Shoppers Balance Beliefs, Business

[MountainLaurel]

Frankly, I'd pick up a copy of this to see who not to do business with, particularly the physician listings. If someone is strident enough to advertise in such a publication, they're probably strident enough to refuse to give a prescription for antidepressents (since psychology is just a sympton of secular selfishness and mental illness is a lack of faith) or to leave me bleeding to death internally rather than remove a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

When Linda Brown needs to get her car fixed, she takes it to an auto repair shop that she found in the Shepherd's Guide, a directory of local businesses owned by self-professed Christians.

She turned to the guide again when her mother died and she needed a lawyer to handle the estate.

For Brown, 47, who worships at Victory Gospel Church in Manassas, using the Christian equivalent of the Yellow Pages is an expression of her faith and a smart way to shop.

"That's where I go first for anything, really," said Brown, who lives in Manassas and has been using the guide for about eight years. "Usually, with Christians, they are honest people and they put God first, not money."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030400868.html

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. WTF?

:wtf:

[MountainLaurel]

4. Was that aimed at me or the article?

:hi:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

7. LOL--The article.

Sorry.

:D :D

[charlie]

2. "...they are honest people and they put God first, not money"

Were that only so. Then the guides could be useful to all of us, Christian or otherwise, much like kosher certification is a reliable indicator of the food you're buying. Fat chance.

[trotsky]

3. More of the "Christians can't be bad people" baloney.

Christians lie, cheat, and steal just like everybody else.

[Boojatta]

5. "a directory of local businesses owned by self-professed Christians"

Emphasis on: self-professed.

If you knocked on Linda Brown's door and identified yourself as a self-professed banker, would she open an account and make a cash deposit?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Whoa...the only religion I know of that

disses psychiatry like you describe is Scientology. As a matter of fact, there used to be (might still be, for all I know) a fundie shrink hour on Christian radio called "The Minerth-Myers Hour" (sp?) They actually gave a lot of good advice about medication and therapy and rarely even mentioned prayer.

I don't have a problem with the Christian Yellow Pages but I don't want a copy. Everybody knows the best doctors and lawyers are Jewish! (only half kidding here...)

[varkam]

8. And the Lord said "Get thee behind me, ethical business practices"

I actually do use those Christian business directories quite frequently - only I use them to make sure which businesses not to go to. I don't do this from prejudice or bigotry, just experience.

I used to not really care if I took my car in to get repaired at a 'Christian' shop, or get my dry cleaning done at one, etc. That all stopped, however last year. It wasn't so much that on most of my receipts from these places there would be a church pamphlet stapled to them and would be asked frequently about my religion (they loved hearing I was an unwashed heathen), but it's that I've been frequently ripped off - especially by Christian mechanic shops. I've been overcharged on parts and labor on at least three different occasions that I know of (out of five times I've taken my car into get worked on) by a grand total of $400.00. I've been told they don't perform certain services when I know for a fact, from other customers (and even their own employees) that they do. And, of the work actually performed, twice it was very poorly done (i.e. they temporarily patched the problem I was having with my idle control - this was told to me by an independent mechanic I took my car too when I was fed up with the Xtian bozos).

Plus a Xtian dry cleaner I took my favorite shirt to ruined it, and when I needed a zipper on a pair of black pants replaced, they did so with a bright green zipper. And of course, they refused to reimburse me for either.

None of this is to say that non-denominational businesses are always ethical or good to their customers either, but at least they don't shove pamphlets in my face telling me I'm going to hell.

[supernova]

9. Ugh. Just give me a pass on this crap

:rant:

I can't stand it when xtains want to deal exclusively with each other in this way. Send my kids to the xtain school. Get my groceries from the xtian grocery story and "have a blessed day." Build my home with a xtian builder and contractors. Go get my hair done in a mile-high beehive at the xtain beauty parlor.

You're effectively checking out of the larger community. That's not what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to love all whom we come into contact with, not self-selct for only those that have the Good Housekeeping Christian Seal of Approval. :eyes:

:rant:

[NMMNG]

10. "Usually, with Christians, they are honest people and they put God first,

not money."


Is that why collection plates are passed every Sunday in Church, and all of those religious shows include plea after plea for donations?

[Goblinmonger]

11. Just to play devil's advocate

a role I know quite well!

Is this significantly different than directories--some formal, some not so formal--that direct GLBT individuals to "businesses" that are friendly to that lifestyle? My wife is an attorney who deals with a lot of wills, trusts, etc. and she is on both formal and informal lists (sadly a short list in this part of WI) of attorneys that can and will help GLBT couples with estate documents.

[Book Lover]

12. Not significantly

But with GLBT service directories, you can be 100% sure you are supporting a company that will not discriminate against you because you are GLBT; nor do those businesses claim that they are more ethical than other businesses, unlike a "Christian" business which lists itself as such in order to stake a small claim toward a "higher" ethic. OTOH, a Christian service directory is no skin off my apple and something I support as a member of a free society.