Religion and captive audiences

[rlrose328]

My husband's coworker just did a great two-week cruise to the Galapagos and he used Alaskan Air.  On his way home, he found a piece of paper in his in-flight meal box.  It was a verse from Psalms and it had the Alaskan Air logo on it.  

So... would this bug you?  With the logo on it, it appears to be sanctioned by the company, unless one of the onboard employees made it and is passing it out on their own.

We have SCADS of miles with Alaskan Air which we wanted to use someday, but now we are reluctant.  Joe write a long email to the company asking if this message was distributed by the company or a lone employee (who should be sanctioned if this is the case).  While it does really bug me (feels like preaching to a captive audience), it's a private company and they can preach if they want to, even if people don't like it.

What do you think?

[Will]

Wait, was it sealed in the meal or just in an open-able box?

[rlrose328]

I don't know... I'll have to ask.

EDIT:  They had upgraded to first class and it was just on the tray that was served to them.

[McQ]

Did he have the chicken or the fish?

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Looked it up, and apparently they've doing that since the 70's. Now they only do it in first class because coach deosnt' get free meals.

It wouldn't bug me, I could simply choose not to read it. It would be another matter if they, say, piped in readings of the bible over the intercom.

[rlrose328]

I find it wrong and if it were some sort of pro-evolution thing on there, there would probably be boycotts of the airlines.  Look what happened when there was a pro-atheist sign on buses... the religious folks got all up in arms.  And if we say something about this, we're persecuting them.

We HAVE to take a stand before this country becomes a theocracy.

[Nazzer]

Don't forget that the atheist bus signs are a response to signs that said "Islam Means Peace."

[VanReal]

That makes me a little nervous, why are they including prayers with the meals....what's going on with their pilots?  

[raptor1770]

We HAVE to take a stand before this country becomes a theocracy.

I'm assuming that your talking about America in which case I'm afraid that our country already is a theocracy just not by definition. But when you have a president who uses his faith to make foreign policy decisions, you'd be hard pressed to explain how this countries government is truly non-theocratic.

On the subject of the airline, I feel that it is their right to say anything they want and it is the consumers right to not use said airline if they choose. They do not have a right to deny patronship based on religion and that would be a different story. I don't think that an airline providing a fortune cookie line along with their free meal really invades on our right to be free of religious pervasion. But like I said, it seems like a very subjective issue. If I was in the situation it wouldn't necasarily offend me but it would deffinatly second guess whether the pilot is interested in saving our lives in the event of a catastrophic mid air calamity or reaching nirvana.

I wonder how that airline explains its planes crashing? God was watching over Delta that day? Absolutly ridiculous.

[Twiddler]

I obviously understand why you are a little peeved about something like that as a fellow atheist, but at some point we all just need to block out some stuff.  I'm assuming that the company is privately owned and is not government property so it really isn't that big of a deal to me, I guess.  Now if it would be a government owned thing I would be a little more inclined to be bothered by it.