This is a touchy subject for me as I'm probably what you would call the "black sheep" in a very religious family. As i've grown older, I've developed my own opinions and beliefs based on personal experience and observation, and have grown distant from the church. When you start talking about mixing business with religion, you lose me right away.
I would never dream of pushing my beliefs on anybody else, in my personal or professional life. There are just too many differing beliefs out there, yes even here in BCS, to risk turning someone off by making religious affiliations known or advertised. I've seen the dark side of these things far too often and feel, like many others have said in this thread, that those businesses are trying to promote themselves in a very "grey" manner. Like Chuck said, they had better hold themselves to a different standard if they preach and promote such things...if not, they'll prove all the skeptics right time and time again.
I kept my own personal religious views under wraps, even from my family, for most of my life for fear of repercussions. I now have a sister that won't even speak to me because what I believe is not what she believes. She fears that I am now a negative influence on her children, so my relationship with them is essentially non-existent now. Thankfully, my parents have seen that I'm still their loving son and have been able to accept me and still love me for the same person I've always been.
For a group of people who claim they are non-judgmental, accepting, and offering salvation...they sure are good at excluding those who don't see it exactly the same way. People that know me realize that I'm an extremely generous, giving person, who has nothing but love in his heart. My actions dictate what people think of me, and I'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks negatively of me...outside of my family at least. And that is the real problem in my eyes, because it's all based on a stringent belief system that gets distorted and corrupted. If there is a Heaven, I'm confident I'll end up there because of the way I've lived my life, not by which God I've prayed to.
Be careful if you claim Christianity or market that way because you risk alienating more of the population than you realize. I went to church three times a week my entire life, but I will not patronize your establishment. I don't have a care in the world about what you do at home, but I will not walk into your business just on the off chance somebody in there will try to recruit me into something that I don't want to be a part of. Or worse, lead me on and then disappoint me because you aren't really the people/business you claim to be.
Kind of a long windy rant, but I hope it makes sense, or hits home to at least a few...
