Is Mozilla a ‘hostile working environment’ for Christians, pro-family leaders ask
HOUSTON, TX, April 25, 2014 – A coalition of pro-family organizations and leaders have said Mozilla Corporation has created “a hostile working environment” for those who hold to traditional Christian teachings about sexuality and asked the company to clarify whether "all pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-life, and religious employees and talent” must “vacate the company."
In a letter sent in early April, the coalition – including the conversion therapy group Homosexuals Anonymous – explained that the forced resignation of Brendan Eich as Mozilla's CEO had caused the organizations to consider Mozilla's commitment to "an inclusive, safe environment embracing and defending diversity."
Brendan Eich, former CEO of Mozilla
Citing public statements by Mozilla before and after Eich's resignation, as well as press reports, the letter says that "Mozilla has opted to inappropriately include in their workplace the irrelevant and often fluid private issue of sexual proclivities." The letter says this makes "for a hostile working environment for those privately struggling with, objecting to certain behaviors or in the process of changing their personal sexual identity."
The letter "call[s] for Mozilla to make a clear statement to its employees as to whether this incident" is intended to "all pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-life, and religious employees and talent to vacate the company." It also makes the same demand regarding investors and customers, asking "whether Mozilla holds a discriminatory intent toward doing business with them based on their public policy participation or positions on those policies."
The Center for Marriage Policy, Voice of the Voiceless, Catholics for Israel, and Restored Hope for America are just a few of the nearly 25 groups and individuals that signed the letter.
According to Robert Gollwitzer, Founder and Executive Director of the Jason Ministry – which is affiliated with Homosexuals Anonymous – "our statement goes out to both Mozilla and the public in general. We strongly believe in the need to stand up for our traditional Christian family values and take sides with those who are under attack for having expressed these views in word or deed."
"The Eich situation itself needs to be seen in a broader context," Gollwitzer told LifeSiteNews. "People who experience and suffer from unwanted same-sex attractions and seek professional help to accompany them on choosing another path than embracing a 'gay life' face increasing difficulties to do so. 'Homosexuality' is not seen as a mental disorder anymore (a decision that was not based on scientific facts but taken in response to political pressure)."
Similarly, says Gollwitzer, "therapists who want to treat those people are being openly opposed or even attacked – by gay activists, by fellow therapists, by politicians and by the public that has been widely influenced by the above. What they are doing is called 'unscientific' or even 'dangerous.' The current tendency is to attempt to make their therapeutical work illegal."
Last summer, Homosexuals Anonymous co-founder and Executive Director Douglas McIntyre made a 10-city tour to fight back against threats and pressure from homosexual activists.
Homosexuals Anonymous' main focus is on reparative therapy for people struggling with homosexual attractions. This method of chastity instruction is under threat of elimination for minors in several states, and is illegal in California.
The pro-family organizations are not the only groups pushing back against the pressured resignation of Eich, who co-founded Mozilla. Fifty-eight homosexuals and supporters of same-sex "marriage"wrote a public statement earlier this week that decried how Eich was treated, and the "deeply illiberal" fashion in which homosexual advocates treated Mozilla, Eich, and those who oppose same-sex "marriage."
