Dr. Frank Turek

"Cross Examined" host

September 2011 – I was fired as a vendor by Cisco for my conservative beliefs about sex and marriage even though my beliefs were never expressed on the job. When a homosexual manager learned that I had authored Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone, he couldn’t tolerate me and requested I be fired. Although no one at Cisco actually read the book, an executive canned me within hours without ever speaking to me. This happened despite the fact that the leadership and programs I led always received high marks (even from the homosexual manager). 

How could this happen in a culture that is advertised as “inclusive and diverse?” Because inclusion and diversity mean something different to corporate elites than they mean to normal Americans. 

They should mean that people agree to work together cordially and professionally even when they disagree on certain political, moral or religious questions. Instead, what those words really mean in too many corporations and colleges is that you must celebrate homosexual behavior or else.

All employees should treat one another with kindness and respect because they are fellow human beings, not because of their sexual behavior. As soon as you start telling people from different religious and cultural backgrounds what they must think about homosexuality, you will offend and create conflict and resentment. 

As a Christian, I am commanded to respect all people. That’s what I did at Cisco. But don’t tell me I have to celebrate what people do in bed. Don’t tell me I must violate my conscience or my God in order to make widgets. That’s not only immoral and un-American; it’s manipulative and insane. How does accepting homosexual behavior have anything to do with job productivity?

There simply is no business reason to judge anyone’s beliefs about sexual behavior. And even if some corporate nanny could dream up a reason, it would not justify an assault on an employee’s conscience or religion.

Notice that Cisco did not have a problem with my behavior. My job performance was deemed excellent, and I was “inclusive and diverse” by working in a respectful manner with people of all moral, religious and political views. 

Cisco had a problem with my thoughts. Although I certainly accepted homosexuals, I committed the thought crime of disagreeing with homosexual behavior and homosexual political goals. So despite all their talk about “inclusion and diversity,” Cisco deemed my thoughts about something [that is] irrelevant to the workplace as grounds for immediate exclusion. Do you think they would have excluded me if I had pro-same sex marriage thoughts? Of course not – that’s an approved, politically correct view that Cisco actually sponsors, though the company denies it.

But people who don’t accept homosexual behavior don’t have to work at Cisco then. True, they don’t. But if Cisco or any other company wants to require that every employee and vendor personally accept the behavior of homosexuality or homosexual political goals such as same sex marriage, then tell us directly. Broadcast it to the world. Cisco can’t and won’t do that, because such a requirement would be a clear violation of the religious protections codified in the Civil Rights Act, and it would result in a mass exodus of employees and customers. Since I was a vendor and not an employee, I have no legal recourse.

Instead, Cisco and many other corporations, create an oppressive culture of political correctness under the false banner of inclusion and diversity. They tell the world that they value and encourage “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas” (a quote from the Cisco Web site) while in reality, they punish or intimidate into silence people who have “different perspectives, styles, thoughts, and ideas.” While Cisco executives would never admit this, their actions reveal this twisted truth: Cisco values homosexual behavior more than honesty, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. 

Is it the same at your workplace? Are you tired of having to hide your conservative or religious beliefs as if you live in a totalitarian state rather than America? If you continue to cower in silence before an intolerant, militant minority, it will only get worse. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” It’s time to do something – speak up. If Christians won’t speak up to protect religious and political freedom, who will?  

Frank Turek is an author and Christian apologist who founded CrossExamined (www.crossexamined.org), a non-profit ministry in 2006. He leads seminars titled “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” in churches, universities and high schools across the nation. His book and DVDs are available at afastore.net or by calling 800-326-4543, Option 3.