Friday, January 30, 2015

Christian engineer seeks EEOC's help in Ford firing

OneNewsNow reports that an employee of Ford Motor Company lost his job last year for expressing his Christian beliefs when asked by the company for his feedback. Now he is asking for federal intervention on his behalf.

Thomas Banks worked for Ford here in Michigan for more than three years as a product engineer. But one day he sent an email in response to a company newsletter promoting LGBT tolerance and diversity initiatives, and was soon after fired for "violating" Ford's anti-harassment policy.

Liberty Institute has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – and their investigation could lead to a lawsuit in federal court.

Commenting on the nature of Banks’ statement, Liberty Institute attorney Cleve Doty said, "It was basically about the LGBT organization at Ford and Mr. Banks had published a comment that said [in effect] ‘Look, we should care about automobiles, not about this. This may be offensive to Christians and others in the workplace. Why don't we focus on cars’  that was the essence of his comment."

It all begs the question, if the LGBT crowd can express its views publicly and not be fired, why can't a Christian employee express himself?

“Diversity and inclusion means that we're able to have people in the workplace work together and don't necessarily have to agree but we can all get along," said Doty. "And Mr. Banks gets along individually with folks. But here, he was told immediately he was fired based upon a single comment."

Liberty's director of litigation adds that if Ford is permitted to get away with firing Banks over the comment, "we fear that every person of faith will be punished for talking about his or her faith in the workplace.

This is chillingly similar to Nazi Germany tactics if Christians, when directly asked their opinions on a questionnaire, are not free to express them -- opinions which are in line with thousands of years of Judeo-Christian moral teaching-- without fear of losing their jobs.

Banks' point is reasonable and full of common sense-- companies should not be endorsing highly controversial forms of sexual conduct, widely regarded as immoral by multitudes in our society, then expect every one of their employees either to agree with this radical pagan indoctrination, or remain silent if they don't-- even if they are offended by it. After all, what does "sex education" have to do with selling cars?

This is an outrage, and every Christian should write Ford Motor Company and demand Mr. Banks' immediate reinstatement to his job. We need to let Ford know that such intolerance will lose them many customers.

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