By Jim Brown
July 10, 2006

(AgapePress) - A Department of Defense contractor from South Carolina claims he was fired for e-mailing newsletters from a pro-family group about the Ford Motor Company and the National Education Association (NEA) and those organizations' promotion of same-sex "marriage."

Robert Lockman, 55, recently submitted a two-weeks' notice of resignation to the placement firm Aerotek, a staffing agency which had contracted him out to AAI Services, where he helped to design F-22 Raptor fighter jets. However, Lockman was terminated his last week at work for a so-called "breach of Aerotek's employee work rules." He had forwarded on two e-mails from the American Family Association warning of both Ford's and the NEA's endorsement of homosexual marriage.

According to Lockman, Aerotek account manager Zac Jordan told him he was fired for sending out e-mail that was bound to offend homosexuals.

"Zach told me, he said, 'Robert, you'd be surprised how many people of that persuasion we have placed at AAI and the total population of people of that persuasion who work at AAI," Lockman recalls.

Even though his firing may affect his future livelihood, the professed Christian says he does not regret his actions.

"I'm going to keep on doing what I have to do," Lockman explains. "If I get blackballed from this with the job shops and everything, I don't know how I'm going to be able to make a living, because this [mechanical design work] is all I've ever done for 37 years .... But I've just got to put my faith in God that He wants me to continue to do His work."

Lockman says he has yet to receive his last paycheck, and claims Aerotek will not pay him for a week of earned vacation. He has sought legal help from the Center for Law & Policy, the legal arm of the American Family Association. Neither Aerotek nor AAI Services would comment for this story.

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