A North Carolina diner has stopped giving discounts to customers who pray in public after an atheist organization threatened to sue.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to Mary Haglund, owner of Mary’s Gourmet Diner, threatening legal action if the diner did not drop the 15 percent discount for praying because it violated the Civil Rights Act.
The “promotional practice favors religious customers, and denies customers who do not pray and nonbelievers the right to ‘full and equal’ enjoyment of Mary’s Gourmet Diner,” attorney Elizabeth Cavell wrote in the letter.
Following the letter, Haglund posted a note on the diner door informing customers that the 15 percent discount will no longer be allowed.
Okay look I know that sometimes religious people have a hard time understanding that not everybody sees the world as they do, but seriously how hard wast to realize that this was incredibly discriminatory?
It would be like a Jewish butcher offering 15% off if their customers would drop trou to prove they were circumcised.
Kind of like 15% off for proving you had 5% off.
It kind of makes me wonder how many Atheists went into Mary's Diner, bowed their heads, and muttered under their breath "Hail Satan, Lord of Darkness, thank you for this meal, and for helping us to get 15% off on the check?"
For 15%, my husband and I would have bowed our heads and recited:
ReplyDeleteThrough the lips
And over the gums
Lookout belly
Here it comes.
Or you could say they subsidized the “Faithful" at the expense of unbelievers. It's pronounced, “dhimmi."
ReplyDeleteUntil every American enjoys the same rights, the law forbidding discrimination based on religion should be repealed.
ReplyDeleteWould the diner have extended the same discount to Mulims? Also, how did the owner know diners were really praying?
ReplyDeleteThe owner said no particular religious belief was required.
DeleteThe owner did not know if diners were really praying and did not ask.
Jesus EXPRESSLY called out people who pray in public. You're supposed to pray in secret, and not standing on a soapbox where everyone can see you. So who are the real Christians now?
ReplyDeleteExactly. What about Christians being told that they could only get 15% off if they disobeyed Jesus?
DeleteTalk about something to offend everyone.
gryphen -- why in the hell did you associate atheists with praying to satan? that is so freakin' dumb i can barely wrap my head around it!
ReplyDeleteI know, right, that's the most popular myth surrounding us Atheists is that we worship satan when we no more believe in him than we do god! The whole point is we don't believe in ANY higher power, good or evil.
DeleteThe point was that non-believers could have mumbled just about anything under their breath including a faux prayer to an entity that would have made this lady lose her mind.
DeleteOnly a moron would think that I was suggesting that Atheists are closet devil worshipers.
Unfortunate reinforcing a negative stereotype struck me too as I read your post.
Deletedowl
I'll put it another way yet: That the owner of the restaurant probably realized that they had been taken for a complete schmuck by people who were not genuinely of faith and beyond that, realized that God was not very forthcoming in coming up with the missing 15 percent in lost revenue.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, wait for it, there'll be protesters with signs saying they deserve the fifteen percent prayer discount, that their rights are being taken away from them and they're being persecuted based only on the fact that they're christians doing what christians do.
ReplyDeleteRub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub. YYYYYYYYYYAAAAYYYYYYY GOD!
ReplyDeleteToo bad.
ReplyDeleteBow your head and fold your hands. Let them prove you weren't praying. Let them prove you weren't praying to *their* God.
Everyone could get 15% off across the board.
All you have to do is close your eyes and count to 100.