I have a strong feeling that people should live their beliefs. Regardless if you are Christian, Pagan or anything else, it's important to represent yourself as a member of your religion if you make your religion publicly known.

I have seen a few really bad examples of people recently who are basically waving their religious flag high and then behaving not so good. It brings to mind the people who go to church on Sunday and then do whatever they want the rest of the week cause on the next Sunday, they will ask for forgiveness for their sins at the next church service.

Mostly, this is in relation to the situation when Jon quit his job before Christmas.

He saw that the district manager was treating him very differently than the others at his store and told him that the employees were all bad because they were following his example.

Once he quit, the person below him got promoted to his position. Funny thing is, that the district manager has tried to back that guy up when problems happen.

Another employee contacted Jon and explained that he got fired and the strange situation about it... When he got called into a meeting with the same district manager, he was asked to basically tell on anyone else in the store who was doing something wrong that he just found out was wrong. When the guy wouldn't tell on everyone else, the district manger, in the back room at work (which happens to be one store in a very large chain) asked him if he was religious and then asked him to think about "what would Jesus do?" in reference to telling on everyone else.

jon thought back to when the district manager first started treating him differently was after a meeting that he had to attend when he was not scheduled to work, those not scheudled to work could wear whatever they wanted, those who had to work that day were in their work clothes. Jon happend to be wearing black pants with metal studs and a metal band t-shirt with a rather unpleasant graphic image. The other guy that the district manager replaced him with that he has tried to rescue from problems, happens to be one of those guys who advertises openly that he goes to church, but certainly doesn't act like it.

So, if you are going to pick on one employee, and back another it may be smart to not bring up religion at work. If Jon and the guy who got fired put their stories together, and talk to other people, they could probably get a nice law suit going for the religious aspect.

but, the point I am really trying to make is... are those guys really living what they believe in? It does not seem so. If you are going to be open about your religion with everyone, it's best to be a good example of those in your religion. I don't think that a 'good christian' would be discriminating against one employee in favor of one of the same religion. i also don't feel a 'good christian' would go out of their way to 'tell on' people and whine about peple every chance they got like the one guy did.

I have tried in my life to, as much as possible, live to reflect my beliefs, but I don't advertise my religion openly in person or at work because I fear the same discrimination that Jon seemed to get. He's non-religious and open about that when asked. I know it's illegal to discriminate for religious reasons, but that doesn't prevent someone from making up another excuse to get rid of someone when their real reason is something illegal like religion.


I just wish that if people wanted to tell the world what they believe, that they would be a good example for their religion. So many people out there get the wrong idea about what religions are when they see someone saying "I'm a (any religion)" and that person acts completely inappropriately.