Christian Man Fired for ... Well Being a Christian (prayers, against, church)
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In other words, Christians no longer have freedom of religion to oppose homosexuality anymore, correct? He didn't shout bigotry. He recommended a movie.
Opposing homosexuality is as bad as being racist and should be opposed!
I'm relatively new here, and I might get some hate for this post, but I'm going to weigh in anyhow.
I'm gay. Even if I dress conservatively, behave in a completely professional manner at all times, do stellar work, never miss any time, there is NO way for me to exist in the workplace (or anywhere else) and not "be gay". What is, is. For argument's sake, I'll assume that fundamentalist Christians are as incapable of changing their beliefs as I am my orientation. Neither of us should be fired for just existing.
However, like the guy referenced in the OP, If I were to spend my time at work "recruiting for my team" so to speak (which in my case would entail repeatedly hitting on straight guys, stalking them on Facebook, expounding on the intricacies of my love life), and if complaints were filed against me with HR, and I refused to stop, I would think that any company in this land would fire me. And rightfully so.
What happened to this guy was NOT persecution of any kind. It was completely fair.
Help yourself and welcome. There is no Newbie - resistant Inner circle here (1). Your post was as good as any we get and better than some.
(1) or, if there is, nobody invited me to join
I think we should give jeffbase40 a break, and I speak as a gay, Vietnamese, non-Christian man. I have tripple disadvantages, and I feel completely fine. I'm not afraid of outspoken Christians. The ones who pretend to be nice to me and discreetly stab me behind my back are the dangerous ones.
Based on my understanding of this story, this is how I am going to deal with a circumstance like this. I may be wrong if I misunderstand the article.
I think this man Chris Routson is not an honest person. He tried to become friend with the first lesbian colleague to proselytize her. Having said that, when she decided to accept his invitation, she took her own risk. If she found his recommendation offensive, she could simply unfriend him. If he proselytized her again in person, she could have told him to back off. If he did it again for the 3rd time, she could report him. That would be clearly harassment.
For the second co-worker, it seemed like it was her fault for engaging in a conversation with him. She could have told him that she was not interested in talking about her sexual orientation with him. If he insisted, that would be harassment.
The story is ambiguous, so that is what I get. It seems to me that he was fired because his "inappropriate" behavior was repeated (but not with a same colleague).
If jeffbase40 or any Christian suddenly approaches me and talks about my sexual orientation in a judgmental tone in a work setting, I would allow them to speak. I think that Christians have a right to proselytize whenever they want. I will them that much unless I'm on bed and cannot speak. Nevertheless, they have to respect my decision not to listen to them. When I say "I'm not interested. Leave me alone", they have to back off. The lesbians in this story seems to lead this man on. If they say no to him and he keeps on going, they could report him.
I admit that Christians are annoying. Before I moved to my current place, there were numerous times they knocked on my door nonstop. I was always polite to them and let them talk about their faith without interruption. I have eventually learned that these types of people won't leave me alone until they can meet me and say at least something about their religion. If I had time, I let them talk and only replied with "yes", "no", "no, thanks", "I'm not interested". When I was busy, I simply said "I'm in a middle of something." I think Christians simply want to make sure that they invoke Jesus in you. From my experience, as soon as they can ask me the question "Have you experienced Jesus in your life?", "Do you know that the path you're following is wrong?", or "Can I speak with you about God?", etc, they would not bother me again if I tell them straightly that I have no interest.
It was never a pleasant experience speaking with Christians, but I learned how to coexist with them. They like to provoke people, and the best way to deal with them is to be nice to them and return with a statement "I am not interested."
I'm not saying that my way is the high way. However, I'm not a born American, and I can deal with Christians in a polite manner to deter them. I believe Americans are thick-skinned enough to do this.
I appreciate your post. It's refreshing to see someone post who can actually look at the situation objectively instead of respond with a knee jerk reaction that Christians are always the bad guy.
The guy lost his source of income, but yet people act like the lesbians are the victims here. My biggest beef with this story is the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Losing your job because someone found you annoying? The big sticking point seems to be that he was given a first warning. But the first warning was uncalled for because his offense occured outside work and the lesbian did encourage it somewhat by accepting his friend request.
Now if he was constantly getting in someone's face and disobeying the boss then I could see more grounds for firing him, but only as a last resort, not a first one.
Help yourself and welcome. There is no Newbie - resistant Inner circle here (1). Your post was as good as any we get and better than some.
(1) or, if there is, nobody invited me to join
Thank you for the welcome and feedback, AREQUIPA. I appreciate it and look forward to more interesting discussions.
Or it's a need to convince themselves that they are not making the wrong choice. Since they can't do that they convert others.
I worked with a guy who was a Jehovah's Witness. He was also African-American. While telling me all the wonderful things about his faith, he told me how dark skinned people got their dark skin.
"We sinned and God cast us into the fire us for our sins. The result was our skin turned black and remained so that we may never forget our sins." Or something like that.
I was a bit shocked but I replied, "Do you realize what kind of nonsense you are conveying? African Americans already have a tough enough time with discrimination the way it is and you, an African-American, are only making it worse. Why?"
"Because that's what happened and I want everyone to know the truth."
I worked with a guy who was a Jehovah's Witness. He was also African-American. While telling me all the wonderful things about his faith, he told me how dark skinned people got their dark skin.
"We sinned and God cast us into the fire us for our sins. The result was our skin turned black and remained so that we may never forget our sins." Or something like that.
I was a bit shocked but I replied, "Do you realize what kind of nonsense you are conveying? African Americans already have a tough enough time with discrimination the way it is and you, an African-American, are only making it worse. Why?"
"Because that's what happened and I want everyone to know the truth."
How sad, it just goes to show how evil is the indoctrination of that vile JW cult!
I worked with a guy who was a Jehovah's Witness. He was also African-American. While telling me all the wonderful things about his faith, he told me how dark skinned people got their dark skin.
"We sinned and God cast us into the fire us for our sins. The result was our skin turned black and remained so that we may never forget our sins." Or something like that.
I was a bit shocked but I replied, "Do you realize what kind of nonsense you are conveying? African Americans already have a tough enough time with discrimination the way it is and you, an African-American, are only making it worse. Why?"
"Because that's what happened and I want everyone to know the truth."
The JWs do seem to be all about self-loathing on every possible level, don't they?
I appreciate your post. It's refreshing to see someone post who can actually look at the situation objectively instead of respond with a knee jerk reaction that Christians are always the bad guy.
The guy lost his source of income, but yet people act like the lesbians are the victims here. My biggest beef with this story is the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Losing your job because someone found you annoying? The big sticking point seems to be that he was given a first warning. But the first warning was uncalled for because his offense occured outside work and the lesbian did encourage it somewhat by accepting his friend request.
Now if he was constantly getting in someone's face and disobeying the boss then I could see more grounds for firing him, but only as a last resort, not a first one.
You still don't get it. You cannot harass your coworkers outside of work. People should lose their job if they annoy their coworkers.
No one is saying that Christians are always the bad guy, but the ones that won't stop when asked to are.
Accepting a friend request doesn't mean that you can be harassed without consequences. I do think the lesbian should have dropped him as a friend but we don't know if she did or did not. Maybe she dropped him when she saw what he was doing.
If the Anti-Christian bigot is spreading it around the workplace? Yes, it should. Not hard to understand.
How about if the anti-Christian bigot is the boss?
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