Alex, what specific harm does it do anyone to have a company officially promoting a religion? Are the top executives all members of that religion? Do they tend to promote people who are not? Even if they do promote them, are the non-Christians invited to the golf games and dinner parties where vital work-related subjects are discussed? It bothers me just because it creates a percieved conflict of interest. Most of us have run into enough Christians who don't, unlike you, have any respect for non-Christians that we are pretty gun-shy about this subject.

Several years ago I interviewed for a management job in a mid-sized company. The people who interviewed me were open about their extreme Christianity and were obviously fishing for a similar expression of faith from me. They stopped short of breaking the law by asking me about my religion, but the very clear message was that I probably wouldn't be hired if I wasn't a professing Christian. Or even if I was hired I would always be an outsider. I stopped pursuing the job, even though I was exactly qualified for it, it would have been a very good career move for me, and it would have allowed me to live and work on Bainbridge Island or the Kitsap Penninsula. As you know, that's sort of like moving to Nirvanna for a lot of folks around here.

So yes, I think that business owners and executives who bring their religion to work can easily do harm to their employees. Our laws guarantee us that employment decisions won't be based on our religion. Unless that also means our lack of religion, it doesn't really make any sense. And the only way to ensure that is to not have religion promoted in the workplace in any official way whatsoever.John Peekstok