Corey Cunningham, a former employee of global power management firm Eaton Corporation, was terminated after he wore a shirt with a Bible verse challenging the LGBT movement amid repeated corporate inclusion campaigns, according to documents obtained by The Sentinel.

Cunningham, who worked at an Eaton facility in Davenport, Iowa, as a quality manager for four years, expressed disillusionment as senior managers at his workplace pushed multiple LGBT inclusion initiatives, such as the flying of a rainbow flag outside of the facility alongside the American flag and Iowa state flag. Emails from Eaton management reviewed by The Sentinel asked employees to wear light blue and brown, two colors featured on the transgender-themed “progress pride flag,” for an optional June 2 flag raising ceremony. Additional communications urged employees to watch videos of senior management, including chief human resources officer Ernest Marshall and chief operating officer Paulo Ruiz, endorsing the LGBT movement.

Cunningham, the father of eleven children and a member of Grace Fellowship Church in Davenport, eventually used a program which allowed employees to choose their work attire to wear a shirt featuring Proverbs 16:18, which says that “pride goes before destruction, an arrogant spirit before a fall.” The text of the shirt was surrounded by stripes of various colors.

A senior manager for quality and a human resources business partner met with Cunningham on July 20 to discuss alleged complaints about the shirt, which he had worn “that day” and “multiple times previously,” according to a termination letter sent to Cunningham and reviewed by The Sentinel. The document said Cunningham would not be “allowed to wear that shirt, or any other shirt that disparages a group of employees in the future.

Cunningham submitted a request for religious accommodation on July 27, specifically asking that he would be able to wear apparel “representative of God and his word” even as other employees are “encouraged to wear apparel” that communicates their beliefs, a reference to Eaton “pride” shirts recently offered to employees at the facility. He also requested that he would never be forced to call individuals by pronouns other than those related to “the sex they were biologically born with,” since “to consciously say otherwise would be to lie.”

Eaton managers said in an August 9 response to the religious accommodations request that the arrangements would not be necessary, informing Cunningham that any apparel which “conveys offensive messages, intentional or otherwise,” would not be permitted. He was likewise told that “respecting an individual’s wishes regarding pronoun usage is not a lie” and that failure to use preferred pronouns would be a violation of civil rights laws.

“I did not have a chance for religious accommodation or to be heard,” Cunningham said in an interview with The Sentinel. “If they had accepted my viewpoint, they would have to go against the entire corporation, and that would not happen. Rather, they fired a valued employee with an unblemished reputation within the business.”

Performance evaluations reviewed by The Sentinel showed that Cunningham “exceeded expectations” in 2019, “fully met expectations” in 2020 and 2021, and attained “exceptional results” in 2022. Cunningham previously obtained certification as a Six Sigma Black Belt, meaning that he underwent extensive training which enabled him to minimize process defects.

Cunningham was fired on August 23 after his manager saw him once again wearing the shirt. Eaton spokeswoman Katie Kennedy said in an email to The Sentinel that participation in any “pride month ceremonies or events” was optional. “We value inclusion and diversity at Eaton and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind in the workplace,” she added.

Cunningham told The Sentinel that Eaton had been extremely aggressive with their “pride” campaigns. He noted that his subordinates, many of whom were likewise disillusioned by the “pride” events, approached him to “wholeheartedly agree” with the shirt and the Bible reference, as well as to voice discomfort with the “pride” initiatives. Human resources, according to Cunningham, told him that discussing the policies with his employees was inappropriate.

Cunningham also cited an increased emphasis on diversity and inclusion after the Davenport facility was purchased by Eaton several years ago, but noted that the policies drove new management to disregard his viewpoints. “What appears to me, if you are a white male, your opinion does not matter as much as everybody else's, because you're a majority, not a minority,” he remarked. “That's not the demographic they are going for. So when they say inclusion, they are talking about everybody else's demographic, not yours.”