Ex-COG Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I have an oil furnace, and was going to order a delivery from the company I've used for several years. But I decided to check something out first. This company owns some gas stations, and I used to get the oil in my car changed at one of them. They always had Christian pamphlets laying around the waiting area, and the postcards they would sometimes send out to their customers might have a Christian reference, or a photo of a church on the front. I stopped going there, but for other reasons. I had always assumed that the manager of this gas station was the reason for the Christian influence on the business, but lately I've been thinking about where my money goes and what it supports, so I decided to check out the company headquarters. I find their webpage, and discover the Christian fish symbol on the homepage. I then look at a page entitled "Our Partners", which turn out to be organizations like the Promise Keepers, something called Connecting Business and the Marketplace to Christ Worldwide, and Marketplace Chaplains USA. So the company is a Christian business. Needless to say, I called a different oil company to fill my tank. Some might say I'm being picky, or even that I shouldn't avoid Christian businesses, but why not? Many Christians purposely patronize stores and service providers because they are Christian owned; my town even used to have a "Christian Yellow Pages" that you could use to make sure that you exclusively bought from those "in the flock". Do any of you avoid Christian owned businesses, or stop using a business if you discover that its Christian oriented? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Do any of you avoid Christian owned businesses, or stop using a business if you discover that its Christian oriented? No, it never crosses my mind. I generally go for the best quality at the lowest price. I don't care what kind of nonsense the owners may carry in their heads so long as they deliver the goods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelli Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I agree with Legion. Funny, the town I used to live in had a christian yellow pages too. Bleh! I don't know if any of you have a store called Aldi's in your area (they're all over NY and there were some in Virginia when we lived there), but they're a deep discount grocery store. Most items are 20-50% cheaper than you can even buy at a Super WalMart and just as good. However, this one item, the eggs they sell, are marked "Grade A Large" and they're the smallest eggs I think I've ever seen. They're also about 40 cents more expensive than you can get them at WalMart. I stopped buying the damned things because they're definitely a rip-off. What do you think is written inside the top flap of the overpriced, undersized egg package? You guessed it, a bible verse. Go figure. I buy my eggs at WalMart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-COG Posted February 3, 2007 Author Share Posted February 3, 2007 There are Aldi's in my area, Celt Cat. I haven't checked out the eggs, though. My reasoning for switching businesses wasn't just because they were Christian; if they only had the fishy thing posted, or even verses, it wouldn't matter. After all, I normally don't look at their webpage. But I figured that if they were "partnered" with those Christian organizations, then they were donating money to them. So I'm thinking, why should I increase the amount the company can give to ministries like Promise Keepers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taphophilia Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Aldi! I miss Aldi since I've moved to Florida. Do your's have the carts where you have to pay a quarter deposit to use them? We love thrift shops, but I won't go to Christian thrift shops that support churches or pro-life organisations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknowing1 Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Do any of you avoid Christian owned businesses, or stop using a business if you discover that its Christian oriented? It depends on who owns the business. If it's just Joe the Mechanic down the street who owns the business and is just trying to put food on the table and a roof over his head, I don't have a problem; however if it's as you found where they support and funnel money to other christian groups then no. I've found that one particular group in our area have several companies that they own or are affiliated with. I don't give them my business because I have found in several cases these folks don't follow the law and in fact have tried to hide their illegal activities. One of these particular Xians is being investigated by both local and state authorities and has been for several months. First time they were warned and the behavior stopped and then they started back up again, I guess they figured the authorities wouldn't be looking at them any longer. This last time they were fined by the local government and the state is still doing their investigation and they will probably be fined by them as well. I'm sure if the fed's looked into the business that they just might find some issues with bookkeeping. Anyway, I have to say that in the example you cite, I don't blame you for going with another company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jubilant Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I went to a dentist the other day whose ad in the yellow pages has a Jesus Fish but I didn't care...every single person in there had a joyful attitude and the dentist was a hoot. So funny, he was giving me the novacaine shot and all the while this sweet and upbeat dental assistant was patting my forearm, lol. Definately taking the kids there. Never a word about God the whole time and the denominations of those that work there were across the board: baptist, catholic, CoC, charismatic, etc. When it comes to pain relief and especially dental care, I wouldn't give a shit if the dentist was an extremist Muslim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poonis Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I do not actively look to see religious influence when I do business with a company, but if I notice it, I take my business elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I don't actively look for religion or not religion in a company. It's not like I'm going to work there. However, if a company was aggressive in proselytizing, then chances are good that I would avoid them. And any company that actively discriminated against people, like the Salvation Army, I would not give my money to. I also won't go to Christian bookstores, but I have no interest in reading any of the material there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sage Nabooru Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Depends. The local authentic Mexican place is run by a family that are devout Catholics, and indeed sampling their fare could make just about anybody worship their God. I would like to support them but unfortunately my stomach can't take Mexican anymore. The local cleaner's is very Christian - walk in and there's the fish and posters with forest photographs and random Bible verses, etc. They will clean my dog-hair-ridden coat for seven bucks and do a damned good job doing it, so I support them. But a Chinese place in the mall has at least one Chinese employee who wears a big wooden cross to work every day. I know that really the only way Chinese become such fervent Christians is when they've been duped into by missionaries, so I don't eat there anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jella Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I do not actively look to see religious influence when I do business with a company, but if I notice it, I take my business elsewhere. Exactly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I t would be no surprise to anyone here that I avoid businesses that advertise their christianity. I'm looking at log home builders. One such company sent me a packet of materials. The first page I pulled out of the packet was one having only to do with bible quotes. I tossed out the whole package. I do not want to patronize a company only to have my money go towards proselytizing. I don't patronize Dominos because of their connections to anti-abortion and creationist groups. Curves, the womans gym, donates money to those "pregnancy crisis centers" that lie to women about abortions and push their religious views on women in a vulnerable position. The owner and his lawyer are in court over shady business practices. Just down the road is a hardware store that has christrian pamphlets on the counter. To me, that's just offering, not advertising, and doesn't bother me enough to stop going there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LosingMyReligion Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I don't patron christian bookstores n stuff like that, no way. However, I don't notice the religious affiliation of anyone that I do business with. These Vietnamese ladies do my dry cleaning and I'm pretty sure they aren't christian(seeing as they have pictures of Buddha hanging on the walls). They are really nice too. They can have their beliefs just as long as they don't attempt to evangelize to me or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprus Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 If the business didn't plaster their religious convictions all over the place, then I wouldn't take notice, and probably wouldn't care. But if a business decked the walls with a lot of religious stuff, especially xian, I would seriously consider whether I wanted to patronize an enterprise that put serving a god ahead of serving me, the paying customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xild Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 There is a certain type of christian fundamentalism, which has been forming relationships with various other controlling sects such as the Mormons, that I deliberately won't support financially if I became aware of them. I'm not concerned about the little ecumenical groups, those that aren't acting politically. They just want to speak in tongues, roll in the aisles and enjoy their stuff--that's okay by me. They typically will put out tracts and whatnot, too. My pharmacist was like this and he had Bible's and tracts out but in the three years I went to him he never bothered me about religion and he had opportunity. It's the politically motivated groups that concern me, and I wouldn't give them a dime and I might even act to do them in if I could. I consider them a threat to me personally, to freedom and democracy. So no, they are organized well enough to support themselves ten times over anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShackledNoMore Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 It's just one small piece of the whole picture, and I don't subscribe to a firm answer. The more pushy, brazen, likely to proselytize, or to support objectionable causes, the less likely I am to frequent the business. It does irritate me when a business wears its xianity on its sleeve in an attempt to gain a business advantage by projecting a xian image, and that loses points with me if I think that's happening. I've noticed it's more often service oriented businesses where trust is a factor that do this, and using religion in a calculated manner to demonstrate their trustworthiness is a red flag to me to QUESTION their trustworthiness. My barber is a Catholic. Very low key, it was 7 or 8 years before the topic even came up. But he recently started working at a new barber shop with a vocal evangelical owner, with tokens of xianity all over the shop. I'm not about to stop getting my hair cut from the best barber in town just because he started working at this new shop! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white_raven23 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 I don't patronize Dominos because of their connections to anti-abortion and creationist groups. Curves, the womans gym, donates money to those "pregnancy crisis centers" that lie to women about abortions and push their religious views on women in a vulnerable position. The owner and his lawyer are in court over shady business practices. Is there a website that lists connections and affiliations to businesses like that? I would just as soon give my money to businesses that support women's rights and know the difference between 1812 and 2007. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Is there a website that lists connections and affiliations to businesses like that? I would just as soon give my money to businesses that support women's rights and know the difference between 1812 and 2007. I don't know of one. Good idea though. I'm not totally against businesses or organizations that have christian connections. If I die my entire estate is going to St Judes. I plan on living forever and so far I'm doing alright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 I did manage to find this article about Curves after doing a google search: http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/17/smbusiness/pitching_curves/ And Domino's as well: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story.../the_crusaders/ So it should be relatively easy to google other companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Even as a xian I got screwed over more than once by anyone that had that little fish in their ad or wherever. I stay away from that like the plague. Seems that fish is a license to steal (do a shitty job and leave you hanging). mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 I did manage to find this article about Curves after doing a google search:http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/17/smbusiness/pitching_curves/ And Domino's as well: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story.../the_crusaders/ So it should be relatively easy to google other companies. Before I posted those two companies I verified it with Wikipedia. They were there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xild Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 I did manage to find this article about Curves after doing a google search:http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/17/smbusiness/pitching_curves/ And Domino's as well: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story.../the_crusaders/ So it should be relatively easy to google other companies. Thanks Amythyst, the Dominionists are precisely the ones I would not pick up from the floor if one fell in front of me. Those are referenced in the Rolling Stone article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Thanks Amythyst, the Dominionists are precisely the ones I would not pick up from the floor if one fell in front of me. Those are referenced in the Rolling Stone article. That seems to me to be the unspoken argument here; when do you lose respect for the person because of their beliefs? Do you have to respect a Skinhead? Do you have to respect the KKK? Do you have to respect Dominionists? Can a belief go so far that you can rightly lose respect for the person holding that belief? I'm inclined to say yes, but there's a huge grey area in the middle. I can respect a run of the mill Christian, but not a Dominionist. I find it hard to respect bigots of any stripe. I cannot respect NeoCons such as bush, chaney, and their ilk, but I can respect a Goldwater type Conservative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chefranden Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 If the business has what I need and isn't part of the corporatocracy I'll but it from them first, maybe even if they try to sell me Jesus too, though it has never happened to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StewartP Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Aldis? Good Lord we have Aldis in France. And they put bible quotes in their eggboxes? I have to check this out tomorrow when I'm out buying tennis balls to verify another post (keep up folks!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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