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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

God-bothering at work

456 replies

WhereToSheNow · 25/10/2015 15:40

New MD hired his buddy/neighbour 6 months ago for a few hours a week to act as a Management Consultant.

The Management Consultant, who we call "Pokey" (because he keeps jabbing us in the arm) has some sort of official capacity within the Baptist Church, and his website is all about the application of his faith within business.

I didn't have a problem with that, as he hadn't mentioned religion.... until last week.

He attended a "World Leadership Course" and emailed us his notes, with several quotes about God and Jesus, telling us to read them and "feel free to ask any questions". In a meeting the following day, he asked us what we thought of his email.

I told him that I don't want to be included in emails that reference any religion/god, at which point he became very defensive.

Later that day I received another email where he said that he was sorry if the contents of his previous email had offended me, but that he hoped I would gain some insight that would assist me in my professional or personal life.

AIBU to think that my work should a) be a secular space and b) my personal life is none of his business!

OP posts:
StarkyTheDirewolf · 27/10/2015 16:25

My hand is up for being a Christian woman lorelei9 and the only person I feel goaded, judged and mocked by is loveandhate ! Funny that!

BathshebaDarkstone · 27/10/2015 16:25

I would find it so hard not to say "ODFOD." I'm a pagan and I don't need converting. Angry

limitedperiodonly · 27/10/2015 16:47

Lweji that's good. I'm going to dodge work by telling parables of the horror I used to work with.

Warning: this one is long.

I'm going to call her A because to call her GodSquad, which is what we did call her, would be insulting to the millions of lovely Christians and other people of faith out there. But we did call her that. In our defence, we were sorely tested and we were weak. For that we will face the fiery pits.

I think A had differing scores according to people she could convert, a bit like a celestial game of darts.

I was a woman taken in sin, there was a gay man but the bullseye would have been the Jewish girl. Triple top for her extended family.

A's non-Jewish stepfather had cancer. She'd talked about it lots and it was clear that it was very serious indeed. She came in one day to say that his bone marrow transplant, their last hope, hadn't worked.

We said the things you would expect and then A said: 'I will pray for you and for him and your mother. There's a church I know of near you and I've asked them to include you in their prayers too.'

We were all extremely humbled and ashamed. Like I said, she'd done so much that it's fair to say everyone hated her guts, but this was a lovely thing to say and we felt really shitty.

The Jewish girl, who I'm going to call B, was close to tears at this.

She said: 'A, we've never been friends, but thank you. I'm going to tell my mum and step-dad about you. It means so much.'

A then gave B the address of the church and opening times and said that they'd be expecting her.

B said, in that kind of jokey way that Jewish people are renowned for Wink: 'I don't know whether you've ever noticed, but I'm Jewish.'

She even did a comedy north London Jewish accent and waggled her hands. It was funny, even though she was crying.

A said: 'Yes, I know, but this is the church.'

B said, a bit puzzled: 'That's really nice of you A, but as I said, we're Jewish and if we were religious we would go to a synagogue. But we're not. My mum and he preferred to put their faith in the doctors and so do I. It hasn't worked out.'

A asked: 'So you're not going to go?' and B said: 'No.'

A then said: 'We'll continue to pray for your stepfather but if you don't go...' Shock

I don't know how B kept her hands off her.

Her stepfather died. Just as A foretold.

MyCircusMyMonkeys · 27/10/2015 16:53

LoveAndHate, do you believe a significant number of people in this country are unaware of Christianity's message?

In what sense is evangelism necessary in this country where the Queen is head of the church and bishops sit in the House of Lords?

I'm just saying, it sort of seems the job's been done for you already.

GruntledOne · 27/10/2015 17:39

Where on earth do you get the perception that atheists "hate the notion of Christ the living God", LoveAndHate? Speaking for myself, I'm utterly indifferent to it. There is no god, therefore there is not and never has been a living god, but it makes no difference whatsoever to me if you think there has. This idea that we're all going round seething with hatred somehow reminds me of claig's conviction that we're also going round quaking with terror about Farage and Trump. Frankly, I've got better things to do.

WhereToSheNow · 27/10/2015 18:25

LoveandHate your opinions make you and your faith sound ugly. If you're meant to be evangelising, you're making a shit job of it.

OP posts:
HopefulAnxiety · 27/10/2015 19:51

LoveandHate people hate you, not Christians generally or God.

HopefulAnxiety · 27/10/2015 19:53

Also what a surprise that LoveandHate doesn't consider me to be a real Christian.

Lweji · 27/10/2015 19:56

Does anybody actually hate her?

I feel mostly sad that she seems to have all this anger inside and annoyed at some of the posts.
I don't even think I actually hate anyone. Not even my exH.

noeffingidea · 27/10/2015 20:02

I don't hate her at all. But anyone who attempts to evangelise me only gets one chance. First time it's a polite 'not interested, thank you'. After that, it's a less polite 'fuck off'.

HopefulAnxiety · 27/10/2015 20:09

Lweji well no, but certainly hating what she's saying as opposed to hating what all Christians say/hating God.

StarkyTheDirewolf · 27/10/2015 20:29

I don't hate her, but i would find the attitude VERY hard to project "Christian love" upon. It would be incredibly wearing to have to deal with regularly in RL and I wouldn't engage with a person who thought and acted within such tight constraints of "what is Christian" when hellfire and damnation (as it were) were poured upon on anyone holding a differing viewpoint. It's not the sort of Christianity I would want any part of.

hairbrushbedhair · 27/10/2015 20:38

I def don't hate her. I feel huge sympathy for her tbh but I also do want to roll my eyes and need to take a deep breath each time she posts another judgemental comment

Bigoldsupermoon0 · 27/10/2015 20:44

Not RTFT in its entirety but am I the only one thinking God's probably a bit embarrassed right now? He's supposed to be the all-powerful and he still gets all the awkward weirdos fighting his corner, worse still, when they're supposed to be working.

/awks

hairbrushbedhair · 27/10/2015 21:10

Btw been wondering all day who's the woman she put a pic up of?

Lweji · 27/10/2015 21:12

Couldn't find it on Google. I hope it's not her...

RaspberryOverload · 27/10/2015 21:13

I don't hate LoveAndHate, but I do feel sorry for her.

She seems to have a very narrow viewpoint and is making assumptions.

I'm an atheist, I don't hate Christians, and work to the idea that each to their own beliefs, just don't try to convert me. There is no god, so how can I "hate the notion of Christ the living God". I don't hate what doesn't exist.

I'm also sorry that this has rather taken over the OP's thread, as she had genuine concerns. I would be politely requesting (initially at least) that religion is kept out of the work, and also making sure that the poking stopped immediately.

HopefulAnxiety · 27/10/2015 21:20

I don't hate her either really - I am just somewhat Hmm Shock Angry at me and others here being accused of not really being Christians because we're not full of enough bile.

AyeAmarok · 27/10/2015 21:42

Grin The OP reminded me of a very devious and innocuous "Christian" I went out with. He made me rather dislike Christianity as a whole.

Sometimes I feel that's a bit harsh of me and I should be more open minded.

Then I saw LoveAndHate's post and will now retreat back into my "All people who insist on Spreading The Word, even when they are expressly asked not to, are nutjobs" and feel vindicated.

I must say, I'm LOVING the penis comparison upthread.

hairbrushbedhair · 27/10/2015 21:56

I hope she hasn't outed herself, I reported it but MN aren't going to remove unless she requests so herself

Feel rather concerned for her now

It has to be her though doesn't it? You wouldn't just post a random woman would you?

BertrandRussell · 27/10/2015 22:02

Does it matter? Lots of people post pictures of themselves on Mumsnet. And presumably if she's real she says the same sort of stuff in real life that she says on here?

hairbrushbedhair · 27/10/2015 22:10

Do they?!

How have I missed that?

Oh. Fair enough I guess

BertrandRussell · 27/10/2015 22:17

Loads of them on Style and Beauty! And on people's profiles.

But that's not LoveandHate. I guarantee it.

BelindaBagwash · 27/10/2015 22:26

WyldChyld

I'm so glad you stated this -

Are your clothes of mixed fibre? Do you keep kosher? Have you a 'blemish' - a flat nose, blindness, lameness, scurvy, a scab, a broken bone - because if you do, you shouldn't go to church? Have you shared your two shirts with all who have none? Have you never uttered any kind of obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joke?

These are exactly the kind of points I wanted to make to LoveAndHate but got no response from her. Back in biblical times people had to evangelise in order to spread the word. Nowadays there are lots of ways for people to find out.

BigChocFrenzy · 27/10/2015 22:44

Of course nobody should be deliberately touching anyone else without permission. Amazing, assuming he's more than 12 years old, that he hasn't learned that yet.

A colleague going on about religion at work is a nuisance, but a "Consultant" brought in by the MD to do so is unacceptable, because of the power that your boss has to ruin your career, or even sack you.
That is oppressive and religious harassment.
Not just for agnostics / atheists.
What if someone at work has very different religious beliefs, is jewish, muslim, hindu ? They've probably been told theirs is the only way, too.

If would also be offensive if the Consultant was brought in to spread political views, to convert people to Labour, Tory, Green, whatever.
Or to persuade everyone to join WeightWatchers or a yoga course.
All of this is intrusion into the private lives of employees, which is BVVU.