Very religious colleague

Amongst 39 of you, there must be some who are gay, or have had abortions - or they will have close relatives who fit into those categories. There may also be people who have had ectopic pregnancies that had to be ended, and he probably disapproves of that too. He must be well aware of that and he must know he is hurting them, yet he continues. That alone is good reason to take this to HR.

His behaviour is not acceptable ans should be reported to HR (if you have an HR person / department)

Me too. I'd be putting AC/DC on the playlist and wearing upside down crosses and rainbows!

So the impregnation of an underage 'virgin', doesn't trouble him, but songs about sex do?

We had a colleague exactly like that who was actually fired for it. So definitely something to talk to HR about.

He was also very Christian, soft spoken and otherwise quite pleasant...didn't bang on about religion on an everyday basis like your colleague. However one Friday he mentioned that there was a church event going on that weekend and invited colleagues to come. He got sacked the next week.

Nope, fuck that. I was open about my religious beliefs at work (wouldn't work Sundays because of going to church) but only if people asked questions. I'm also not a very good example of my church, so there's that. 😅 I'm a metalhead as well, so I'd be turning on my music and letting him complain.

That kind of aggressive pushing of his own beliefs is entirely inappropriate at work, or anywhere else people can't avoid him.

Also, I'm pretty religious myself, go to church, very familiar with the Bible, and it says little or nothing about homosexuality except in the context of foreign religious rites, nothing about abortion, and nothing about evolution, so he's being idiotic. In a very American evangelical way.

I worry enough about the things the Bible really does criticise: gossiping, ripping people off, not honouring God and loving my neighbour.

It's not acceptable. Tell them to keep their "values" at home.

Totally unacceptable in the workplace- I’m surprised no one is pushing back. He can’t go round being homophobic and misogynistic and using the Bible as an excuse.

Johnny, we respect your beliefs and your religion, however, none of their things you dislike are unlawful. We don't wish to criticise how you live your life so please stop criticising how we live ours. We're a good team so let's try and keep our chat to the weather, Jo's mum's bunions and what timem we're off to lunch. On rinse and repeat.

if I were the manager, I'd also take the radio away

Ask him why he's talking and not doing his work?

Isn't your manager aware of this and doing something about it? If not, he or she is seriously incompetent.

We had one like that. We also had gay colleagues, in the room when he started spouting off about that being against the Bible. It was uncomfortable at times. He was equally combative about those of us who are Christians but not as rigidly simplistic evangelical as himself. Management did try to get him to shut up but it's a losing battle...

Luckily he was not young, and has now retired.

Your guy's line manager needs to tell him how to treat colleagues with respect.

I find it hard to believe that you all have put up with this for so long. Majority wins re. the music. Tell him you don't want to talk about these topics. Stop letting this man dominating. How can 39 people all be so lacking in backbone..?? You think it might make things uncomfortable? It is uncomfortable already.

This must be unbearable. Why haven't you all shut him down before now?

If nobody in the office has the gumption to tell him , then his line manager/HR dept need to be informed and they must deal firmly with him.

Personally, I don't recognise this particular American-influenced flavour of Christianity (a la Charlie Kirk), AS Christianity. It is completely unlike how Jesus behaved. Unfortunately it seems to be getting popular, but nothing like it is in the US of course. It's a twisted version imo.

Speak to your manager and also mention that you are concerned that productivity and output will be compromised because staff aren’t able to concentrate on what they’re supposed to be doing at work because of this constant interruption.

It would be sensible to talk with manager/HR. This is intolerable in the workplace.

Just ignore him, surely. If he was one person who didn’t like Sam Fender out of 40 people, you’d just say, ‘Oh, well, majority rules, Nigel’. The fact that he has ideological reasons doesn’t negate that.

Regarding the music, you can easily avoid this type of problem by playing instrumental music, then no one can object to the lyrics because there aren't any.

insist on playing nothing but the Star Wars theme, and all start evangelising about how important the Jedi religion is to all of you…?

In all seriousness, this must go to HR and I think it needs to be a group effort. If you make sure absolutely nobody responds to him about anything non-work related - literally everything religious he says is greeted with everyone ignoring it, he’ll soon get bored. Re the music, play whatever you want and tell him he’s welcome to pop his headphones in if it isn’t to his taste?

Just laugh at him and don’t engage when he starts spouting his bigotry.

That is insufferable! He needs a strong word from managers, failing that HR.

But he's making things difficult and uncomfortable.

Well no he can have his beliefs but he shouldn't be forcing them on others .

But everything is uncomfortable and difficult now so you might as well make an official complaint into the complaint system.
He must be pretty dynamic to be holding 49 of you hostage!

It’s not discriminatory (whether religious belief, sex, race, sexual orientation) to want unacceptable behaviour to be addressed.

It’s your colleague’s line manager’s job to address it. Provide factual information about his behaviours and statements with dates, frequency, who was there etc.