Posted on 08/07/2014 6:23:18 PM PDT by markomalley
Mary’s Gourmet Diner has announced it will no longer offer occasional discounts to people who pray before eating, citing the threat of legal action.
The restaurant’s prayer discount had gone viral in recent days, making national news shows and sparking heated arguments on the Internet.
On Wednesday, the restaurant posted a handwritten notice in its front window stating that it must “protect your freedom from religion in a public place.”
“It is illegal and we are being threatened by lawsuit,” the note goes on to say, offering apology for “any offense this discount has incurred.”
The discount made national news after some customers – Dan Bremnes, a Christian recording artist, and Jordan Smith, a promoter at Capital Music Group – posted their receipt on their Facebook pages after they passed through Winston-Salem and got a 15 percent discount at Mary’s for “Praying in Public.”
The lawyer for a group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation then sent Haglund a letter branding the discount illegal under federal civil rights laws.
Mary Haglund, the co-owner of the restaurant could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.
On Tuesday she had said in an interview that the discount was never meant to promote any particular religion – or lack of religion – but was meant to show appreciation for people who had what she called “an attitude of gratitude.” She said that calling it a discount for prayer may have been “a bad choice of words.”
The co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation said that the group did not threaten to sue the restaurant, but that it has mounted and won lawsuits in other similar situations. A lawsuit against the restaurant “would not have been off the table,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-president and co-founder of the foundation.
“People who are atheists don’t pray,” Gaylor said, adding that it is illegal to “charge an atheist more than a Christian.”
Haglund told WGHP/Fox 8, the newsgathering partner of the Journal, that she dropped the discount out of fear of a lawsuit from the Wisconsin group.
There is nothing "liberal" about these fascists.
They should meet them outside with baseball bats and clubs.
Filthy atheists.
Public Accommodation. Sounded like a good idea in 1960’s but turns out just another way to oppress us.
Its easy. Put 15% off coupons in all the local Church bullitins. Problem solved.
I have been thinking that butt-stroking these scumbags, including Dim and RINO politicians, would give them the idea to stop trying to usurp our rights.
Have a cousin with a local restaurant. They did this, but only put fliers on cars parked at churches during Sunday service.
I can give a discount for everyone wearing red shoes, their hair in a bun, a football team jersey, a uniform, a rainbow gay parade ribbon, etc., but I cannot give a discount to someone praying?
I don’t buy it. If I can show support for those others, then I can show support for prayer.
It is not equal treatment to unfairly target religious speech and only religious speech.
The atheists were free to pray for a discount. There was no discrimination.
Send the athiests to fnd out if God is there. If they screw with christians, they should be opposed. Why do they not critizize muslims?
Sure they do! They “pray” every time they insist that govt gets more intrusive into our lives. They “pray” every time they DEMAND that we all cater to THEIR religion of TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENT. And yes, fascist is the correct term; I was an Econ major and my favorite class was Comparative Economic Systems; only 300 level course I aced - the “liberals” today are much closer to fascism than socialism; not that there is much difference between the two - there is not. And the differences are quite esoteric to the slave class.
A local car dealer did that and ultimately was sued. IIRC, he ran an ad in various church bulletins offering X% discount with the coupon. Some atheists caught wind of the church-related discount and sued. End of discount.
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘butt-stroking those scumbags’ but I’m sure I’d not want to foul myself.
Otherwise, I agree with you.
There should be ways around this oppression. Probably the best way is to reserve the entire restaurant for an hour or three each week for several churches, as a “meeting” not open to the public. The churches would provide religious speakers who would both open and close the meeting with a prayer, and perhaps have a speaker address some religious topic after dining.
The “banquet” price would include the discount.
Of course, the first thing the troublemakers would do would be to demand their own banquet reservation, so banquets would only be offered for that time frame once a week, and they would be booked out for the next several years.
And if the hotheads were willing to pay in advance for a banquet years in the future, no problem.
I would post their name and address at mosques as non believers and mockers of religion.
BTW, the term “fascist” was applied to the “right” only because Hitler lost the war and we got pictures of the atrocities. The left could not allow those pics to be associated with their side! So they used the tactics of Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda. In fact they used allot of his tactics but the one I am thinking of now is:
“IF YOU TELL A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH, LOUDLY ENOUGH AND WITH ENOUGH CONVICTION IT BECOMES TRUTH.”
We still have not seen the pics from Stalin’s DEATH CAMPS and never will; he didn’t loose the war. Thus it took them (the libs) longer to distance themselves from socialism. It took generations of it’s failures. Even so, they had lots of success with propaganda in the schools (see above quote) so now they are straddling a fine line. The kids support the “free market” but don’t trust “Capitalism”.
Liberals learned allot from their friends the NAZIs. Maybe that is were they got their hatred of the Jews from?
Excellent idea.
Butt-stroking is where you take the butt of your rifle and smash it into their face or head.
Atheists. Liberals.
Sniveling brats.
Jesus!
Of course.
What’s the spirit of the bayonet? To kill.
Just goes to show that the culture today has corroded even the thinking of an old Infantryman like me.
If someone can sue this restaurant for offering discounts only to customers who pray, does that mean I can sue all the companies that offer me a discount if I ‘like’ them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter? I pray but I don’t do Facebook or Twitter.
I should sue Facebook and Twitter also as they encourage this discrimination by companies against individuals who don’t worship at their altar. I wonder how the leftists would handle someone goring their sacred cows?
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