Christian Persecution - will get worse

Unfortunately religious zealots are giving Christianity a bad name. I don't have any problem with folks practicing their religion in their own homes or at the church of their choice but when they bring it into the workplace and other public places they are doing more to push people away from those beliefs. Sort of reminds me of the hari krishna's that stand on the street and accost strangers.

If this man was asked to remove the button and he refused then I say they had every right to fire him. After all they are running a business and if his actions might have turned away business, they were right to fire him. Who knows how many people he has offended because not everyone believes in his God.

I am of a christian faith but believe your personal beliefs should be left at home. Reading the bible at your lunch break is fine...read whatever you want...but to be at work with whatever sort of button on your uniform is unacceptable. He probably wasn't fired for wearing it but fired for refusing to follow company policy...which meant he had to take it off. Make a statement on your own time buddy.

Makes me wonder if someone was wearing a "one nation under Allah" button if you would be saying that he/she was being persecuted or they had a right to tell him/her not to wear such a thing while at work?

You can't tell one person to not wear a button and than let another person get away with it, which is why its company policy no buttons not provided by the company is allowed. He is an idiot.

This really doesn't have anything to do with religion. It's not that Home Depot is anti-Christian, it's that they're anti-slippery slope, which is what they fear as soon as they let just one person express personal beliefs/messages of any sort.

"Christianity" just incidentally happened to get caught in the crossfire, but it could have been any cause/statement/religion. As unfortunate as it is, I can understand Home Depot's position.

Agreed, but you can bet the Christians will be jumping all over this to show how persecuted they are.

They should be walking around in the shoes of some other faiths if they want to know what persecution really is.

Personally people who make statements like this at a business make me uncomfortable. There is a cashier at this local store I go to very often, and every single time I check out she tells me "thank you and god bless" or "have a blessed day" That makes me extremely uncomfortable even though she is just a nice elderly lady who I am sure wishes me well by saying that. I think she shouldn't say that and what she is doing is even worse than the guy who wore this button, but it's the bible belt area and there are not enough people to complain..
I probably wouldn't care about someone's button because I might not notice it..But if it didn't agree with their policy of course it's fair that they fired him.

While it does rub me the wrong way since it IS still part of the Pledge of Alligence, if it is their policy to not wear random buttons on their aprons/uniforms then they had a right to fire him if he refused to take it off. I agree that companies have to be strict about what is allowed and what isn't. Or else lord knows what people would end up wearing. I don't think work is the proper place to "express" yourself.

I find it curious though that he was wearing it for a year before anyone said anything. New management maybe?

What I want to know is, why did they wait for a year before firing him? Did they have to find some random stupid loophole in the law that says you CANNOT discriminate against people based on their religion???

If this guy were smart he'd fight this and get his job back. I know you may not want to work in a place where people disagree with you, but that's life, and I think the best thing to do would be for him to shove a big fat middle finger in the corporation's face by winning his job back.


By the way, I am in no means a religious person...but I do believe in freedom of speech and expression, and if his "button" wasn't interfering in the lives of others (which I am damn sure it wasn't) then he should be allowed to wear it whenever and wherever. The fact that they let him wear it for a whole year before firing him, tells me that they didn't really have any adverse rules against the wearing of buttons...

Nobody is saying you have to hide it but don't push it in other peoples' faces. I think it's lovely that you believe so strongly.

But I strongly feel that if someone has that much conviction they don't need to be trying to always prove it to others unless they aren't so sure themselves, rather like the old saying that if one has it, he/she doesn't have to prove it.

Everyone I work with is a Christian and we discuss Christianity and Jesus' message for salvation on a regular basis at work.

"His?" God, all he said was "God" he did not specify God as "his". Did you mean to say, "Who knows how many people he has offended because not everyone believes in God?"

Being at work wearing a button such as this is NOT unacceptable where I work. I am blessed for that.

If I were in Saudi Arabia or any Muslim country and saw a worker with a button on his person that said, "One Nation Under Allah", I would NOT be offended. Come to think of it, I wouldn't be offended if I saw that in THIS country. Allah = God Just a different name is all.

Should people be barred from wearing cross necklaces to work, also?

I find it so sad that some people feel that it is wrong for another person to actually care enough about them to say to them, "thank you and God bless" or "have a blessed day". The "have a nice day" thing is so generic and meaningless that people say it without thinking about or meaning what they say. Personally, I find it endearing when someone says the above to me at a store or anywhere and I would not care if the word, Allah, were used instead of God.

But they didn't just fire him, they asked him to stop wearing the button first. Maybe no one noticed it for a year, a button is not something that generally stands out in your outfit...
And since he was bringing a bible to work, that tells me he may have said something inappropriate to another co worker or to a customer..

Freedom of speech and expression is fine but how do we know he wasn't turning away customers with this pin? Do you? I couldn't say for sure if he was or wasn't but if it were my business I'd like to be the one to say what could be worn to work and what couldn't.

Does freedom of speech and expression count for people preaching hate and venom like the German man that Canada deported for preaching hatred of Jews and denying the Holocaust? As far as I'm concerned there is a limit to what is allowed as "freedom of speech and expression". I don't believe everyone should just be allowed to say or do what they want. There are consequences to that sort of behaviour, even for children.

IMO, wearing a pin is not, "pushing it in other people's face."

Besides, it is scriptural, in the New Testament to spread the good news to those willing to receive it and for those NOT willing to receive it, shake the dust off your feet and move on.

You're right, he could have said something inapropriate to someone and I'm sure he wouldn't admit that to the media himself so maybe we should keep an eye out for continuing coverage of tihs news story.

Though I do believe that at Home Depot you are required to wear a vest-type uniform (at least around here) and I do think a button would stick out pretty good on those plain colored vests.

The owner swept the dust off his feet and moved this fellow on - I don't have a problem with that.

The workplace is no place to bring religion just as it isn't appropriate to bring nakedness, abuse, bad language, obscene gestures, inappropriate dress, etc. You can certainly do all of those things in the privacy of your own home if you so wish but the rest of us out here in the world are not interested in seeing it.

I worked with a very religious Christian girl who made everyone uncomfortable in the office. They were afraid to say something that might offend her (she got offended easily) and she straight out told me that because I did not attend church every week that I could never get into heaven. She was terribly hurt when I told her that was fine, I would have all my good friends with me where I was going.

I agree with you.

People should not bring religion to work.

Oh boy, now the speculation starts. "MAYBE no one....."
"He MAY have said......" when all else fails, add something to the story that is not there.

More speculation.
"How do we know" We know because, nowhere in the article does it state that any customers complained and, believe me, in this country people complain about anything and everything.

In THIS country, and we are talking about something that happened in this country I believe, we don't deport people for "preaching hate and venom" even though it is detestable to most people.
You may well believe in those "limits" but when in this country you live under our laws which are different from Canada's.

Its not about what is ON the pin, its about having ANY pin that is not COMPANY provided on your person during working hours.

I find it interesting that the worker is making it about what is on the pin. Its not about whats on the pin. He read the employee handbook and agreed to abide by the companys policies. Usually they have you sign you have read and agreed with it. He is now putting a "spin" on it because he thinks he is justified.

Go work somewhere where you can where your pin if its so important to you and give someone with no job an oppurtunity to have yours....there are plenty of people needing work!

The worker is making this a religious/political thing to get his 15 mins of fame. Again, he is an idiot. I find it interesting also that people who are christian are latching on to this and riding it for all its worth. "Oh, we are so persecuted! Boo-Hoo!" Its not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. He needs to grow up and get a life...and now a new job.

and ckblv: Not everyone believes there is a God.

Having rules about what can and cannot be worn to work is all fine and dandy, but I just think that to let someone get away with it for a year before comming down on them is pretty lame... Maybe they didn't notice it, maybe a customer complained... I know the artical doesn't give all the facts that we'd need to draw a solid and stable conclusion to end this story.

As far as freedom of speech goes... I DO think that people should be allowed to say and do whatever they want as long as it doesn't infringe on the lives of others. So yes, the man who believed the holocaust never happend ( ) has every right to believe that and to say he believes that, but I don't think it should go as far as him being allowed to SUE a survivor, because that goes into the infringing on the lives of others category.

People shouldn't be afraid of being punnished or deported for believing in something and stating the ways that they think. You shouldn't be afraid of being fired from your job because you bring a bible to work. But if he was upsetting customers and preaching to his co-workers, then I think that is where he overstepps the line.


I do think this whole "what is right and what is wrong" with freedom of speech and expression could go on forever and ever. Everyone has their own differing opinions of what is right and wrong, and I think we should stop here at comming up with extreme scenarios before we get offended.

But one nation under god is not in the bible last time I checked

and once again, its not about what is on the pin. It is company policy to not wear any pin that is not provided by the company. Bottom line.

As far as I am aware, attending church weekly, is not a requirement for salvation. "Works" don't get you salvation, Grace does.

Company policy not to wear any pin that is not provided by the company for, more than a year, evidently.

I think most of us are in agreement that what he did wasn't a big deal, it's just that, for business reasons, it doesn't square with Home Depot's policies. We can reasonably assume that, like most businesses, Home Depot doesn't want trouble, or to alienate their employees or customers, but are rendered paranoid by potential abuse of a policy, and the possible lawsuits eminating from those abuses. So they have to head these issues off, before it gets out of control. It's nothing personal, methinks.

And, how much weight someone gives the authority to wear something (i.e., it's in the Bible, it's on our currency, etc.) is just one more slippery slope that has to be headed off by eliminating any possible ambiguity. If someone were to wear a button stating: Blacks: 3/5 of a person, would it make it okay if they were to state that it was in the Constitution? The person could always state that it was actually a wake-up call against racism, when it was just meant to be provocative. Or maybe it was well-meaning, who would know? That's why you can't give people leeway in these instances, they typically don't know what to do with it.

As I said in my earlier posts - Christians are going to somehow turn this around to make it seem like persecution.

For the record, I am proud that Canada deported someone who was preaching lies and venom to the public. I couldn't have been more proud to be Canadian than at moments like that.

You said spreading the good news was scriptural....I assumed his "good news" was the pin (since you said that "a pin isn't exactly shoving it in someones face"), and since this is what we ARE discussing. I never knew "one nation under God" was part of the good news christians are supposed to preach?

Just remember not all christians are doing that. Some of us have known what REAL persecution is.

I'll remember that and you are right.

The workplace is no place to bring religion just as it isn't appropriate to bring nakedness, abuse, bad language, obscene gestures, inappropriate dress, etc. You can certainly do all of those things in the privacy of your own home if you so wish but the rest of us out here in the world are not interested in seeing it.

That is YOUR opinion, you forgot to add that.
So, what you are saying is, wearing a pin that says, "One Nation Under God" is comparable to: "nakedness, abuse, bad language and obscene gesture"
Hmmmmm, well that is interesting and says much.

As far as I am aware, attending church weekly, is not a requirement for salvation. "Works" don't get you salvation, Grace does.


Yes exactly, as far as I'm concerned religion has as much place in a workplace as any of those items I mentioned - keep it private - I'm not interested in sharing.

Yes again, the zealous young woman who worked here was totally out of line telling anyone they would not go to heaven if they did not attend church but some religious folks are just that way - zealous and pushy. Unfortunately they get all bent out of shape when they get pushed back.