Because when people invoke the name of Jesus reverently, in many cases it’s not long before they attempt to get you to invoke the name of Jesus reverently, or start telling you unasked why the name of Jesus should be involed reverently or some other garbage like that. Not always, no, but IME most of the time many Xans can’t just celebrate their individual, personal relationship with Christ and leave me the fuck out of their superstitions. Further, many of them seem to feel that they have the inate right to impose their religion upon people that do not share it, no matter what those other people might believe. Religion is a personal matter, between each individual and his/her God. Anything else is grossly inapropriate.
OTOH, someone who says “Jesus! That falling box almost took my head off!” is, IME, highly unlikely to turn to you and say “Come on, shout it out with me; “Jesus! It just missed!””.
So the blog spam hit you, too. I got it Monday morning; I think it’s set to hit people who post at certain times of day. And I hope they rot in the hell of their nightmares for it.
Isn’t there something in the Old Testament about praying in secret, not proclaiming it to the heavens?
Oh, jeez, you know what I mean. I don’t mean “right” as in a legal right, but I mean “right” in the colloquial. To restate: Christian Jerk Boss is being 100% unethical by posting crap in the common area that might offend the customers of the other company.
The Decent Company should look into getting away from Jerk Co. as soon as possible. Never do business with religious fanatics.
I got it Friday afternoon. My Computer Guru BF is currently having it out with the (Italian) company that all the links go back to because I deleted my spam and the ISP addresses with it. Otherwise we’d be hitting up the (most likely Italian) ISP with information that someone is using their stuff to spam.
Oh well. At least it reminded me to turn off anonymous commenting.
I don’t think that I was trying to argue that there is some monolithic entity of Christianity out there, but sorry if my earlier post was unclear. I realize that there are many different flavors of Christianity, moreover I am not blind to the fact that a lot of them try to do good in the world.
What I am saying is that when I look at the overall picture of what folks that call themselves Christian have done to this world, I see much more harm than good. Again, this is not to say that I am blind to the fact that there are many open and affirming congregations out there that are doing good works, but for the most part it seems to me that the title “Christian” has been hijacked and that more bad than good is associated with that title. YMMV.
In many situations, you would have a point. In the nuances of this example, however, you do not. It is one thing to be able to walk away from a conversation that you find distasteful. I have been known to do this myself on occasion.
However, in the example of blatantly religious “speech” (in the sense that if there were a policy forbidding it, there would be a first amendment free-speech law suit filed so fast that your head would spin) such as this poster, this avoidance is not possible. What do the folks that find this offensive do, stay home until the movie goes to video?
Look, it is not that difficult. Let us assume that an HR director sends out a company wide email that states that there have been instances where people have been invoking the name of Jesus in vain and that this is considered offensive by some, so could we all please refrain.I can’t see that there would be this level of controversy. I know that personally I would be glad to modify my speech pattern in order to add to the comfort of those around me. Perhaps in the end, what this all can boil down to is the unwillingness of poster boy to simply be polite and to contemplate that there are views other than his own.
No, there is no monolithic entity known as “Christianity,” but seeing the unanimity of Catholics and Protestants in Massachussetts in noisily agitating against equality for gay people leads me to believe that the vast majority of people who call themselves Christians are an active force of harm and misery in this world.You may not wish to acknowledge this, but the sad fact is that any progressive cause, from gay rights to science education in schools, can count on opposition from Christians.
I think it boils down to the fact that there should be no proselytizing in the workplace. Its rude and offensive.
If he were sponsoring the film because he thought it was of benefit to the general public in terms of historical or artistic merit, then I wouldn’t have a problem at all with the poster being up there.
His response, however clued us in to the fact that he is endeavoring to force his faith on the rest of the company, via this poster. Generally speaking, people don’t put up “Passion” or “Left Behind” movie posters without ulterior motives.
I might even be inclined to disagree with you here. The point of a place of work is to, well, work. I am more than willing to see all of this sort of thing go away, if it can mean that it will keep Jesus out of my face.
Remember that one persons cultural or artistic merit can be another’s proselytizing. I would just as soon see all places of employment be kept professional.
The apparent contradiction between the passages is usually resolved by pointing to the One who is supposed to receive the praise. In Matthew 6:5-8, the person is being ostentatiously religious to garner praise for himself. In the Matthew 5:16 passage, people see what is done in God’s name and give glory to His name.
Jesus by no means forbids public witness; in fact, it is practically obligatory. You just can’t do it to show off how good you are.
I’d just like to point out that I work for a pretty generic corporation and that I would never say “Jesus Fucking Christ, that sucks.” or “Christ on a Cracker, what is that?!” or even “Sweet Jesus, that papercut hurt.” while at work.
Why? Because it’s offensive to Christians and I both understand and respect that.
Similarly, I would be mortified if I walked into the office to find a crucifix, a poster of The Passion, a pentacle, or a Freddy Vs. Jason poster on the wall.
Why would you want to intentionally create an awkward and uncomfortable working environment? It doesn’t make any sense.
Oh, that one is easy. See on the one hand, you have the nasty bad unbeliever that is intent on oppressing the poor besieged Christian. That is a bad thing. On the other hand, you have the pious and loving Lamb of God, his heart filled with compassion for the state of your soul. Naturally, the unbeliever should just shut up and keep his opinions to himself, where as the Christian should be free to do or say anything he wants, because naturally he only cares about you and the state of your precious immortal soul. Try to get some perspective, buddy.
I refuse to believe that all Chrisitian’s are this offensive, so I won’t blame it on him being a believer. Honestly, I think that some people are just beligerant.
Good call, though. It does honestly sound like that is his train of thought. Very sad.
Am I missing something here? Fundamentalist Protestants are promoting a movie by a traditional Catholic? The fundamentalist Protestants whose craziest fellows believe that Catholics are the spawn of Satan? And a strain of traditional Catholics who believe that Protestants are heretics and who may secretly long for the good ol’ days when they could burn heretics?
Sorry, but something is not clicking. It’s kinda like Sinn Fein supporting a movie made by the Ulster Defense Association and it has my worldview in a tizzy.
I was thinking of one particular case where my company put up a movie poster, and no one had a problem with it.
My company bought us all tickets to see “The Grinch” together. So there were some movie posters, with some times to go see the film, if we liked.
I mean, you could say that “The Grinch” was about Christmas, and was therefore promoting one religion over another. But no one minded, because the film wasn’t meant to convert you to Christianity. It was just a fun film. Actually it was crap.
What I’m trying to get at, is that the intent behind the poster is what really matters. If the guy hung up the “Passion” poster as a striking example of modern marketing, blah blah blah, for instance, I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with it.
What gets me about this whole thing is the way the guy went about it. Seems like (unless I read the OP wrong) he came in early (or stayed late) and hung the poster up when no one else was there to see him or object to what he was doing. I mean ThatDuckisEvil came in one morning and it was just there. Doesn’t that imply that the owner of the sister company knew on some level that there would be objections?
Doesn’t common courtesy dictate that if you’re going to redecorate a shared reception area or adorn it with any kind of plant, poster, decoration, you’d check it out with the people who shared the space before you did it?
