It will be informative to see how many Christians value their faith more than their body and leave their CrossFit programs as a result of CrossFit’s anti-Christian bigotry.
A high-ranking CrossFit employee was fired after tweeting his support for a CrossFit gym’s cancellation of a Pride event, citing his belief that celebrating LGBT pride is a “sin.”
Russell Berger was the mega-successful fitness company’s chief knowledge officer, often de facto spokesperson, and a co-author of the Russells, a blog about scientific misconduct that he maintained with colleague Russell Greene.
But Berger got into hot water Wednesday afternoon when he tweeted about a CrossFit gym in Indianapolis, Indiana, where owners canceled a workout in honor of Pride Month. Many of the coaches and employees quit in protest, according to WTTV TV in Indianapolis. On Wednesday, the gym posted notices that it was shutting down.
“As someone who personally believes celebrating ‘pride’ is a sin, I’d like to personally encourage #CrossFitInfiltrate for standing by their convictions and refusing to host an @indypride workout,” Berger wrote. “The intolerance of the LGBTQ ideology toward any alternative views is mind-blowing.”
At first, Berger was placed on an unpaid leave of absence. But later on Wednesday, CrossFit announced on Twitter that he had been fired.
“The statements made today by Russell Berger do not reflect the views of CrossFit Inc.,” the company said. “For this reason, his employment with CrossFit has been terminated.” Shortly before Berger was placed on leave, CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman told BuzzFeed News that he did not stand by Berger’s views, which he called “appalling.” CrossFit’s official Twitter account also quoted him as saying, “I am crazy proud of the gay community in CrossFit.”
“He needs to take a big dose of ‘shut the fuck up’ and hide out for awhile. It’s sad,” Glassman said in an interview. “We do so much good work with such pure hearts — to have some zealot in his off-time do something this stupid, we’re all upset. The whole company is upset. This changes his standing with us. What that looks like, I don’t know. It’s so unfortunate.”
In addition to not supporting anti-Christian organizations that celebrate sin, Christians also must stop offering toleration in the workplace that they are no longer shown. Remember, the new standards is whether the statements made by an employee reflect the views of the employer or not. That means it is perfectly acceptable to fire anyone who states that sin is okay, that Jesus Christ never existed, or that Donald Trump should be impeached.
I’ve only visited a CrossFit gym once, and to be honest, I wasn’t impressed. Spacebunny was more interested in the program than I was. But neither of us will ever be trying it now.
This is why it was a massive mistake to stop enforcing the blasphemy laws. Freedom of speech was a Trojan Horse. Its chief proponents never believed in it for a second, they only wanted to use it to undermine Christian culture. And if you don’t defend your culture, you will lose your culture.