Christians And Christmas

[gusdafa]

I'm here at work and I am presented with a troubling development. I am part of our office social committee and we are doing a staff draw for who is going to give who a present. I have no problem with this, but two people have asked for their names to be removed because their 'faith' does not allow it. One is a Jehovah's Witness and the other a Bahai practitioner. At first I was like, faith heads ruining it for everybody but this echos the struggle some atheists go through with people forcing their BS faith on them. What is the right thing to do in this situation? It is right to remove god from the state to be inclusive but what of faiths in my situation, stop the draw so they don't feel left out and discriminated against in a working environment?

 

They can fight this if they want, and do have a valid case, but I know they wont.

[GraphicsGuy]

They *asked* to be removed, right? Why should they feel left out and discriminated against then? Personal choice IMO.

[godlessgrrl]

I'd say remove their names.

 

I personally find workplace round robin gift exchanges annoying and pointless, regardless of my religious status. I resent it when I am expected by someone to get a gift for someone else. I much prefer things like holiday potlucks, where everyone brings something for everyone to share.

 

So I'd say remove their names, and no harm done.

[gusdafa]

I dont know guys.

 

Doesn't this have a "no prayer in school" ring to it?

 

edit-

Theres 4 of us in the committee and the other 3 are making fun of those two 'weirdos' for not getting with the program.

[GraphicsGuy]

I guess I don't see it. You didn't ask them to not participate. Seems to me more like if there was mandatory Xian prayer in schools and a muslim asked to be excused from it. Would they force him or allow for religious freedom?

[Unknowing1]

I don't know. I can see two sides to this especially since I am going through a similar situation at work...not about the holidays but about diversity and an event the diversity committee wants to do that to me is excluding people from participating, enough about that one in this thread.

 

I'm thinking that it's not illegal. The participation is open to anyone and if they chose not to participate that is their decision. However, I also understand about wanting to be as inclusive as possible.

 

This is how we usually solve the dilemma at work. Instead of doing gift exchanges we collect donations for a specific charity. Last year we collected items for a nursing home and this year food for the food bank. We set out collection boxes away from the work area and people just put things into the boxes if and when they wanted. No one knows who donated or who donated what. We made sure on the notices that this was in lieu of the usual gift exchange. It's gone over fairly big, in fact this year I had folks asking when we were going to do it and who we were sponsoring. People who want to give gifts, cards or anything else at work are not forbidden to do so, it's there decision but most people have started to skip that and just give to the group we are sponsoring.

 

Then in January we do a winter luncheon for the department. We decorate with winter themed decorations, snowflakes, candles, fake snow. Everyone who wishes to participate brings in a dish of some type (we do make sure we have vegetarian fair too). Because we do it in January, use decorations for the season and are actually celebrating our work accomplishments for the prior year, no one has found any reason to complain or not feel included.

 

EDIT: Your co-workers who made the weirdos comment, well that is a problem.

[HoustonHorn]

Of course it may be too late now. If you change it to a charity donation instead or cancel it outright everybody will have a pretty good idea why it's being changed.

 

I guess I'm confused why they can't exchange gifts, but then I don't really know much about those two faiths. It's not like you're giving each other little chocolate Jesuses or anything. But along with everybody else it seems like they should be free to opt out, as should anyone who just doesn't want to participate for any other reason.

[SWIM]

They *asked* to be removed, right? Why should they feel left out and discriminated against then? Personal choice IMO.

 

I was just about to write this when I read it.

 

It is their choice, screw em, they don't want a gift, don't give em one. Maybe when the wake up one day they will see how many joys of life they "sacrificed" for absolutely nothing at all.