Jesus, we’re being oppressed!

I ran across the image at left the other day. At first I thought the pie chart was incorrect but after searching the number of religions in the U.S. it more or less correct.

I am always amused when I hear of a Christian, especially on TV or in the press, that complains that someone (the left, Atheists, liberal media, etc.) is running things and the god fearing Christians are getting the short end of the stick. When you see a graph like the on the left you have to chuckle. Poor Christians! With that much dominance in the U.S., what are you bitching about?

The truth is that we are a Christian country, not in a governmental sense but in the population that holds Christianity, in one form or another, as their religion and how it shapes their lives. Most statistics show that the U.S. population is anywhere from 70 to 80 percent Christian, or at least most respondents declare they are Christian in some form. Whether or not they attend church is another matter – just look at the declining Catholic church attendance. The percentages for other faiths is also quite small in the U.S. with one exception. The nonreligious segment is increasing probably due to the influence of younger people who don’t see the value of religion. Numbers are hard to get for that group but most surveys show it to be anywhere from 12 to 14 percent.

Now when you compare religious affiliation across the world you see a different picture. Christianity hold a third of the adherents with Islam garnering 21%. Notably “nonreligious” comes in at 16% and that segment still appears to be growing.

In any event, when Christians play the “Oppressed” card, we should remember graphs like these. The influence the Christian religion has in the U.S. and around the world is enormous. Unfortunately it’s not going away any time soon. Sigh!

Jobs and Jesus–do they mix?

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit on June 12, 2012 against Voss Electric Company regarding the denial of a supervisory job to an individual who was not religious enough. The EEOC website states “Despite being considered qualified for the position, … Wolfe (the applicant) was denied employment on the basis of his religious beliefs.”

So he was qualified for the job but didn’t have the right religious qualifications for the company. Which raises the question of what would be the right qualifications? To work at Voss Lighting do you have to attend a company approve church? Would that church have to run their mission statement past the management at Voss? What if Voss Lighting aligns themselves with the Southern Baptist and the applicant is a member of a Methodist church? Would that disqualify him? Is there a list at Voss Lighting of approved churches or denominations?

I will admit that Voss Lighting doesn’t hide their religious beliefs. On their website’s mission statement page they say right up front that their Biblical Mission is “ to ‘sell’ our lighting products so that we may ‘tell’ everyone we can about God’s soul-saving, life transforming gospel message as Jesus instructed believers to do.”  I’m curious as to why “sell” and “tell” are in quotes. That’s like the Monty Python sketch where they say something naughty and then “wink wink, nod nod” as if to say you really know what we are getting at, right?

This apparently happened in Tulsa Oklahoma so it doesn’t surprise me about religious overtness that’s there. But this is also a good example of what trouble one can get into when religion and the workplace are involved to this extent. It really makes a mess of this and no one comes out on top. If I sent in a resume to Voss Lighting, they would probably have to handle it with fireproof gloves as if Satan applied for a job. Maybe I will just to see if it lights up at Voss Lighting.