I’ve been doing some home renovations lately and the next thing on my list is a new picket fence that I would like to have installed around the front of my property. I want it to match the fence that goes around my back yard and although I’m pretty fearless when it comes to DIY projects, this is one I think I should leave to the professionals. About a week ago I started requesting estimates from several local businesses. Most of the places I’ve called are small, family-owned companies that specialize in fences.
The company that impressed me the most has a really nice website that includes several pictures of past projects they’ve completed in town. They were also the first ones to return my phone call and respond to my emails. The person I’ve been communicating with is the owner of the business and she has been extremely helpful but she uses a lot of Christian terminology in the course of each conversation I have with her. The emails I’ve received from her also always end with “Thanks and blessings,” as part of her signature.
I don’t have a problem with it although I think it’s weird since she has no way of knowing what I believe or even whether I believe — and I also wonder if that’s the point. Is she trying to not-so-subtly let me know that her faith is more important than worrying about whether she might be offending me? Or might it never even occur to her that she could be offending some people? Surely, she knows that there are lots of people of other faiths and/or no faith around here.
I asked a few of my friends what they thought of this sort of business practice and I got some good insights from them. One of my friends is originally from the south and he doesn’t find it as odd as I do. He has known people who wholeheartedly believe that God has blessed them and their business and they do this sort of thing as a way to glorify God and demonstrate their devotion. My other friend was a little more cynical — she suggested that maybe some businesses see this as a way to prove they are a “Christian” business so that they can then discriminate against people who don’t believe as they do. One of my friends thinks that maybe some companies do this sort of thing to imply that they are more ethical and trustworthy than other “non-Christian” businesses.
I found a good article about this here and it looks like I’m as indifferent to Christian companies and brands as most of the people in my age bracket.