Religious Zealotry and the workplace

I work in fundraising for a major Catholic university. I've learned that the best way to be a good Christian is to give us your money

I went to college there, and surprisingly, I was ever preached to there twice, once by a man who wasn't even affiliated with the school. I was supervising window contractors during the summer, and the foreman (Baptist or Methodist, I believe), told me all about the abomination that is homosexuality and a long harangue about abortion.
The other time involved a campus ministry leader and the march for life.We were chaperoning the high schoolers and she commented on the march, and said you're pro-life, right? I stammered, um actually no, and she sweetly told me why I was wrong. My friend pretended to be asleep so I would get the brunt of it

Edited to say that at my place of employment, religious zealotry is the norm, not the exception

[Edited on Jul 07, 2004 by BillHaverchuck]

I phrased myself for shit and made it look like I am telling you that you need to listen to your co-worker with your arms at your sides and a polite grin on your face. Here's what I meant to say: the thing people who aren't religious say the most about religion is that the religious are to keep it to themselves. Since Christians have specific orders to not keep it to themselves, it's pointless and even a bit discriminatory to judge them for not doing that.

But the fact Christians are obligated to spread the word doesn't mean they are exempt from being recognized as untactful, rude, or just plain unwelcome. Obviously, no one has to listen to them, and are free to respond to them in any way they wish - go away, fuck off, *awkward silence*, I don't feel comfortable talking about this with you sorry, etc. It's the Christian's impetus to draw you in, not yours.

I will leave your personal views on religion alone on account of they are so deeply rooted in reason

Ah hello!. It's nice to see you all here. As the more perceptive of you probably realised by now, this is Hell. And I am the Devil (good evening), but you can call me Toby, if you like. We try to keep things informal in here, as well as infernal. That's just a little joke of mine. I tell it every time.

Now, you're all here for... eternity! Ooh! Which I hardly need tell you is a heck of a long time, so you'll all get to know each other pretty well by the end. But for now I'm going to have to split you up in groups. WILL YOU STOP SCREAMING! Thank you.

Now, murderers? Murderers over here, please. Thank you. Looters and pillagers over there. Thieves, if you could join them, and lawyers, you're in that lot too.

Fornicators, if you could step forward? My God, there are a lot of you! Could I split you up into adulterers and the rest? Male adulterers, if you could just form a line in front of that small guillotine in the corner.

Em... the French, are you here? If you could just like to come down here with the Germans. I'm sure you'll have plenty to talk about.

Okay, atheists? Atheists over here please. You must be feeling a right bunch of nitwits. Never mind. And finally, Christians. Christians? Ah, yes, I'm sorry but I'm afraid the Jews were right. If you would come down here, that would be really fine.

Okay! Right, well, are there any questions? Yes?

No, I'm afraid there aren't any toilets. If you read your Bible, you might have seen that it was damnation without relief, so if you did not go before you came, then I'm afraid you're not going to enjoy yourself very much... but then I believe that's the idea.

Okay. Well, it's over to you, Adolf! And I'll catch you all later at the barbecue. Bye!

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

I'd forgotten about that... Rowan Atkinson is the shit!

It's so damn sad that most Americans only know him as Bean. The work he did on Black Adder alone makes him worth his weight in gold.

you've never seen Thin Blue Line

I find that most christians don't pull this kind of crap at work. In my last work place it was the college christian girl who pulled that crap, not me, not the ex-navy sunday school teacher or the youth minister or the born again NBA basketball player or his Morman team mate.

Yes, actually I have. They use to show it on a local television station here. Good stuff, good stuff.

If such an event happened to me, frankly I think any argument would be moot because I would be totally screwed.

So, why are we debating this question?

I think you're trying to fit your Type A Christian into the Type B molding. I think a good percentage of Christians are A, and it seems that you think a lot are B. Maybe I'm being optimistic here, but I don't think people who are weak in their faith, and using it as a crutch would be so willing to push it on others. If they can barely stand with it, how can they give some to you?

I dunno. I think my mind isn't on today or else I could try and explain my thinking better. As it is, I think you're content to be as you are, and if that's what you'll do, then I can stop it.

That's b.s. You shouldn't mess with stuff like that. Even if you think God's told you to have a Christian organization and only hire Christians etc.. the earthly rules are here for a reason too..

Oh yes I have!

Oooh, offensive AND funny! Ooh I love it.

Really, even I can find humor in that.

Nope....I don't think that most Christians are the annoying, pushy type. It's the annoying, pushy sheep who try to tell me why I should believe what they believe.

You also misunderstood what I was trying to say about weakness. I think that the people who are the most zealous are weak-minded, not weak in faith. To the contrary...that type has a surplus of faith.

When I refer to the weak-minded people using religion as a crutch...I'm referring to the people who believe that the Christian God micro-manages every mundane detail of their existance.

Again, I implore anyone reading this to understand that I am not bashing religion. I am merely expressing my distaste for those who push their religion on me and my distaste for those who are not capable of free-will and let religion run every aspect of their life.

I think religion, at it's core, is a good thing. It's the asshats who get a hold of it and screw it up that I take issue with. The people who hand me pamphlets and ask me questions to which the answers are none of their friggin business. I'm talking about the people who tell you that you're going to hell for doing this or that.

I had a bible-thumper at work a few months back. Drove me nuts with that shit.

I really wanted to tell her that it wasn't polite to bring up religion or politics at work (she stomped through both a number of times, at one point dropping the word "dyke" in casual conversation when our resident lesbian co-worker was unfortunately out of the office...

I was simply patient.

I have worked with, gone to school with and gotten along with all sorts of Christians (including numerous Mormons), Jews, Hindi and Muslims, among others no doubt. Never had any problems with any of them so long as they knew when to shut up about it. This one wouldn't shut up.

Everything became a religious discussion. Customers got voicemails with blessings at the end.

But her problem was that she couldn't shut up about anything that popped into her smallish mind. Well, as fate had it, eventually my patience paid off before she got permanently hired. She bad-mouthed the products of our single largest warranty-service customer, and the customer predictably went right back to them with those words. She was gone within a day of that, while she worked my nerves for almost a year.

The lord works in mysterious ways