Bodhi-in-Training Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 This is a Christmas tree. It is not a Hanukkah bush, it is not an Allah plant, it is not a Holiday hedge. It is a Christmas tree. Say it... CHRISTmas , CHRISTmas , CHRISTmas Yes. CHRISTmas - celebrating the Birth of Jesus Christ!!! If this offends you...too bad. Get over it ~ Take a stand and pass this on !! Interestingly enough I was the only person on the forward list....she also knows I'm Buddhist and Athiest...not to mention I have never made a single comment about the holiday season...WTF?? Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed in her intolerance.... I did do a quick reply. All I said was....actually the Christmas tree has Pagan roots. One line..to the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodhi-in-Training Posted December 22, 2005 Author Share Posted December 22, 2005 Perfect! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkmate Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Better yet, send her/him/them this link. Should A Christian Celebrate Christmas? I guarantee that your co-worker has never read such information. ESPECIALLY not from a "Christian" resource. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Does your company have policies regarding religious expression in the workplace? It may be that whoever sent the e-mail violated non-discrimination policies. I know my company has them. If so, you could take it up with your boss (unless your boss is the one who sent it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodhi-in-Training Posted December 22, 2005 Author Share Posted December 22, 2005 Great link Mr Grinch!! Thanks Amethyst, actually my boss is an Athiest. I found this out after the first year I worked her and he actually asked me if I believed in God....I was a little worried at first as to where that was going.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godless Wonder Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Does your company have policies regarding religious expression in the workplace? It may be that whoever sent the e-mail violated non-discrimination policies. I know my company has them. If so, you could take it up with your boss (unless your boss is the one who sent it). Ugh. I don't like this response. it amounts to "what you said is unpleasant to me, so you're not allowed to say it." Well, fuck that. Not everything people say is pleasant. Too bad. Get the fuck used to it. That way, when YOU want to say something, you can. Otherwise, just cut out your voice box, because what the fuck is it for/ Grow a spine, and quit running to the lawyers to whine. WRT the Jeremiah verse, it's a neat one... but there are problems, in that Christmas trees weren't around when that was written, so it can't be referring to Christmas trees, so, while it may be effective in the short run, any Christian that bothers to do an internet search is going to find a easy defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Ugh. I don't like this response. it amounts to "what you said is unpleasant to me, so you're not allowed to say it." Well, fuck that. Not everything people say is pleasant. Too bad. Get the fuck used to it. That way, when YOU want to say something, you can. Otherwise, just cut out your voice box, because what the fuck is it for/ Grow a spine, and quit running to the lawyers to whine. Aaaragh, I never said anything about any fucking lawyers, jerk. Really? So I should have never said anything to the boss and kept sharing my cube with my fundy cube mate jerk who kept trying to debate religion with me day after day when I was trying to work? Jesus fricking Christ. There are tolerance rules for a fricking reason. Nobody should have to put up with being preached to on a daily basis at work. I put up with it for 8 MONTHS before the straw broke the camel's back. The reason I had to share a cube at first was because there were no other spaces when I was hired. Then the interns were laid off and one guy took early retirement. I asked politely if I could get my own cube since there was an open space. My boss asked why, so I was honest and told him that my cube mate was driving me up the wall because he kept turning every single conversation into a religious debate, which I really did not want to have because I was trying to get my work done. I got my own cube and my former fundy cube mate moved to the other end of the office. My boss was very understanding. So I guess I should have kept quiet and said nothing or quit the best paying job I have ever had, huh? Arrrrgh. I figure I've kept quiet and taken enough crap from other people enough during my life. I took it from my overly critical mother who died when I was in HS, to the people at my old church, to the damn bullies until the day I graduated. I'm 30 now. I'm not going to take crap from anyone any more. Life is too short for that. Sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings, but my feelings have been hurt enough in my life, and I've had it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodhi-in-Training Posted December 22, 2005 Author Share Posted December 22, 2005 So I guess I should have kept quiet and said nothing or quit the best paying job I have ever had, huh? Arrrrgh. Certainly you wouldn't keep quiet about sexual harrassment right? Same deal. Harrassment is harrassment. My hats off to you for putting up with it as long as you did! I was more disappointed then angry with this person. If this sort of behaviour continued after I said "I don't want to receive any more of these emails" I would most likely block them on my email and inform them of it. I don't email my coworkers Dharma teachings I leave my beliefs at the door, and I expect the same in kind. And sorry Godless Wonder, but in the work place it IS her right and the right of everyone here to say enough is enough, especially in a case like Amethyst. He's paying them to work not "spread the good word". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Certainly you wouldn't keep quiet about sexual harrassment right? Same deal. Harrassment is harrassment. My hats off to you for putting up with it as long as you did! Not sexual harassment. Religious harassment. Bad enough, though. And no, I wouldn't keep quiet. If this sort of behaviour continued after I said "I don't want to receive any more of these emails" I would most likely block them on my email and inform them of it. I don't email my coworkers Dharma teachings I leave my beliefs at the door, and I expect the same in kind. Good idea. It's easy enough to block an annoying spammer these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightflight Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 As if "Happy Holidays" is bad. Read it again......Happy HOLY-days. Modern American Christianity is too dumb to get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Better yet, send her/him/them this link. Should A Christian Celebrate Christmas? I guarantee that your co-worker has never read such information. ESPECIALLY not from a "Christian" resource. "Wubba-wubbaz Gwinchiwpoo" Passed that site-bomb right along bubba-san.. Dropped it on several of my right_winger_xtian sites where I post as the only not-religious sort.. kL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godless Wonder Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Aaaragh, I never said anything about any fucking lawyers, jerk. Really? So I should have never said anything to the boss and kept sharing my cube with my fundy cube mate jerk who kept trying to debate religion with me day after day when I was trying to work? I never said that. You should be free to talk about it to anyone as much as you want, and nobody should make a rule to shut you up. The "shut up" rule can bite you and me in the ass too. I mean, I think Christianity is compeltely stupid, and I think I should have to right to tell it to anyone's face, if I want to without fear of getting fired. If they don't like it, they can tell me to go to hell. But I'm not going to just make everyone shut up and never talk about anything interesting ever again just because some random idiot gets offended. I get this shit at work too, people shoving Christian propaganda DVD's under my office door, and so on. I don't complain about it though, I watched the stupid DVDs and than make fun of it so the DVD pusher can't help but realize he's an idiot. Making people shut up solves nothing. I had put up some simple stuff on my wall about separation of church and state, specifically chosen to be non-confrontational. Well, I had to take it down because some dumbass complained. So I replaced it with a version of the same stuff with everything X'ed out -- replaced with X's -- except for the First Ammendment, and added some anti-censorship quotes -- "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," that sort of thing. Well they made me take THAT down too. So basically it's just "shut up shut up shut up shut up" because people, instead of having a civil discussion, just complain to the higher ups who aren't there to mediate any sort of argument, so institute a ban on any conversation that is remotely interesting. You can talk about your pet cat fluffy all you want, because nobody cares about that, but talk about how GWB needs impeachment, or how stupid Scientology or Christianity is, or anything like that, and you're told to shut up. That's a shitty kind of world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white_raven23 Posted December 22, 2005 Share Posted December 22, 2005 Great link Mr Grinch!! Thanks Amethyst, actually my boss is an Athiest. I found this out after the first year I worked her and he actually asked me if I believed in God....I was a little worried at first as to where that was going.... Because of this "advantage", I think you should print off that e-mail and show it to your boss. You don't have to be accusing or anything about it.....just show it to them, and ask your boss if she got the e-mail too. Not accusing or anything, just sound curious. Leave it up to your boss to decide if she wants to treat it as an issue. Being that she is an atheist too, she is capable of seeing this as religious persecution in the workplace without YOU having to specifically point it out. Whereas a Christian has a knack for being conviniently "dumb" about that being thought of as an issue......just like foreiners can play "dumb" about understanding english.....but suddenly manage to speak it pretty damn good when it's convinient to them. The person who sent you that e-mail singled you out. And that e-mail sure as hell wasn't a "Merry Christmas" card, nor was it "cute". It was an order to conform. Yeah, your boss should see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dianka Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 If you need something aq little more forceful for the fundy Republicans: FuckChristmas.org It is short and sweet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 I never said that. You should be free to talk about it to anyone as much as you want, and nobody should make a rule to shut you up. The "shut up" rule can bite you and me in the ass too. I mean, I think Christianity is compeltely stupid, and I think I should have to right to tell it to anyone's face, if I want to without fear of getting fired. If they don't like it, they can tell me to go to hell. But I'm not going to just make everyone shut up and never talk about anything interesting ever again just because some random idiot gets offended. Well, that's fine. I'm not saying everyone has to "shut up," but if I'm being harassed by someone with regards to religion and it's on a systematic basis (like it was at my job), I'm going to tell them I don't care to discuss religion, especially if it's in the workplace. If that doesn't work (which it didn't, cause I told my fundy co-worker that multiple times almost every day, but he kept bringing up religion all the time), I'll ask if I can work with someone else or something. But only as a last resort, if all other attempts to resolve the problem fail. I get this shit at work too, people shoving Christian propaganda DVD's under my office door, and so on. I don't complain about it though, I watched the stupid DVDs and than make fun of it so the DVD pusher can't help but realize he's an idiot. Making people shut up solves nothing. The main reason I did something was because I had to share a cube with the idiot and I really had had it with him. An office cubicle is a pretty small space, even when people do get along perfectly all the time. When those people sharing it are completely opposite in terms of religious and political ideology, and religion & politics are all one of them can think to talk about even when you do your best to steer the convo the other way, the walls can seem like they are closing in on you. I didn't want to quit my job because I get paid pretty well, and my contract isn't up for renewal til February. I'm glad I said something, because if I hadn't, I probably would have lost it one day. If he ever showed up on this forum, I don't think he would last more than a week in the Lion's Den. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-COG Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 Buy the dude a tee-shirt for Christmas. The Solstice is the reason for the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodhi-in-Training Posted December 23, 2005 Author Share Posted December 23, 2005 Buy the dude a tee-shirt for Christmas. The Solstice is the reason for the season. I want one for myself now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts