What do you think of owners of businesses expressing their religious beliefs? I am fine with it, even if those beliefs are not shared by me.
Makes it easier to know which businesses to avoid.
Unfortunate for employees and potential employees who do not share the owner’s religious view.
Keep religion out of the workplace.
Are they actively proselytizing or do they just have religious icons hanging up as art? One I have a problem with, the other I don’t.
I don’t do business with people who think I need to know what their religion is. Unless you’re selling bibles, torahs, korans or whatever, religious icons or wording in your advertising will eliminate me as a possible customer. As for displays inside the store…well, I’ll decide whether or not it goes too far for me.
I get cranked over ads for cleaning services and the like that make a point of saying that they’re Christian, like it’s some sort of morality gold star AAA seal of approval. Yeah, because those heathen Jews and Buddhists will rob you blind (and atheist = Satan worshipper and puppy kicker!!), and nothing immoral has never been done in the name of Christianity. You just can’t be a decent person unless you wuv Jesus AND tell everyone all about it.
I have also seen Christian ballet schools and Christian driving schools. WTF??? Every so often around here we get a Christian comic. Heh heh, yeah those Bible jokes are a laff riot. I’d like to give these people who will apparently only associate with “Christian” businesses a good kick in the pants.
Mind, I have nothing against Christians per se . . . some of my best friends are Christians! 
But they also understand that everyone is flawed and that being Christian doesn’t mean that they are the only ones who can be decent human beings.
I laid down the law about this in my office: bringing religion into real estate is (a)illegal; and (b) I’m an atheist. I occasionally get glurge on my desk, and I always make a stink of it at staff meetings.
Given that religious beliefs have included slavery, torture and human sacrifice, I would be worried about walking into those businesses.
We’ve discussed this before.
I’m pretty much in line with Muffin.
I guess I should clarify - a Jewish Deli wouldn’t bother me.
But if the business were not traditionally associated with a religion, I prefer that merchant keep their religious beliefs out of the picture.
They are certainly free to express themselves however they wish, and I am certainly free to take my business elsewhere.
To me it depends on if I perceive the religion as a personal display of faith (the shrine in an Indian restaurant, the cross around the neck of my hairdresser, a casual mention of faith or church), an effort at witnessing (bible verses on menus, tracts, a coworker signs his emails with some sort of “isn’t God wonderful” signature - I just looked and it seems to have disappeared, I’m suspecting someone finally said “not work appropriate”), or an effort at advertising (Jesus fish in Yellow Page ads). The first one I don’t find offensive at all - I find some sort of contentment in knowing other people find happiness in their faith - and I’m not going to assume that it has anything other than a positive impact for them - I know too many good decent intelligent religious people to assume the default is negative. The other two are offensive. The first is an imposition on me. The second - having Jesus shill for you seems in poor taste.
I agree with Dangerosa on this one, as having a small, personal display of faith that does not interfere with how they run their business is not a problem as long as it doesn’t seem like it’s proselytizing to the customers. (Do people really get offended by the small bodhisattva shrines in most Chinese and Indian restaurants? Most of the time, they’re fairly out of the way and blend in with the rest of the decorating motif.) It’s also fine in stores where the whole purpose is to provide goods related to the faith, as it’s related to the business itself. One small cross somewhere in the business owner’s personal office or something to the equivalent is fine to me, but putting up religious imagery and quotations throughout a non-faith-related business (plumber, etc.) is not appropriate.
I generally tend to avoid businesses that need to share their faith through witnessing; I generally won’t go to a business that has some sort of “I love Jesus and you should too!” glurge on their billboards or their advertising, and I’m not impressed when people profess the faith of the business owner when it’s not related to the job. Last summer, I picked a doctor at random from my [then] health insurance provider’s list and was surprised to find how uncomfortable their office made me. Jesus glurge everywhere, and the Christian radio station on as background music; as a non-Christian, I wondered how much it played into their beliefs and my curiosity was confirmed. I had a fairly bad experience and walked away with a prescription for the birth control method I didn’t want to continue in my hand. Apparently, since I didn’t have babies, I couldn’t have anything but the pill from their office and they weren’t willing to direct me to a doctor in the area that would offer more to me. :rolleyes: This time around, I’m going to Planned Parenthood so I won’t feel like the office decorations are witnessing at me.
Dinsdale: most of the Jewish delis that I’ve been in don’t do much in the way of decorating for religious holidays and don’t generally have much up to represent their religion beyond having some of the ethnic foods that are enjoyed by the local Jewish population. Am I incorrectly assuming that most Jewish delis don’t do that?
To pick up very broadest of brushes, I find most public displays of religion, whether it be in a business or on a bumper sticker (“Don’t be fooled by the car, my treasure’s in Heaven” bumper stickers make me want to ram the car) to be annoying. I don’t feel the need to go around proclaiming my atheism on the back of my car and I find the constant profession of faith that some of the faithful feel compelled to make leads me to believe that their faith is not particularly strong and they are in need of constant reinforcement.
I was very pleased that one of the readings at my dad’s funeral was the lesson about the need of some worshippers to make loud public displays of their religion and the admonition to worship privately.
I find all such public displays to be equally irksome, but it does seem that Christians are the most insistent about being in your face.
I don’t care if anyone does it, I just don’t go out of my way to patronize any company who does.
As a Christian myself, I agree with Dangerosa.
Meh. The owner and much of the upper management here is actively Christian. We get the whole Jesus spiel at our annual Christmas party and occasionally emails about what some preacher said. I am very much a-religious, but so long as I am not expected to adopt these beliefs in order to keep my job, I couldn’t care less.
Now, my husband once worked for an asshole who would place crucifixes on his (my husband’s) desk and in his work area. My husband is pagan. He ended up getting fired for throwing one of the crucifixes away. I could kind of see both sides. It is the owner’s right to decorate the place as he sees fit, and if you don’t like it, you can look for another job, but at the same time, it is my husband’s right to work in a non-threatening environment – I see placing statues of crucified heretics on one’s desk as a veiled threat, but ya know…whatever.
Eh. Who cares? If I let open displays of religion put me off a business, I’d miss some of the best BBQ in the country.
Yeah!
Because you never know just what’s going on until you find out from the news that your dry cleaner was selling slaves out of his basement. :rolleyes:
I’m Catholic and I live in the Northeast, so there aren’t too many signs proclaiming the Catholicism of the proprietors; if I patronize a business more than another similar business, it’s not because of religion, it’s because I know the proprietor from church and I know he’ll deal fairly with me. It’d be the same thing as if I met him at a pool hall.
But honestly, if glee’s slave-selling, iron-maiden-clamping, human-sacrificing dry cleaners got my shirts right, I’d patronize them regardless of their religious beliefs.
Bolding mine.
Do you really believe that your husband’s boss was threatening to crucify him?
There’ll be cover sheets on everybody’s damn TPS reports next quarter, that’s for damn sure.
Nothin’ like a crucifixion to increase productivity. Terry Tate is for SUCKERS.
I do know the very visible Christian posters behind the counter have convinced me that I no longer wish to do any business with Interstate Battery. It’s his business, and he’s free to put up any signs he wishes. And I am equally free to avoid patronizing it. I love this country!
Are they called Jewish delis, though, or kosher delis? Calling it kosher seems more accurate and less loaded.