KitKit

have you found that the more you realize your beliefs (or non beliefs) and your values the more you question things you do in everyday life?

for example:
we have a janitorial supply company, who i do marketing & advertising for. and we market a lot to churches & private schools (many of which are run by churches). and ocassionally i wonder if it is against my values to market & sell to them. i mean, i don't want to help them in any way. but then i think well, they'd buy these products somewhere anyway so i wouldn't really be hurting their business by not marketing to them... so i might as well make money off of them.

these are trivial things for sure & i probably wouldn't stop marketing to them, but the thought crosses my mind occassionally. maybe some of you have thought the same thing from time to time & maybe on a grander scale than this.

dunadan

NOT do business with them? Hell, you should sell MORE!

Pull as much of that tax free revenue out of their fundie hands as you can! The more money they spend on toilet cleaners, the less they have to print up tracts!

Psycho Economist

I really don't think you're hurting the cause any to have Whitey pay you for stuff so he can clean out his own damn toilets. Taking care of one's bathrooms is not a value-added activity in their enterprise of promulgating religion. Unless they happen to have the only bathroom in town.

If you were selling them bibles, hymnals, organs, pews, vestments, communion wine, or surplus food or building a parsonage or printing up tracts... you'd actually be helping them do their job in a meaningful way. Ditto if your employer was giving them money.

butswana

If you refused to do business with christians, you would pretty much be fucked.
Hell, if they will buy that Jesus shit you can sell them anything.
Take thier money.
When doing personal stuff, don't use their services. I won't get watches fixed at a local jewelry store 'cause the guy is a fucking fundy. He has tracts and other shit on the counter.
Don't eat at Chick-fil-a either. It's owned by Mormons.

villainess

I sometimes struggle with the fact that I sell fundy and New Age crap books to people, but then again, if people buy them used, they're not generating royalties.

What I am trying to cut back on is shopping at the Salvation Army. Unfortunately they're the only game in town for thrift stores - for the time being anyway - and since I also boycott WalMart and KMart, it's become very hard to support myself in the manner to which I deserve to become accustomed. But that's ok, because I need to buy less stuff anyway.

In related news, the only Christian bookstore in town is going out of business for the second time in five years. The original owners retired a few years back and we (the bookstore I work at, that is) bought their space. Someone else bought the business name and inventory and moved it into a smaller space. Now the new, smaller space is bust.

Religious affiliated store that I go out of my way to shop at: Ten Thousand Villages.

the_villainess

Viti

Business is business...my largest client group is so fundified it makes me gag...but I don't care as long as they pay their monthly fees. Why should I give a shit, it's not like I am supporting them with my money.

Personally, I try to contribute to secular charities...but I don't care about the religion of store owners...I have boycotted companies for actions or practices I find unethical, but not over their beliefs.

wildernesse

I can't find that Chick-fil-a is publicly traded, and so I'm assuming the Cathy family still has controlling interest. In that case, Truett Cathy describes himself as an "evangelical Christian" and his daughter is a missionary under the Southern Baptist label. So, it's more likely that Chick-fil-a is Baptist-owned.

--tibac

Dr. Retard

All I know is there's a Chick Fil-A in a Tuscaloosa, Alabama mall with a goddamned altar in it!

Complete with Bible. Right there in this tiny food court fast food place.

What the shit?

Psycho Economist

It is still family owned, by a baptist family and they view their restaurant as some sort of mission in itself (at least according to naysayers).

I remember going to their website during the whole flap when a Muslim junior-manager was fired, allegedly for not praying to Jesus at a training session. They've toned down this page a little since then, but they still mention wanting employees free for church services.

Stabby-

When does tolerance become intolerance, and when does freedom of choice (where to shop and who you do business with) become discrimination and/or punitive in nature?

Just because you can "vote" with your dollar, doesn't mean you should.

Countless times through human history, the dollar has been used as a tool of discrimination. Should we consider ourselves a tolerant and accepting class (Humanist/naturalist/athiests), then should we not also take extreme care as to how, when and why we withhold our economic vote.

Although the rule is not clear or set, my suggestion is, if what they market or are trying to sell is not part and parcel of some intolerant or offensive idea or act-- then to not do business with someone purely for their religious or political beliefs-- is an act of intolerance.

Yet, if a business, company or individual intentionally links their philosophy, creed or ideas to their merchandice-- then, out of basic premise of supply and demand, you will not purchase their goods.

Don't withhold your dollar to "punish" those that are different than you.
Don't give your dollar to institutions the promote that which you loath.

Telling the two apart, now that is difficult. Luckily, we have reason and logic to help us determine what to do.