Timothy Gordon, a father of six, was lucky to have health insurance when his daughter underwent major brain surgery this past spring. But in July, he was suddenly left without coverage, after the Catholic school where he taught theology fired him for tweeting that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization.
Gordon told Cockburn the school was well aware of his daughter’s brain injury, which she has been battling since birth and has at times caused her to have 40 seizures a day. He said many members of the school even told him they were praying for her after her hemispherectomy.
Still, Garces Memorial High School in California turned its back on him and his family when he publicly criticized the Black Lives Matter organization. School members passed around a petition demanding Gordon be fired, and the school complied. News of his termination came from the superintendent, despite the fact that Gordon has known the Garces principal since he was in grade school. He has also been unable to get in touch with the Catholic Diocese of Fresno, which has jurisdiction over Garces.
Garces Memorial High School and the Catholic Diocese of Fresno did not respond to Cockburn’s request for comment.
Gordon, author of Catholic Republic: Why America Will Perish Without Rome, has stood by his comments on Black Lives Matter despite public smears, including from local media. He notes that the FBI terrorism unit was reportedly investigating ‘black identity extremists’ in 2017, and warns that groups like Black Lives Matter present a threat to Judeo-Christian values.
‘Black Lives Matter themselves say they are a threat to Western family structure, namely the Christian family structure,’ he told Cockburn, noting the organization’s cofounder has admitted to the group’s Marxist roots. Protests stemming from the BLM movement have led to the tearing down of Catholic statues in recent months, including St Junípero Serra and St Louis of France. He has called for Catholic leaders to take a stronger stand against Black Lives Matter on his YouTube channel, which has 23,000 subscribers and covers mainly Catholic issues.
‘It’s striking that given the vindication of my position in recent weeks — now everyone is getting the point that BLM is a terrorist organization — one would expect many many more bishops reaching out to me and saying “well, what you said it was on the cutting edge but it looks you were right and you’ve been vindicated”,’ he told Cockburn.
Gordon said only one bishop has been supportive of him since his firing, who he declined to name.
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Gordon is not the only conservative teacher to be publicly condemned for his beliefs in recent weeks. Mike Adams, a conservative professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, took his own life in July after he was forced into retirement in response to outrage about comments he made about the COVID shutdown and the nationwide riots. Mainstream media outlets described him as a ‘racist’ and ‘misogynist’ when they reported on his death.
Luckily, Gordon has received some support online. His family has been receiving financial assistance for his daughter’s condition through his website, and she continues to receive treatment.
