A friend of mine tried to put some Christian rock music on at work. Her boss told her that it was bothering some of the customers, and he put on some regular rock music instead, music he knew would bother religious customers. Sure enough, it bothered some of the Christian customers, but the boss wouldn’t do anything about it. Why is it alright to offend the religious people, but it’s not alright to offend athiests? Why is non-Christian rock music any better than Christian rock music? Why do athiest’s opinions matter more than religious people’s opinions? I know that this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s becoming pretty common today. Why is the world becoming so ANTI-religious instead of not pro-religious. (There is a difference.) Some people (even on this board) are actually HOSTILE towards religion. Why doesn’t tolerance go both ways? We Christians need to start making stands and sue some people for discrimination.
The boss makes the rules. They get to enforce their own biases or prejudices. I had a boss like that. It was okay to play abysmal kiddie pop, but not okay to play Classical. Because the boss said so. I daresay that more customers at the store I worked at would have preferred Classical, but the boss would rather have obnoxious pop, so that’s what the boss got.
When it comes to music tastes, and what gets to be played in certain circumstances, don’t expect fairness or reason. It doesn’t exist.
I know what you’re talking about. About a year ago, I was tending bar, and the place was empty, except for a handful of employees playing dominoes. I was playing a CD, and one of the songs on it was “Jesus is Just Alright” by the Doobie Brothers. One of the guys, who was decidedly not religious, demanded that I change the song. Rather than get into a debate with him while I was working, I changed it.
I personally have several songs in my library that may convey anti-religious messages, written by people with different theological stances than mine. I try not to even think about it; I can’t ever think of a time when I decided I liked a song based on its lyrical content (except for novelty songs, but that’s a horse of a different color).
Have you ever listened to Christian rock music? I rest my case. 
I’ve listened to a lot of artists that identify themselves as Christian that are a lot better than a lot of secular artists. I don’t think there’s a band out there, Christian or not, that’s worse than Good Charlotte.
I’m sorry; I’m trying to treat this seriously and having trouble doing it.
I suppose this goes hand in hand with the painful, awful burden of being a majority. I’m not sure how atheists even get involved in this. There are Christians who don’t like Christian rock, and religious people who don’t like religious music. And of course, there are people who aren’t Christian. In other words, I imagine the boss figured that secular music had the potential to bother fewer people. In general people seem to try and avoid religious controversy.
You’ve made the (in my opinion silly) judgment call that the boss’s thinking, whatever it was, mirrors societies or somehow stands for anybody else’s. I don’t know why. If you’re wondering why this one guy did something, ask him. If you’re trying to make a large point about society, I don’t think you’ve done a good job of it at all, because you haven’t proven that atheists’ opinions matter more to anybody. If you’re trying to relate this to court cases, I hope it’s not a surprise that courts often get involved in trying to protect minority rights.
What are you going to do, argue that the separation of church and state hurts your feelings? This is absurd.
I was making a joke; it’s not like I actively pursue Christian music. Although for my taste, there isn’t a band out there worse than Creed, who were a watered-down sort of Christian rock.
Yes, I must concur with you about Creed. Fortunately, they have since dissolved (thank God) and Scott Stapp has yet to release anything since, but I know it can’t last forever. Oh, well. sigh
Was it athiest music? Was the music about atheism? If not, why do you consider playing “regular” music as the converse of playing Christian music?
How is that discrimination? The boss can play whatever music he feels like in his store. If I, as an atheist, walked into a Christian Science Reading Room and got offended by the books in there, would that be discrimination? Of course not.
What if the situation were reversed? Say the boss is a Christian, and an employee puts on some Black Sabbath or something, and the boss changes it to Christian music. I bet that wouldn’t bother you.
I think you’re seeing things in a biased way. Believe it or not, a lot of people feel the opposite of the way you feel, that the world (and especially the U.S.) is becoming more and more “in your face” with religion. It all depends on your point of view.
Blowero, are you actually an atheist, or are you just creating a hypothetical situation?
Yes, I actually am non-religious.
Being non-religious doesn’t make one an atheist. I’m no longer very religious (at least, I would say so) but I’m definitely not an atheist.
“Not very religious” is not equivalent to “non-religious”
Granted.
Depending on what your definition of “religious” is, I might be non-religious. And I’m sure there are lots of non-religious theists out there.
Actually, that brings up a question. If you believe in God, why do you describe yourself as “not very religious”? Do you only believe in God a little bit?
It just reminded me that I have been noticing that more and more people are becoming more and more hostile towards religion. So I am making a point about society, not just this one incident.
It was music that offended Christians. It wasn’t necessarily pro-athiest, but it was definitely anti-Christian. In fact, you could say that the boss put the music on only to get a rise out of the Christians, and my friend.
Perhaps we should attempt to establish some common ground. How do we want to define “religious”? When I think of the word “religious”, I think of people who practice the rites of their religion or whatever on a regular basis. What do you think?
Was it a Tool song? 
I think you’re all off the mark. People in charge will dictate what music will be heard if they are allowed to do so. This isn’t about atheist/Christian, this is about being in charge of the music being played–this phenomenon has been around forever. I’ve witnessed much strive and anger at workplaces over which radio station to play. Somebody is always going to be unhappy.
Also, a lot of people don’t like so-called “Christian rock.” I am Christian (attend church regularly) and I can’t stand it. I would not willingly listen to that stuff, and if I was the boss, I would not allow it to be played. Of course, there’s a lot of other stuff that I wouldn’t allow to be played as well.
Everyone has something that they won’t tolerate being played (if they are in charge). For some people, it would be no rap music. For others, it would be no country music. Others, no Classical. Others, only Classical, only rap, only country. And so forth. This is what people do. They inflict their musical tastes on everyone else. That’s all this is about. What the employees want, what the customers prefer–it doesn’t always matter. (I won’t say that all employers or people “in charge” do this, but it certainly isn’t a new thing, or a rare thing.)
Strife. Strife. Argh.