Although companies embrace diversity and accept people regardless of gender and sexuality, there are always people in the workplace who try to impose their conservative views on others. One such case came to light when u/xSloth91, an office manager of a private construction company in a major city, shared a series of bizarre text messages he received from a prospective new employee. It turned out that the new employee was religious and had some issue with the office manager’s sexuality. Baffled by his messages, the manager took to Reddit and shared the story to get people’s opinions on the matter.
He wrote, “I interviewed this guy who comes from a very religious background. After our first interview, we got to talking to get to know each other a little better. He asked me about my religious background. I was honest and told him that I left the church after I came out. I told him that I had been gay my whole life and knew it from a very young age. I was never comfortable in my extreme Southern Baptist church and I left after telling my parents that I was gay.” At first, the prospective employee seemed to understand the manager’s point of view, but as they continued talking, things took an awkward turn. The manager ignored some of the candidate’s warning signs and brought him on board, but on the day he had to fill out his paperwork and start his training, the employee said he had to leave.
A week later, the newly hired man sent the manager a series of text messages summing up the situation. The manager decided to share the screenshots of the interaction with the Reddit community. “After some prayer and consideration, I believe the Lord is holding me back from taking this job. I appreciate you taking the time to bring me on board, but I will not be moving forward,” the other man wrote to the manager. “Also, I’ve been thinking a little about what you said when you told me you feel like you were born gay, and I wish I could have told you this in person, but the one thing that separates humans from animals is that we process our desires and can choose to suppress them,” the text messages continued.
“This conscious resistance to the desires of our flesh is what makes us human and gives us the ability to grow and thrive in life,” the man wrote, adding that he was only sending the text because he cared about the manager and was trying not to be “harsh or judgmental.” He then sent a few passages from Galatians, taken from the New Testament, that advise people not to give in to the “desires of the flesh.” “Eternal life is a free gift offered to you by God when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and live according to His will and not your own. The temporary pressure of sin is fleeting. It brings satisfaction for a time, but ultimately it leads to death,” the texts concluded.
The Reddit community had a very funny reaction to the religious man’s text messages and his attempt to change a person’s sexuality. u/conebone69696969 wrote, “I would have stopped the interview after they asked about my religious background. What an inappropriate question to ask on either side of the table.” u/Born_Ruff mentioned, “In some parts of the US, asking about religion is shockingly common. For example, when you get in a cab, the first thing you’re asked after ‘How are you?’ is something about religion. I find it very odd that OP shared so much personal information with a candidate in an interview, but it seems to indicate that this is one of those areas where ‘What church do you go to?’ is just a standard getting-to-know-you question.”
