Religious Issues

My friend, Amy, wrote a blogpost this morning that struck a chord. She wrote a post about how much it bugs her when, in times of difficulty, people respond by offering to pray for her. As an atheist, she finds this borderline offensive. But I am not going to put words in her mouth. If you would like to hear what Amy has to say on the matter, you are welcome to read the post itself.

What I am more interested in talking about is the chord that religion has struck with me lately. It comes in the form of a client. Now, I know that legally and ethically I cannot talk about our clients, but this is less about his problems and more about an attitude that I find highly annoying in certain religious people in general. Back in the days when Gina and I were in high school, there was a boy that Gina liked and, to avoid awkwardness while talking about him and, well, because he had many, we ended up calling him Issues. I would like to refer to this client in the same way. He will henceforth be known as Issues.

Issues had a problem with an invoice that he was sent this month. After two or three emails explaining the situation to him, I received an email back where he suddenly announced that he was a deeper meaning Christian. What he meant by that is that he is not someone who goes to Church often, but someone who believes in God and lives their life according to God's word. Which is just great for him! He is welcome to do that and I am very happy that he has found something meaningful in his life! But what does that have to do with the matter at hand?

I ignored the religious aspect and continued as I had been going, attempting to explain to him the situation and hoping that he would understand logic. His next email explained that he is only accountable to the Lord, his saviour, Jesus Christ. Actually, Issues, no. You are also accountable to the law. But no matter. I continued once again to try and bring the conversation back to the matter at hand, his invoice. I tried to explain that this had nothing to do with who he is accountable to in the long run, but that he is also responsible for his actions now.

Alas, his next email explained that he only serves God and that only God could vindicate him when the time was right. By this point, I was furious and frustrated that no matter how simply I explained the situation, he always reverted back to God and ignored anything that I had said as though it made no difference to his life because he was religious. He acted as though, by being religious, he was completely superior to anyone else and no mortal problems could affect him. Pay a bill? Pfft! God will see me  through! God will pay it for me, or God will deal with the consequences of my own actions.

All this time, he kept repeating that I had to respect his choices in lifestyle and religion. Which I accept. I do respect peoples choices. But that does not mean that they can get off scott-free. People need to accept that their choices have consequences. And that life choices play no part in business. That you choose to follow a religion does not influence the way that your ISP will treat you. You do not deserve better or worse treatment than anyone else. Your choices (aside from perhaps choices in packages) should not affect your invoice. One cannot live their life however they like without consequences and cannot get away with not paying for services that they have requested and that we have paid for on our part.

As a company, we implement some rules (like clients having to pay by the 10th of the month), but we also have rules implemented on us (like domains being automatically renewed) that we need to come to terms with and pass on to the clients. Do you see us complaining about our God-given rights? No. Because God-given rights do not come into it. Rights that the law gives us come into it. Rights that the constitution gives us. And if our services were unconstitutional, if they were unequal or unfair, then I can start to understand. But this is a case where it has nothing to do with bias due to religion or belief. God does not come into it at all.

It is business, plain and simple. And the sooner some people can understand that, the easier life will be.

/Rant.