A retail worker at furniture store IKEA was fired after declining an invitation to attend a pro-lgbtq event and posting Bible verses on homosexuality on his social media accounts.
The man, Tomasz K, spoke about his experience on a Polish national broadcaster, TVP Info.
Tomasz K said, “I’ve been hired to sell furniture but I’m a Catholic and these aren’t my values.”
According to the discrimination lawsuit Tomasz K filed against the company, IKEA had urged the workers to participate in International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia and “to stand up for the rights of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders, plus people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.”
IKEA’s head of equality, diversity and integration, Sari Brody, instructed employees to “ask transgender persons their preferred pronouns,” and “engage LGBT+ people in conversations about their partners and families.”
Tomasz responding by posting two Bible verses on the topic on his social media accounts.
“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
“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” – Leviticus 20:13.
Tomasz k also wrote, “acceptance and promotion of homosexuality and other deviations is a source of scandal.”
Tomasz said:
“I do not think it was my duty. I put my entry, in which I expressed that it is unacceptable, and quoted two quotations from the Holy Scriptures — about stumbling and about the fact that intercourse between two men is an abomination.”
After being commanded to attend a disciplinary hearing, Tomasz was instructed to take the posts down. “As a Catholic, I cannot censor God,” he said. “I was told there would be consequences.”
Tomasz claims he was “informed immediately that Ikea had decided to terminate the employment contract. I was supposed to pack right away, empty the cabinet, give up my ID.”
Ikea responded to subsequent press attention, and claimed they had fired Tomasz for “using quotes from the Old Testament about death and blood in the context of what fate should meet homosexual people” and “expressing his opinion in a way that could affect the rights and dignity of LGBT+ people.”
Tomasz has now launched a wrongful termination suit and is represented by conservative legal group Ordo Iuris.
Ordo Iuris chairman, Jerzy Kwasniewski, stated in regards to the situation:
“The insinuation contained in the Ikea statement is unacceptable and violates Mr Tomasz’s personal rights.”
The chairman also claimed Ikea is trying to “censor the Holy Bible.”
The country’s justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro has ordered the prosecutors office to investigate.
