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In his speech at the CLC pro-life Forum, Damian Goddard gave a riveting, very personal account of his firing from Rogers Sportsnet after having ‘tweeted’ in support of the true definition of marriage.
Goddard, at first continues from Part 1 to describe how the 911 “act of terrorism… harnessed me to get re-acquainted with my faith to re-connect with the ‘whole why am I here?’” Emphasizing that he “loved being a sportscaster” while on this spiritual journey, Goddard then said, “fast forward to May 10, 2011”, the date of his infamous tweet.
It was “a typical day at home” with his two children while his wife was out giving gymnastics instruction. He was watching a TSN report on Todd Reynolds, vice-president of hockey agency Uptown Hockey, who voiced a disagreement with Rangers hockey player Sean Avery on the same-sex marriage issue.
Reynold’s tweeted that he was saddened to read Avery’s “misguided support” of gay marriage. “Legal or not,” Reynolds wrote, “it will always be wrong.” A few hours later, he added that he was not expressing hatred or bigotry, but that he believed in “the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.”
Goddard related that “the firestorm that emanated from Reynold’s pro-marriage tweet was amazing.” It was then that Goddard sent what he thought was a very “innocuous” tweet in support of Reynold’s.
What was Goddard’s controversial tweet? Here it is
verbatim:
“I completely and wholeheartedly support Todd
Reynolds and his support for the traditional and true
meaning of marriage.”
Goddard relates that the almost immediate response to his tweet caused him to sense “that proverbial eye of Mordor switched and honed in on me”.
“Within minutes it was craziness. People wishing I was dead….I couldn’t believe the hate that was seeping from my laptop.”
And then, he reports, “Within the hour, a tweet from Rogers Sportsnet - ‘The views of Damian Goddard do not reflect those of Rogers Sportsnet’”.
The flood of hateful tweets continued such as, “I hope you get raped by someone with AIDS.”
Goddard stated, “I remember feeling the presence of an evil lurking. It was so palpable. And it still gives me a chill.”
An hour or so after the Sportsnet tweet Goddard says he got a call from his employers, “Listen, can you come in and chat”. When he went in the next day, “before I could sit down they said, ‘we are terminating your contract.’”
He returned home and tried to jokingly break the bad news to his wife Andrea who then started to cry at which time he tried to assure her that there was something good happening in all this and “things would work out.”
Goddard said he experienced many difficulties during the following days with “peers in the media taking swipes at me”. A report in the National Post called him “notoriously unwise” for having sent the tweet. Goddard’s response to that one was, “unwise for stating that marriage is between one man and one woman? I hope to God that I am notorious in that manner.”
Goddard ended emphasizing that, as Christians, we must take a stand.
“Our job is to spread the Gospel. Where did we lose this, as a culture?” Goddard demanded. “When did we become afraid? … We have to live our faith. We have to speak our faith, and not get a damn pat on the back for it.”
