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This may have been asked before but I haven't seen it as I was scrolling through topics.
When choosing a business to do 'business' with - do you avoid overly religious businesses? Research for either non-religious' or businesses who don't advertise their beliefs? What are your thoughts on where to shop?
Fyi - I am sitting in Chick-fil-a while I type this. It shares the parking lot with the company I work for - I HATE giving them a dime but I also hate driving for my lunch break so when I don't bring my lunch, here I sit.

Heidi68 8 Sep 8
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I do not frequent businesses which openly donate to or support religious causes, nor which give out religious trinkets or scripture with their product. I do not eat Chick-Fil-A, shop at Hobby Lobby, etc. I try to avoid businesses which have any religious undertone at all, but that's not always easy in the bible belt.

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businesses don't have religion. people do. when people force their religion onto their business (with the possible exception of a business that actually does have to do with religion -- the catholic church, for example, and YES that's a business) then they are potentially violating the rights of their employees, their customers and maybe the nation if they take their cases to the scotus. therefore i do not do business with walmart, which isn't religious but which violates people's rights and destroys neighborhoods; with hobby lobby, which uses religion as an excuse to violate people's rights; or papa john's pizza, which doesn't use religion as the excuse but violates rights nonetheless. i don't care what the excuse is, whether it's religion or something else. and i don't care what religion the business' people follow as long as they do not so use it. oh yeah and coors. i don't drink beer anyway but the powers that be at coors are homophobic and act on their homophobia. i don't know whether they use religion as an excuse but i don't care. there IS no excuse.

g

Very good points thank you

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I refuse to shop at hobby lobby. Not like I’m crafty or anything. There’s a Michaels right across the street when I do need something. I don’t go to chick-fil-a for a number of reasons. We have two local franchises that are owned by someone in my neighborhood. Beside the religious nonsense, they refuse to donate a damn thing to help any of our local schools. These are issues that are very important to me.

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I usually don't boycott because it only ever hurts the rank-and-file employees who can't afford to be picky about where they work. But I won't go into a hobby lobby--it's way too obnoxiously Xtian for me. They play religious music for crying out loud.

Around here even Bojangles plays religious music....

@Heidi68 not sure what Bojangles is, but yikes, anyway. ?

@memorylikeasieve chicken joint like KFC

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I don't cut off my nose to spite my face, but given two equivalent choices I'll pick the company without the Christian odeur about it. For example if I had a reason to go to a hobby store, it would if possible not be Hobby Lobby.

Also when looking through ads for service providers, the Christian fish logo is good for several demerits. A company that feels the need to make their religious faith any sort of reason to favor them as a vendor is advocating believing without evidence (and with considerable counter-evidence) that the mere fact of being Christian means they are more honest / reliable / trustworthy.

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I don't frequent chik-fil-a or hobby lobby. I don't frequent Exxon/Mobile gas stations because of Prince William sound debacle. They made token effort to clean & paid a paltry penalty. I don't frequent businesses that refuse to serve people based on sexual orientation, race, religion, immigration status, etc. In other words, I tend to avoid businesses that are uber religious.

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I refuse to shop at Hobby Lobby. Particularly due to the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. case. That case said that in a simple way, a closely held religious company does not have to abide by laws that violate their religious beliefs. In this particular case, them not being required to have contraceptives covered by the insurance policies they provide to their employees.

In my honest opinion, saying that something violates your religious beliefs sets a dangerous precedence. Meaning, what is now the definition of a religious belief? With that being said, somebody can create their own religion and refuse to provide any sort of service because providing it will violate their religious beliefs. I might be going on the extreme end of saying that, but I view it as a valid point that is worthy of further discussion and need for a true legal definition.

It already occurs to a certain extent. Amish are excluded from standard educational requirements and child labor laws to a great extent. Churches and most religious organizations don’t pay taxes. And Catholic hospitals are known to refuse service for certain kinds of treatment that they feel is against their scewered beliefs.

I agree with your entire point. I found that ruling incredibly disturbing especially when you add in the recent 'baker' ruling in CO.

@Heidi68 That raises another question. When is a religious belief that denies a service to an individual is classified as discrimination?

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I don’t eat at Chic-fil-a because there are none close by and the two times I did, I was not impressed enough to want to go back. I find myself more likely to boycott businesses that openly supported Trump than ones that promote their religion, though the two seem inclined to merge at this point. But like you, I might break with my resistance if it was a matter of convenience. If I went to a party and the only beer on hand was Yuengling, I would drink one rather than have none! In the case of Chic-fil-a I do have a certain admiration of the fact that the owner sticks to his guns and stays closed on Sundays, what could be their busiest day. I’ve known many religiously oriented businesses that, once they started making serious money, found profit more inviting than piety.

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