Cisco Vendor Fired for Writing Book Against Same-Sex Marriage
Christian leaders and organizations have come in support of former Cisco vendor Frank Turek who was fired from the company for his personal views on marriage as expressed in a book he wrote.
In a statement released earlier this week, the Rev. Mark D. Boykin, senior pastor of Church of All Nations, and Anthony Verdugo, founder and chairman of the Christian Family Coalition of Florida, condemned the actions taken by Cisco for firing Turek who wrote a book that said that keeping the current marriage laws would be best for society.
They said they were launching a nationwide campaign to tell Cisco Chairman John Chambers that firing a Christian based on his belief was discriminatory and intolerant.
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Dr. Turek had been a consultant with Cisco Systems in California since 2008. In the past three years, Turek had designed and conducted a leadership and teambuilding program for a number of Cisco managers. His training programs have been reported to be “excellent,” according to Greeley Gazette.
Earlier this year, one of the managers in Turek’s session “googled” his name and found out that his trainer is also the author of a book entitled Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone. The manager, a homosexual, took offense at the book that critiqued same-sex marriages and phoned in a complaint to Marilyn Nagel, senior director of inclusion and diversity for Cisco. Turek was fired soon after.
“The guy who saw the book never read it – he just didn't like the fact that I was against same-sex marriage," Turek told OneNewsNow. “And he told the in-charge director there about it and they fired me within hours, without ever even looking at the book or even ever asking me a question. They just fired me without ever talking to me.”
When Turek challenged Nagel about how he could be fired for embracing a conservative worldview, he said he was only given platitudes about the “inclusive” work environment of Cisco.
Turek, who hosts the program CrossExamined, which airs Saturdays on American Family Radio, said he never discussed his political or religious views at work.
According to Turek, Nagel apologized later for his firing though she did not do anything to address the cultural factors that contributed to his firing. “She refused to admit there was a culture that punished views that were not politically correct,” reported Greeley Gazette.
Townhall columnist Mike Adams addressed the issue to Cisco chairman John Chambers and pointed out that the manager and the director who fired Turek were in fact the ones being exclusive.
"I assume the intent of Cisco’s value of “inclusion and diversity” is to ensure that people in that diverse workforce will work together cordially and professionally even when they inevitably disagree on certain political, moral or religious questions. Please note that Dr. Turek agrees with that value and was demonstrating it," Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, stated in his June letter. "The manager and HR professional were not. Dr. Turek was being inclusive working with them. They were being exclusive by refusing to work with him, even though his viewpoint was never discussed during his work at Cisco."
Adams invited a response to charges of “possible systematic religious and political discrimination at Cisco.” Chambers has so far refrained from responding.
However, Turek had earlier said he would not be pursuing any type of litigation, and that his only interest was in calling attention to Cisco's policy towards supporters of traditional marriage, according to the Gazette.
