagreement is sometimes too much for a person in rebellion.
Consider this passage from Matthew 14:1-2:
Matthew 14:1-12:
1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus,
2and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he
has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at
work in him.”
3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in
prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
4 for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to
have her.”
5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people,
because they considered John a prophet.
6 On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the
guests and pleased Herod so much
7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.
8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter
the head of John the Baptist.”
9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his
dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted
10 and had John beheaded in the prison.
11 His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl,
who carried it to her mother.
12 John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then
they went and told Jesus.
Notice that this coercion can happen with all kinds of sexual
immorality – in this case, incest. The desire to not be judged
about the means of pursuing pleasure is strong. No one wants to
hear about the potential harm they are causing. They just want
to do it, and you just need to shut up and affirm them in their self-indulgence. Celebrate Anthony Weiner. Celebrate Bill
Clinton. Celebrate Tiger Woods. Celebrate Elliot Spitzer.
Celebrate Arnold Schwarzenegger. Celebrate John Edwards. OR
ELSE. Very few people are brave enough to talk about the victims
of this adult self-indulgence. And those who do will be taken
under fire for it.
Same-sex marriage and coercion
And that leads me to the question that gay activists often ask
supporters of traditional marriage: “how would allowing same-sex
marriage hurt your marriage?”. And now we know the answer. Same-
sex marriage would likely, criminalize free speech that
promotes traditional marriage over same-sex marriage, as it has
in other countries with same-sex marriage, such as Canada. If
you are a working husband, and you are responsible for a family,
you will be under a constant threat of termination should your
pro-marriage views become known to your colleagues and
supervisors. Also, if you teach you children to favor
traditional marriage, you may be persecuted by the state.
I would like to be able to provide for my family if I choose to
marry, and I would like my children to favor traditional
marriage over cohabitation, or any other arrangement, because
traditional marriage is best for children who need a stable
environment with two loving biological parents (if possible).
But if it becomes the law that my view is “offensive” and
“discriminatory”, then that would affect my marriage. Sometimes,
I am very glad that I am not married, because getting married in
a society that is offended by marriage takes a lot of courage.
It seems to me that many Christians, especially the uninformed
emotional ones who would rather read vampire fiction and Dan
Brown than peer-reviewed research, prefer to redefine
Christianity to mean “affirming destructive behavior so that you
feel good and more people like you”.
Let Dr. Turek’s story be a lesson to all of you who prefer
traditional marriage. Don’t allow your opinions on marriage to
be linked to your true identity, because some sexually immoral
people will try to separate you from your livelihood if they
can. It’s no longer safe to express a preference for traditional
marriage in this society. If you do it, you are taking chances.
Just look at the vandalism and stalking of Prop 8 supporters. If
you want children to grow up with a mother and a father in this
society, then you are a marked target to those who put adult
hedonism above the rights of children – including many
Christians who enjoy singing and schmoozing in the church. Just
this week I got an anguished e-mail from someone who blogs under
his real name who is now in the cross-hairs for expressing his
preference for traditional marriage in public.
Note: Comments to this post will be strictly filtered in
accordance with legislation passed by the Obama administration
limiting the free discussion of sexual morality, which many
liberal Christians voted for in 2008.
https://winteryknight.com/2011/06/17/gay-manager-at-cisco- systems-gets-dr-frank-turek-fired-for-offending-him/
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)