I need advice from Christian businesspeople. If I start a business, do I have to employ atheists?

Question

There are a couple of us from our church that are thinking of opening a Christian Martial Arts Center.

We would be a fully Christian organization and we will have Christian values and symbols throughout our offices and employee manuals. Our rules would include no swearing, no inappropriate dressing, no inappropriate music playing in the gym or offices, no alcohol on the premises, no lewd behavior towards females, etc.

The last thing I want is for some baby to come up and start crying about having a bible verse on the wall and having the ACLU come over and machine gun our place.

Do we have a right to seperate ourselves from atheists and their dogma? Or is this going to just be more hassle than it's worth? I would assume that our rules structure would make a lot of atheists not even want to work for us. Should we just go ahead and hope that is the case?

Thanks

Answer 1

I wish, i was NEAR you future business

Answer 2

What is wrong with you? what makes you think an atheist would want to work with someone with your attitude?

Are you going to create your own new Christian martial art? Because a lot of martial arts combine with them the spiritual belief systems of the country they originate from.

Also, when did not swearing, dressing appropriately, listening to appropriate music, not drinking alcohol and no lewd behavior towards women become purely "christian" traits and values?

Answer 3

That's an excellent parody of Christian absurdity- very subtle.

Answer 4

if you own the business, you have the right to state your beliefs.  if a person who was not a christian or an atheist wanted to work at a christian based business, they should be able to unless it was their intention to completely disrespect your beliefs.  and not all atheists think that way.  but whatever you decided, you should do it in love and with discernment.  

Answer 5

How are you going to know they're atheists? It is against Federal law to to ask about a persons religious beliefs or lack of. Why not do the Christ like thing and open your arms to all?

Answer 6

You can't NOT hire somebody because they're an atheist. The same way you can't not hire somebody because they're female or muslim or black.

Answer 7

They need the gospel, too.  I doubt that they would stay long any way.

Answer 8

You can't discriminate based on religion.

But in any sense, I don't think very many atheists are going to want to work for someone as bigoted as you, anyway.

Also, atheists are not the only ones who complain about religious symbols in public places.  Get that in your head.  

Answer 9

You cannot legally ask them their religion during an interview so if you slid the question in sideways you would never have to hire an atheist.  It is the same way I weed out crazy christians when I hire.

Answer 10

well no alot of athiests wont want any part of your business but some may ,it shouldnt be looked at as necessarily a bad thing ,what a witnessing tool!

Answer 11

First of all you cannot discriminate & anyone who is willing to go by

your rules & regulations can be employed.

Secondly Martial Arts & Christianity do not go together.

Answer 12

I was not aware the ACLU used machine guns. Interesting.

Just be upfront with your religion. It sounds like you are oppressively upfront, so I doubt any atheist would want to tolerate being around you and your center anyway.

Answer 13

I just honestly cannot tell if you're serious with these questions or if you're trying to out-fundie the other fundies.

Answer 14

I think you are in for a surprise.  As a former Christian I learned to avoid business men who felt the need to express to me that they were believers.  Invariably it indicated that they were covering for a lack of honesty or effectiveness as business men.

When ever ANYONE in business feels the need to promote their honesty or morality or integrity ahead of a deal, WATCH OUT.

It took several bad business dealings with 'Christians' before I learned to avoid them while attempting to create opportunity and win win situations.

It wasn't until I became an Atheist that I understood why that was.  Christians have a propensity to rely heavily on subjective faith.  This allows them to craft their own reality in life, and heavily influences their dealings with things that don't go their way.

I remember one deal where a Christian ripped me off for $60,000.  He justified it by explaining that God didn't want him to pay.  He really believed it.

Beware of believers and claims of religious integrity, it is as solid as their subjective opinion of reality.

Answer 15

It is illegal in California to even ask a question about Religion.

What you can do is Make it very clear upfront that you are a Christian based Business. That your company opens in prayer daily and give them copy of rules.

You never know who might get saved, by your good manners. The ACLU will only go after the big dogs ( money hungry goats that they are).

If your business grows Praise God and keep working.<><

Answer 16

You cannot choose to hire or not hire people on the basis of religion. But if it's just you and a couple people from Church doing this, you all know each other are Christians, so I don't see where this would ever be a problem.  

Answer 17

if you wish to go to prison for breaking federal law, go for it & have a good time.

Answer 18

If you are puzzled about whether or not you can post a Bible verse in a private business (completely legal) or discriminate against people based on religion (completely illegal), you better either get a lawyer, or a partner with a little business acumen.  Otherwise, you could find yourself in deep doo doo.

Answer 19

This may or may not help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KmWbKJ8C...

Answer 20

For the most part, if your business is a Christian-based business, I doubt you'll get too many non-christians involved with it. And if a non-christian does happen to want to take part in your business, you cannot deny them, but they won't start any trouble as long as you keep your goals of christianity very clear.  

Answer 21

You cannot discriminate against a potential employee based on their religion or lack thereof.  In fact, you cannot even ask about it during the interview process.  

All you can do is hire the employee whom you consider to be the best fit for your small business.

Answer 22

It might be called predjudice according to the law...I dont know. But look at it this way. If an athiest works for you one of two things could happen. 1) He get sick of hearing about it and quits

2) He gets saved....what a great witness. Get the rules straight before anyone works there. Like the rules and the fact that christian things will be in eye shot. If they dont like that they probably wont take the job anyway. Good luck to you. I will wonder how you make out.

Answer 23

Bro. Perry - While I can understand your hesitation about hiring an atheist, there are probably many of them that share your passion for martial arts, and would probably do an excellent job at teaching others.  Be sure you have the rules of conduct as well as the job description in written form, go over everything with the prospective employee, and have them sign a statement that they understand and agree to those terms.  As a Christian who has been in a position of hiring and then supervising employees in the past, I've found that when you treat your workers fairly and with respect, they will respond in like fashion towards you and towards others, and this applies to believers and non-believers.  Remember, as an employer you will be setting the example for your employees to follow, both professionally and spiritually.  Show them Christ, Bro. Perry, in your actions and words, because you just never know how many will come to believe in Him because of the example you set.  God bless you!!!

Answer 24

As offended I am by the wording of your question, you have a valid question behind all your hate spewing.  

I believe that much will depend on whether or not you are talking about a martial arts center you would like run with christian values and morals.  Or are you running a "Christian Martial Arts Center".  

The work place is not allowed to discriminate based on religion.  You can't even ask people you are interviewing for their religious views.

However a Christian Bookstore probably doesn't hire people who are not christians.  I can't imagine any non-christian would even apply.  And they will not get into trouble by having bible verses painted on the walls.  People know exactly what to expect when walking through the front door, and if people are offended it's their own fault as the purpose of the bookstore is usually right there in the business name or advertised in some way.

If you were to run a Christian Martial Arts Center and you were to advertise and market it in a way that allowed people to recognize this business as something very specifically targeted towards christians you would run into less problems as other religions (including atheists) would not go out of our way to seek you out.  Although, if you are in small town and there are not other martial arts centers available to the public - this could be problematic also.  Something to consider.

Answer 25

If you're a Christian-oriented type of business, wouldn't you assume that those who do not share your beliefs would have some idea as to what they were getting into?

Give people a little bit more credit. Atheists are intelligent enough to know the type of environment in which your business is being operated.

Answer 26

I emphasis with your view, but are you being a bit extreme?

Answer 27

Don't you have equal opportunities legislation and anti-discrimination legislation in the USA?  Isn't this against both?

Answer 28

Just build it inside your church. Or only allow Christians to join. As for the ACLU machine gunning your place, just use your martial arts and God's grace to dodge the bullets. In fact, that begs the question, why study the martial arts at all? It will only make you less likely to turn the other cheek and let it get slapped and it will extend your life and therefore delay your heavenly reward. If I were you I'd take up blindfolded rock climbing instead.

Answer 29

I'd suggest trying to teach martial arts AT the church just to be on the safe side. If you use a public storefront you'd probably be bound by all the fairness laws out there.