Sinning in the Workplace

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Harley_Angel

Guest
#1
#1
Question is, I know we aren't supposed to help a person sin, or accomadate their sinning, but does that mean say, if you work at a bar, you can't let someone drink too much, or if you work at an icecream store (like me) you shouldn't try to upsell a bigger size to someone who is obese. What if you work some place that sells lottery tickets to people you know are addicted, should we sell cigarettes and alcohol and other non-vital things to homeless people who need food?

Also, let us keep in mind, when you give out free product to your friends and family when you aren't supposed to, you are STEALING. When you grab a french fry you aren't supposed to eat out of the fryer, fill you cup with soda instead of water without paying for it, take that pen, paperclip, or post it pad without asking, it's STEALING. No matter how small, or how low in cost, or inconsequential it may seem to society, taking without permission is stealing.
 
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concernedguy

Guest
#2
#2
Harley_Angel said:
Question is, I know we aren't supposed to help a person sin, or accomadate their sinning, but does that mean say, if you work at a bar, you can't let someone drink too much, or if you work at an icecream store (like me) you shouldn't try to upsell a bigger size to someone who is obese. What if you work some place that sells lottery tickets to people you know are addicted, should we sell cigarettes and alcohol and other non-vital things to homeless people who need food?

Also, let us keep in mind, when you give out free product to your friends and family when you aren't supposed to, you are STEALING. When you grab a french fry you aren't supposed to eat out of the fryer, fill you cup with soda instead of water without paying for it, take that pen, paperclip, or post it pad without asking, it's STEALING. No matter how small, or how low in cost, or inconsequential it may seem to society, taking without permission is stealing.
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I can't see any reason for a Christian to work at a bar.

As far as up sell someone who is overweight a larger ice cream, if you have to ask you already know
its wrong. You are just looking for others to approve it so you think its ok. By doing so you may become
a stumbling block to that person who unknown to you may be your brother or sister in Christ.

The selling of lottery tickets is wrong in any sense. It takes advantage of low income individuals that
may see the lottery as their only way out. The lottery is based on many losing so one can win. Its
not a fair system and harms many and has destroyed thousands of families.

Your second paragraph is the description of a criminal that has not been caught yet. I hope no
Christians are doing those things. God would most certainly not be pleased.
 
I

iraasuup

Guest
#3
#3
Interesting.

I worked at a supermarket for 10 years, and we sold cigarettes, it wasn't my choice to be able to refuse the sale. If the customer asked for it, had ID and had the money, then I HAD to supply it.

I then worked in pharmacy. Even though there are restrictions in place to try and prevent it, you will always get people come in who are drug-dependant (on over-the counter products). That is really hard to get around in some cases.

Accusing all people who work in such an environment as sinners, is pretty judgemental don't you think?
 
pickles

pickles

Senior Member
#4
Apr 20, 2009
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#4
Since I am a stay at home mom, my work place. I was confronted with what a few other moms were doing. This was when I was much younger ,but some would drink, another was having an affair. I felt trapped as to reviel would bring alot of harm to so many. But doing nothing I felt a part of the sin. The drinkers, I tried to promote how I believed drinking was destructive. The one having the affair, I realised she would not change, she was preditory. So I spoke to the man, he was married himself. Their were issues in his marriage but I spent time telling him the steps to healing. Thankfully he sought help and their marraige is solid now. The woman that was preditory, moved away, leaving her family behind.The biggest lesson I learned was that sometimes by doing nothing you sin. It is still always difficult to know what to do but even if it is praying that is a step away from the sin.
God bless, pickles
 
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concernedguy

Guest
#5
#5
pickles said:
Since I am a stay at home mom, my work place. I was confronted with what a few other moms were doing. This was when I was much younger ,but some would drink, another was having an affair. I felt trapped as to reviel would bring alot of harm to so many. But doing nothing I felt a part of the sin. The drinkers, I tried to promote how I believed drinking was destructive. The one having the affair, I realised she would not change, she was preditory. So I spoke to the man, he was married himself. Their were issues in his marriage but I spent time telling him the steps to healing. Thankfully he sought help and their marraige is solid now. The woman that was preditory, moved away, leaving her family behind.The biggest lesson I learned was that sometimes by doing nothing you sin. It is still always difficult to know what to do but even if it is praying that is a step away from the sin.
God bless, pickles
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It is difficult to maintain a Godly lifestyle when many businesses sell items you may not approve of as
a Christian. The usual items like smoking and alcohol they will buy no matter who is working there. I
have a personal issue with lottery tickets since the lottery robs hundreds to pay one person.
Studies have proven the main purchasers of lottery tickets are the low income and many are not
well educated so they see the lottery as their way out. But they don't realize the $5 - $20 winning
tickets they receive are ploys to get them to spend more. For every $10 the lottery allows a
person to win, statistics show they earn back $20 - $50. Those not educated on how the lottery
uses these ploys to entrap those that are weaker have been known to spend their paychecks
buying lottery tickets because they are convinced they will win a lot of money but are unaware
that the odds of hitting a big win are over 40,000:1 making it almost impossible to win.

I know people that can barely pay their bills but because they don't understand the lottery and
think they will get rich, they hurt their family by using money needed by their family to buy lottery
tickets. There is legislation by some states to ban lotteries because of the destructive effect
they have on families mostly composed of low income, not well educated individuals.

My comment about lottery tickets above was a general comment about the lottery and not anyone
working where lottery tickets are sold. Just like alcohol and smoking, they will buy these and lottery
tickets regardless of who is working there.
It is a shame that the lottery is so focused on running the lottery scam that many families are
destroyed and children are going hungry due to their parent's addiction to buying lottery tickets.

I have never bought a lottery ticket. I can not support the abuse of the less educated by stealing
their money and the tens of thousands of hungry children that go without due to their parents
obsession with buying lottery tickets. Lottery tickets are just a different spin to use gambling to
rob those that will not usually gamble because they don't have the money to lose but do not
realize the lottery is gambling in another form that disarms their protective mechanism that
would usually stop them from gambling if it were blatant gambling.

Once you are near a family being destroyed by lottery tickets and watch with your own eyes the
destruction it brings and the struggle it places on innocent children that cry for food from parents
that are obsessed with the lottery, you will never see the lottery as just a game any longer. It
is a destructive force that words struggle to describe. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand
words. But once you see the destructive force of the lottery destroying a family, those pictures
say much more than a thousand words and haunt you for a long time.
 
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Maddog

Guest
#6
#6
There is nothing intrinsically immoral about selling these items to the public, and I wouldn't want to refuse to sell an ice cream to someone just because I thought they were fat. We might think 'it's for their own good' but it's really not your job, nor your place to make that judgement.

If you work behind a bar, I'd have thought most places train you to serve responsibly (ie. it's part of your job to refuse to serve someone who's legless).

As a general rule, I'd say that if you have moral convictions against something your job requires of you then just don't work there. Otherwise, you have a duty to your employer to work according to your agreements.
 
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concernedguy

Guest
#7
#7
Maddog said:
There is nothing intrinsically immoral about selling these items to the public, and I wouldn't want to refuse to sell an ice cream to someone just because I thought they were fat. We might think 'it's for their own good' but it's really not your job, nor your place to make that judgement.

If you work behind a bar, I'd have thought most places train you to serve responsibly (ie. it's part of your job to refuse to serve someone who's legless).

As a general rule, I'd say that if you have moral convictions against something your job requires of you then just don't work there. Otherwise, you have a duty to your employer to work according to your agreements.
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I can't understand how any Christian can work in a bar and think God approves. Alcohol is liquid
sin and destruction. Alcohol kills more people every year than all criminal crimes combined.

My point is how can a person serve alcohol to those that may kill someone on their way home,
beat their wife and/or kids when they get home or have kids starving while they feed their
alcohol addiction. There is nothing good about alcohol. How can a Christian justify working in
a bar that sells only the devil's products that are extremely destructive to marriages, families
and harms tens of thousands of kids each year. This does not include the hundreds of wives
and children murdered by the drunk parents in a fit of drunken rage each year.

How can a Christian serve the devil's destruction and follow Christ command to not harm others?
This seems to have only one obvious answer to me. But I in my experience, many will rationalize
anything as long as it benefits them. Afterall, they aren't responsible for the actions of another!
Or are they as a follower of Christ?

I understand they would most likely buy the alcohol if you didn't work there. But at least then you
are not a party to the destruction and destroyed families it causes.

You can easily decide if its right or wrong by asking yourself two questions:
Can you see Jesus doing this?

Can you see Jesus in the bar preaching redemption while selling destruction to His Children?
 
M

Maddog

Guest
#8
#8
There is nothing wrong with alcohol in and of itself. 'Liquid sin' my foot.
 
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concernedguy

Guest
#9
#9
Maddog said:
There is nothing wrong with alcohol in and of itself. 'Liquid sin' my foot.
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You are right in a sense. But I have two friends killed by alcohol. I myself was almost killed
by a drunk. The inability of humans to use alcohol responsibly kills thousands each year.
The thousands of innocent kids robbed of their parents by alcohol due to a drunk driver
would not agree with you. I don't even drink but alcohol almost killed me.

Alcohol may not be liquid sin. But it as close as one can come while on this earth. Till the
destructive force of alcohol impacts you or those you care about, you may never see it as
the weapon it is. I pray you never go through what I have just because of alcohol
someone drank.
 
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Harley_Angel

Guest
#10
#10
You know, my priest actually held our confirmation classes in a bar. We had a beer or two each, relaxed, were able to talk openly and comfortably and it was nice. Bars aren't anti-christian. there are tons of people who are able to spend tiem with their friends and families and not get drunk at a bar. I've seen more drunks at a house party than I ever have in a bar, and nobody thinks going to a house is bad. God tells us to do all things in moderation. Drinking isn't a sin, drunkeness is. I do think bars should all have "cut off limits" as in, you may have 3 drinks whether it be liquor, beer, or wine, and then you are done.

Also Iraa, I'm not accusing anybody of being a sinner. I'm asking if it's sinful to accomadate someone a stumbling block just because you are employed. What Maddog says is true though, it's probably best to work someplace where you aren't putting those stumbling blocks in front of people, so that you can be the best employee you can be.
 
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concernedguy

Guest
#11
#11
Harley_Angel said:
You know, my priest actually held our confirmation classes in a bar. We had a beer or two each, relaxed, were able to talk openly and comfortably and it was nice. Bars aren't anti-christian. there are tons of people who are able to spend tiem with their friends and families and not get drunk at a bar. I've seen more drunks at a house party than I ever have in a bar, and nobody thinks going to a house is bad. God tells us to do all things in moderation. Drinking isn't a sin, drunkeness is. I do think bars should all have "cut off limits" as in, you may have 3 drinks whether it be liquor, beer, or wine, and then you are done.

Also Iraa, I'm not accusing anybody of being a sinner. I'm asking if it's sinful to accomadate someone a stumbling block just because you are employed. What Maddog says is true though, it's probably best to work someplace where you aren't putting those stumbling blocks in front of people, so that you can be the best employee you can be.
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My only point is that if you are drinking like them or just hanging out, it doesn't say much for a Christian
when there are hundreds of better places to hang out but their choice is a bar. If you don't set yourself
a part from this world, how will they ever be able to know you are a Christian or are different if
they see you doing the things they do?
Its just not a good witness for Christ.

As a Christian, perception means a lot.
 
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Harley_Angel

Guest
#12
#12
You are also setting an example, Concerned. We can make everything about us falling into the ways of the world, and focus on negative things, but also remember, we can do positive things in this world. What does it look like when a group of Christians are able to have fellowship and a good time together in a bar without getting drunk? It sets an example that you can have a great time without getting drunk, and that Christians aren't the stuffy hodge podgy group of people who are constantly putting their nose up in the air. You're making Christianity look a lot more comfortable and easy to approach than a lot of people think it is. So, not only are you opening yourself to an oppurtunity to lead by example, but you are showing people that there is more to being a Christian than being a judgemental snob who never leaves the Church.
 
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