You Make a Difference! Our mission and operations are funded entirely by Patriots like you! Please support the 2024 Year-End Campaign now.

June 10, 2018

CrossFit Fires Christian Employee for Calling Gay Pride a Sin

A controversy over gay pride and religious beliefs has resulted in the closure of an Indianapolis CrossFit gym and the firing of a CrossFit “spokesman” who called gay pride a “sin.”

A controversy over gay pride and religious beliefs has resulted in the closure of an Indianapolis CrossFit gym and the firing of a CrossFit “spokesman” who called gay pride a “sin.”

Crossfit Infiltrate coaches had organized a special workout program in honor of Pride Month without the permission of the local gym’s owner.

Brandon Lowe canceled the event and explained the reason why in a note, Buzzfeed News reports.

“We believe that true health forever can only be found within humility, not pride,” he wrote. “Humility is seeing oneself as they truly are, and as God truly defines them to be. As a business we will choose to deploy our resources towards those efforts and causes that line up with our values and beliefs.”

Russell Berger, the company’s self-described chief knowledge officer, was given the boot after he posted a series of Twitter messages defending the local owner’s decision.

“As someone who personally beliefs celebrating ‘pride’ is a sin, I’d like to personally encourage #CrossFitInfilitrate for standing by their convictions and refusing to host an @indypride workout,” Berger wrote. “The intolerance of the LGBTQ ideology toward any alternative views is mind-blowing.”

Those words turned out to be prophetic, and in a matter of hours a hell storm descended upon the Indy gym and Mr. Berger.

The gym shut down and Mr. Berger was fired.

The company said the statements of its former chief knowledge officer did not reflect its values.

“He needs to take a big dose of ‘shut the f—k up’ and hide out for a while,” CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman told Buzzfeed News, referring to Mr. Berger. He went on to call Berger’s tweets “appalling.”

“We do so much good work with such pure hearts — to have some zealot in his off-time do something this stupid, we’re all upset. The whole company is upset,” Glassman ranted.

As for the Indianapolis gym, well, the owner released a statement to our Fox television affiliate.

“The unfortunate line that is being read about the gym grossly misrepresents what CrossFit Infiltrate stands for and what it believes. The majority of the reviews and statements being read about the gym largely point out that Infiltrate’s community has been incredible and welcoming and that the decision not to host an Indy Pride event is the reason we are called bigots or discriminative. However, let the history of the gym speak for itself and for the position we take in this divisive atmosphere. CrossFit Infiltrate welcomes, serves, and prioritizes training people to be fit and functional in body, mind, and spirit. It never has and never will be anything but welcoming to all human beings who live, move, and breathe in God’s world.”

So let’s break this down.

The owner of the Indianapolis CrossFit has every right to determine what kind of programs and events will be conducted in his gym. The coaches should’ve gotten permission.

Second, CrossFit had a right to fire Mr. Berger. He was its spokesman and his tweets could have been construed as the company’s opinion, not his. Mr. Berger admitted that to Buzzfeed and said he regretted how his tweets were interpreted.

“It became way too difficult to discern between me making statements of personal opinion and me speaking as a voice for CrossFit,” he said.

Regardless, what he said about intolerance is 100 percent accurate and was perfectly illustrated in the aftermath of this shameless display of anti-Christian bigotry.

“The tactics of some in the LGBTQ movement toward dissent is an existential threat to freedom of expression,” he wrote on Twitter in response to a critic. “The lack of tolerance for disagreement, which has been replaced with bullying Twitter mobs promising ‘consequences,’ should be a concern regardless of your political stance.”

It’s true. The Left wants to bully Christians into submission. Silence is the rule of the day. And woe be to anyone who dares utter a word of objection to its radical agenda.

I believe CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman, the intolerant, foul-mouthed, anti-Christian bully, spoke for many when he said, “Shut the f—k up.”

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.