National furniture retailer IKEA is under scrutiny after firing one of its employees who refused to take part in an LGBT event and posted Bible verses regarding homosexuality.
The company’s head of equality, diversity, and integration, Sara Brody, instructed employees to reach out to LGBT people and positively engage with them as part of participating in International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on May 16.
IKEA specifically urged workers “to stand up for the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender plus people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.” Brody further petitioned them to “ask for the transgender person’s preferred pronoun (hers, theirs, etc.)” and “engage LGBT+ people in conversations about their partners and families.”
A man by the name of Tomasz K felt incredibly uncomfortable with the instructions as they stood in direct conflict with his personal values and fell outside of his job description of selling furniture.
“I was shaken up,” Tomasz K told TVP Info of Poland. “I’ve been hired to sell furniture but I’m a Catholic and these aren’t my values.”
Tomasz wrote a post on social media in response that said “acceptance and promotion of homosexuality and other deviations is a source of scandal.”
The statement was accompanied by references to two Bible verses regarding scandals and homosexuality:
“Woe to him through whom scandals come, it would be better for him to tie a millstone around his neck and plunge him in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
