Thread: Separation of Church and Work?

i say its totally unethical. the only thing i would say is find a way to tell them to stop or just go to your boss.
i have two related stories:
my mom: she worked with this woman who did the same thing, only then sent emails, mailing letters, and all through the company. she didnt do anything it just got worse.

my step dad: he worked with a group of people that did the same thing. he is a devoted Atheist. he rudely snapped back and was agressive. he ended gettting in trouble instead.

so go with the in between and tell your superiors. i know it sucks, because making a big deal out it is trouble, but it does help in the end.

Originally Posted by EmoNightmareRose

i say its totally unethical. the only thing i would say is find a way to tell them to stop or just go to your boss.
i have two related stories:
my mom: she worked with this woman who did the same thing, only then sent emails, mailing letters, and all through the company. she didnt do anything it just got worse.

my step dad: he worked with a group of people that did the same thing. he is a devoted Atheist. he rudely snapped back and was agressive. he ended gettting in trouble instead.

so go with the in between and tell your superiors. i know it sucks, because making a big deal out it is trouble, but it does help in the end.

But why should I go out of my way? I show them respect, I at least deserve to be respected, right? Pushing religion upon me is totally disrespectful. I can respect their beliefs and I never push my beliefs upon them. In fact, a Catholic girl at my job is the only person there I can speak freely with as far as religion is concerned. She'll ask about my beliefs and we compare the two in contrast. She won't push anything upon me, yet she'll share her beliefs respectfully. Why can't the others do the same? I feel like they should follow her example.

i know. but she sounds smart and tolerant and they sound like they just want to push their religion like cheap drugs.
but in the end if they wont stop then you should just tell them if you want it to end.

i agree. you shouldn't have to go out of your way just to tell them to stop. they should know in the first place that they shouldn't do that, especially at work. that or they do know they shouldn't do it, and do it anyway because they think that youre not going to do anything. they should respect that you dont agree with them, but they sound really ignorant to understand that.
like i said, my mom didnt want to say anything just because she didnt want to get into it or start anything, and she regretted not doing anything.

Originally Posted by atomik_sprout

But I was RAISED in a Christian family, went to confirmation, Sunday School, attended god knows how many retreats and have gone to bible camp religiously until high school. I don't need to learn about something I've been educated on my entire life. And replying with other semi-religious thoughts/phrases will put me smack-dab in the middle of a religious debate at work. I save those arguments for AO, LOL.

...and we appreciate it.

Originally Posted by atomik_sprout

No, seriously though. I can understand that people have the right to discuss their religion freely. I'm not sayin' they can't. I'm sayin' put some boundaries up. Be polite. If you know what the other person believes/practices, don't try to pawn your religion off on that person. If they blow you off, it's for a good reason, is it not?

Not necessarily, not everyone is reasonable. If they were you wouldn't have a problem would you? I don't really agree with putting boundaries up but respecting others feelings and thoughts is very important.

All I am saying is a sense of humor and being polite will get you further then not with most people. The ones that it doesn't work on you just have to be blunt with, polite but blunt.

I am glad you have someone you can compare notes with though. It is so much fun when that is possible. That is why there shouldn't be a "separation of work and religion". The fact is people are people with our own beliefs and views and when you start saying "you can't" you lock out some really good experiences along with the bad. Sometimes that means tolerating people who really annoy us... and sometimes they surprise us.

Originally Posted by Arrianna

...and we appreciate it.

Not necessarily, not everyone is reasonable. If they were you wouldn't have a problem would you? I don't really agree with putting boundaries up but respecting others feelings and thoughts is very important.

All I am saying is a sense of humor and being polite will get you further then not with most people. The ones that it doesn't work on you just have to be blunt with, polite but blunt.

I am glad you have someone you can compare notes with though. It is so much fun when that is possible. That is why there shouldn't be a "separation of work and religion". The fact is people are people with our own beliefs and views and when you start saying "you can't" you lock out some really good experiences along with the bad. Sometimes that means tolerating people who really annoy us... and sometimes they surprise us.

You make a good point, Arrianna.

Maybe there are people who are so blinded by their personal opinions regarding their own faith that they confuse the two. There's having faith and having an opinion, in my own opinion. And when the two are intertwined, there has to be a line drawn in the sand that separates the two. When saying things like, "I'm on a much higher spiritual plane than most," is said by someone, it's more than likely because there's no line drawn between faith and opinion.

Any Zen teacher will tell you that when you speak of being enlightened, or having experiences of semi-enlightenment and you're borrowing the words of other practitioners; you never achieved enlightenment to begin with. I believe the same rule applies with any other belief. When people say to me, "You need Jesus," or, "I'm more spiritually in tune," I either think that they themselves need Jesus--if that's their religion.

Originally Posted by atomik_sprout

You make a good point, Arrianna.

Maybe there are people who are so blinded by their personal opinions regarding their own faith that they confuse the two. There's having faith and having an opinion, in my own opinion. And when the two are intertwined, there has to be a line drawn in the sand that separates the two. When saying things like, "I'm on a much higher spiritual plane than most," is said by someone, it's more than likely because there's no line drawn between faith and opinion.

Any Zen teacher will tell you that when you speak of being enlightened, or having experiences of semi-enlightenment and you're borrowing the words of other practitioners; you never achieved enlightenment to begin with. I believe the same rule applies with any other belief. When people say to me, "You need Jesus," or, "I'm more spiritually in tune," I either think that they themselves need Jesus--if that's their religion.

I don't think that seperation of church and work is a question, to myself it sounds more like some one just annoyingly expressing what they feel is the way to live ones life out load, without any consideration for others around them. I remember writing something like this before but I will say it again these people probley feel that since their life is so happy and good with X religion, then they have a since of duty to share that life style with other, one mans cup of tea is another mans cup of poison as I say. Right now I can relate, because this is lent (Catholic tradition) it is hard to tell my fellow coworkers why I had ashes on my forehead, or why I don't eat meat, I personally feel that what I do during my work time is work. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, unless you have a question about a my religion, then I will talk, otherwise I will not judge others because they love their religion, or talk down to them because it iritates me, I will instead be polite and tell them maybe they are right or wrong, what matters is that you have something to believe in as do I, and as such I respect you for having faith in your religion as I hope that you can respect mine, or something like that, what ever the case, just do what you feel is right, remember, you are the one who has to believe in your religion and not them.

Originally Posted by Franco

I don't think that seperation of church and work is a question, to myself it sounds more like some one just annoyingly expressing what they feel is the way to live ones life out load, without any consideration for others around them. I remember writing something like this before but I will say it again these people probley feel that since their life is so happy and good with X religion, then they have a since of duty to share that life style with other, one mans cup of tea is another mans cup of poison as I say. Right now I can relate, because this is lent (Catholic tradition) it is hard to tell my fellow coworkers why I had ashes on my forehead, or why I don't eat meat, I personally feel that what I do during my work time is work. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, unless you have a question about a my religion, then I will talk, otherwise I will not judge others because they love their religion, or talk down to them because it iritates me, I will instead be polite and tell them maybe they are right or wrong, what matters is that you have something to believe in as do I, and as such I respect you for having faith in your religion as I hope that you can respect mine, or something like that, what ever the case, just do what you feel is right, remember, you are the one who has to believe in your religion and not them.

I like how you think!

As I said before, a co-worker of mine is Catholic. She made mention of not eating meat a few days ago, and me being ever-so-curious, I start asking her questions about Lent. Now, I was raised in a church, so I understand Lent for the most part, but now I'm "outside of the box", so-to-speak and I never knew why you weren't supposed to eat meat, so I asked her. Those kind of conversations are tolerable, but when it turns in to force-feeding an opinion on someone, it's just plain wrong. I agree with you when you said work time is work time. It should be like that no matter where you work or what religion you practice. There's simple discussions and even the occasional debate, those are okay. But, "You need salvation," has no place in any conversation unless it's two Christians talking to one another or two of any other religion for that matter.