(December 8, 2009 at 6:38 pm)Rhizomorph13 Wrote: rjh4,
Apparently you have changed your mind. Earlier in the thread you seemed to have no problem with someone asking such an inappropriate question.
Rhizo
I guess I have somewhat. In situations like the one being discussed (individuals having work done on their house, A/C, etc.), while I do not select/deselect based on religion, I know others might want to do this and I respect their desire to do this.
After thinking about this some last night, I decided that what I really have a problem with is when an individual calls someone for an estimate, gets the estimate, and only then asks the question. I do think this is inappropriate.
If one knows that they only want Christians (or atheists) to do the work, they should ask about it during the first phone contact (it should be the first thing asked about in such a case). That way, they are not wasting significant amounts of the person's time if they are not the "right" religion/anti-religion. If an individual fails to do this and asks that person to come and give an estimate, I do think it is inappropriate to ask any questions about religion for selection/deselection purposes because then the individual has unfairly wasted significant amounts of the person's time.
Better yet, if one only wants a Christian to do the work, it is not that difficult to find Christian businesses/individuals as many times this is put in their advertising in the yellow pages. Furthermore, in some areas, like mine, there is a "Christian" yellow pages called the "Shepherd's Guide" which only lists "Christian" businesses. These resources could be used by Christians for selection without wasting any of another's time. These resources could even be used by atheists to deselect without wasting any of another's time.
