# Atheists: Ever work for a religious organization? How'd it go? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681 "2018-06-08T15:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/21 "2018-06-08T18:38:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > WTF? Yeah, Czarcasm, you should really stop hiding your light under a bushel. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/22 "2018-06-08T18:41:12Z")
A general rule is that mainline Protestants pretty much arenā€™t going to care. Theyā€™re all about social justice and would probably consider it a pretty cool thing to have an atheist working with them. Mainlines would probably angle for an invitation to the local atheists club if they could. Our church has had maybe two Christian guest speakers in the last two years and 6 or 7 non-Christian speakers. Weā€™ve had imams give the Sunday sermon. Except for the minister, they donā€™t even ask the religious affiliation of the youth workers. Thatā€™s just not how they roll. Catholics are a bit more of sticklers, but not tremendously so. Evangelicalsā€¦ wellā€¦ I love my Evangelical brethren, but they areā€¦ shall we say, very sure of their beliefs and they like to be around people just as sure as they are. And if your beliefs are different, since they are so sure of their own, yours are definitely wrong and itā€™s time to get you into the fold. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/23 "2018-06-08T18:44:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I didnā€™t lie, and they didnā€™t care. Maybe they thought it best to keep my evil geniusness close at hand-I donā€™t know. I do know that while I was Senior Warden the church budget was in the black, without having to cut back on the projects I supported. Okay, well, Episcopalians are not known for asking a lot of personal questions. šŸ™‚ And thatā€™s especially true when we find someone willing to serve as Warden! ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/24 "2018-06-08T18:45:16Z")
The people who run these organizations are well aware that that there are a number of ā€œheathensā€ out there who might answer their ad, if they have a problem hiring someone who hold their beliefs it will probably come out pretty quickly in the interview process, if it isnā€™t included in part of the job listing where they indicates skills required. ā€œmust experience in Java and website design, strong communications skills and a personal relationship with the lord our savior.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/25 "2018-06-08T18:49:33Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Okay, well, Episcopalians are not known for asking a lot of personal questions. šŸ™‚ And thatā€™s especially true when we find someone willing to serve as Warden! Itā€™s a strange(in a good way) little church: approximately half little old ladies and the few husbands that they havenā€™t outlived, and half young gay couples that bring in new ideas that the little olds think are just dandy. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/26 "2018-06-08T18:52:11Z")
Iā€™ve done quite a bit of consulting work for the Catholic Church. Iā€™m not an atheist, per se, but close enough. It went fine. I am not one to throw it in their faces, and frankly my belief or lack there of never came up at any level. I think their main concern was did I know what I was doing, and mine was, will I get paid on time. šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/27 "2018-06-08T19:18:07Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > Catholics are a bit more of sticklers, but not tremendously so. Wellā€“[this](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/02/18/catholic-teachers-who-attended-colleagues-same-sex-wedding-may-be-fired/) recent example seems on the tremendous side. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/28 "2018-06-08T19:49:30Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Wellā€“[this](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/02/18/catholic-teachers-who-attended-colleagues-same-sex-wedding-may-be-fired/) recent example seems on the tremendous side. That article is from February. I donā€™t see any update on the supposed firing of the other teachers who just attended, but based on the lack of an update it seems doubtful they were. Reading multiple articles on this it seems the parents were already outraged at Morffi being firedā€¦it would have been a public relations explosion of, um, Biblical proportions if they had gone the extra mile to fire teachers who just attended the wedding. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/29 "2018-06-08T21:18:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Wellā€“[this](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/02/18/catholic-teachers-who-attended-colleagues-same-sex-wedding-may-be-fired/) recent example seems on the tremendous side. Catholic Universities, accredited by regional association, generally do not behave that way. By using the term ā€œteacherā€ it seems theyā€™re referring to a K-12 school, though I just skimmed it. Theyā€™re not perfect. I know of at least one School of Pharmacy associated with a Catholic hospital that blocks birth control material from its curriculum. Which sucks. But for the most part, mainstream, accredited (regional) universities tend to leave classroom decisions to the faculty and can be hospitable places. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/30 "2018-06-09T09:03:47Z")
I worked at two competitive commercial radio/TV stations that were tax-free entities of churches, one the Catholic church (WWL) and one the Mormon church (KMBZ). Both, because they paid no taxes, were comparatively generous with employee benefits, but otherwise, the religious overlords pretty much left us alone to do our jobs professionally and compete in the market. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/31 "2018-06-09T09:31:58Z")
Never have, and to the best of my knowledge in the 30+ working years of my life Iā€™ve never been asked what religion I am and nor have I ever asked a colleague. The only time Iā€™ve had to make any allowance for religion in a work environment was when delivering training courses in Istanbul and Egypt when some of the attendees requested if certain breaktimes could be made to coincide with their prayer requirements. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/32 "2018-06-09T09:53:09Z")
Catholics are not evangelicals, and I doubt whether you will have any problems. Plenty of non-Catholics attend and work at most Catholic universities. They wonā€™t try to convert you, or argue about religion with you. If they ask about your religion, just be honest with them. If they donā€™t ask, donā€™t say anything. As long as you donā€™t go out of your way to disrespect their religion, you should be fine. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/33 "2018-06-09T10:08:15Z")
UP? Itā€™s a normal-ass school. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/34 "2018-06-09T13:39:36Z")
Iā€™m your garden variety agnostic and ardent feminist, and I work in a store owned by religious Jewish men. Iā€™ve had some interesting conversations with one of the managers about my beliefs, but I find that most Jewish people believe everyone has a right to their own beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/35 "2018-06-09T16:16:45Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > UP? Itā€™s a normal-ass school. Yep, thatā€™s the one. Thank you for the replies, everyone. Iā€™ve never entertained the idea of working for an organization where religion plays a part, so I had no idea what to expect. Itā€™s sounding like I should expect it to be like everywhere else. I found out after I started this thread that one of my colleagues works at UP as well, and she says itā€™s a cool place. So I think Iā€™m gonna go forward with applying. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/36 "2018-06-09T22:02:01Z")
I worked for an interfaith charity that was hosted by a church. The subject of what I believed in never came up. I think it was just assumed I was Christian because everyone else was Christian. I didnā€™t go to their Monday morning prayer session in the chapel but nobody ever asked me to come or why I didnā€™t come. My job was part of the workforce development program for DHS. Itā€™s like community service for people on welfare. If youā€™re not working and able bodied you have to work at least 30 hours to get TANF and if you donā€™t have work theyā€™ll send you to these jobs as interns where youā€™re supposed to get job skills training. I didnā€™t get any sort of training though. I just bagged food for donations or did general cleaning. I feel like it was a scam because the church got grants for job training but what they got was free labor on top of the grant money, which from what I saw went almost exclusively to churches. Another job I did briefly was work in a churchā€™s daycare program where the churches get sweet grants and free labor. Again they claim to be training but they had the interns cleaning toilets and floors, not training for child development jobs where theyā€™d earn more than minimum wage. It made me just a bit more bitter about how Christianity is shown favoritism by the government in this country but the people I worked with were nice enough. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/37 "2018-06-09T23:45:05Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > UP? Itā€™s a normal-ass school. I still need to learn the generally-accepted collocations for this one. šŸ™‚ Normal-ass schools are apparently possible, but Iā€™ve never encountered an abnormal-ass one. And you can obviously talk about a big-ass school, but I think medium-ass schools are much less common, and the big-ass school makes sense even though a big ass-school probably doesnā€™t. Thankfully weā€™re talking about schools, and not having to get into the nuances of a big ass vs a big-ass ass, a big-ass mouth, and a big-mouth ass. Let alone a largemouth bass (weighs up to 25 pounds, swims efficiently, cooked for dinner) and a largemouth bass (weighs up to 300 pounds, sings low notes, invited to dinner). ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/38 "2018-06-10T00:47:02Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > I am an adjunct at two community colleges, teaching math. One of them is 20 miles away, and the commute is getting old (after five years). Especially when I have go up there during rush hour. Iā€™ve found out that a private, Catholic university, which is much closer to home, is looking for adjuncts, so Iā€™m thinking about applying. > > I am an atheist, though, so the idea of working for a Catholic university gives me pause. I know religion shouldnā€™t come up during the interviewing and hiring process. But Iā€™m wondering, if I got the job, what it would be like working amongst people who believe in something I find silly. I can keep my thoughts about it to myself, of course, but I donā€™t think I would lie about my lack-of-belief, if ever asked about religion directly by a co-worker. > > Iā€™d like to think that if I feel strange at first, that would pass as I got comfortable in the job, and it would be just like any other workplace. Iā€™m curious if anyone has had an experience similar to this that they would like to share? If you were a Democrat, would you find it difficult to work among Republicans? Kind of the same question. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/39 "2018-06-10T00:54:10Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > I still need to learn the generally-accepted collocations for this one. šŸ™‚ > > Normal-ass schools are apparently possible, but Iā€™ve never encountered an abnormal-ass one. And you can obviously talk about a big-ass school, but I think medium-ass schools are much less common, and the big-ass school makes sense even though a big ass-school probably doesnā€™t. > > Thankfully weā€™re talking about schools, and not having to get into the nuances of a big ass vs a big-ass ass, a big-ass mouth, and a big-mouth ass. > > Let alone a largemouth bass (weighs up to 25 pounds, swims efficiently, cooked for dinner) and a largemouth bass (weighs up to 300 pounds, sings low notes, invited to dinner). Normal ass-schools are fun, for a time. > **[Hyphen](https://xkcd.com/37/)** > > I do this constantly Edit: hate you Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681/40 "2018-06-10T00:59:24Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > This must be why Czarcasm doesnā€™t believe in the spirit world heā€™s not a Christ follower. > > SD should have a bio click on all of itā€™s members then we could find these little details out sooner than having to wade through oodles of debates to find out what was suspected all along Why? Isnā€™t that the purpose of having conversations? Are you suggesting peopleā€™s beliefs should be pre-stamped? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-ever-work-for-a-religious-organization-howd-it-go/815681.md?page=3)