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Ahh now here is a post that can get me into some controversy. With the aid of black marks, hopefully not in any actual trouble.
So after another rather lengthy day at my job, I came home to this letter taped to my front door. Tired and not scanning ahead as I read like I typically do, my reaction was linear and surprising:
- The first line (which is blocked out) named the lawn care company they were. I thought tempting, keeping up on the yard is getting tedious
- I saw the hand-written advertisement for a $15 new customer special. I thought and affordable, too!
- I read "you have probably seen us in your neighborhood. For over 5 years we have been a local, Christian family owned and operated lawn care business. I would have done a spit take if I were drinking something.
I scanned over the rest of the letter but I kept coming back to that line right there, the line about being a Christian family owned and operated lawn care business. As if family owned and operated lawn care business wouldn't have had quite the same reaction. As if Atheist/Muslim/Jew/Hindu/Buddhist family owned and operated would have been notable to mention (and well, living in Detroit's suburbia, separated by race as it is, I suppose it might be of note).
Follow up:
The letter stuck in my head, and the question kept coming up to the forefront of my mind: Why? I don't care what religion you are. In a not even perfect world, in a decent enough world nobody should care what religion you are when you're conducting a business. Your religion should not be a selling point. Your religion should not be a marketing tool. When you're talking up your services for cutting the lawn, no where on that list should you list your religion. Sitting, standing, kneeling, and getting a mid-service snack & drink should have no impact whatsoever on your business model or your operating procedures and quality.
I wondered how many other homes this note was taped up on. I wondered if it was taped up on the other end of my street, where a few homes in a row are populated by people from India - and probably not Christian. I wonder what they would think of advertisements for a honest and trustworthy company - a Christian company!
I snapped back to a moment of sanity, if only briefly. Take a look around at where I live, in my sectioned off part of suburbia. It's white as far as the eye can see, in most directions. The first people here were the Italians and they were displaced by Germans and Poles. Other Western European-decent peoples moved up here as they fled Detroit and all things all shades of black. That was about forty years ago and it's been fairly stable here ever since (except for the more affluent ones who moved on to take part in the housing boom & now bust).
Still, who does that line exactly appeal to? Who out there gets that paper and thinks Well gee, a $15 first time cut sounds good, they seem like they do a lot, but I just don't quite know if I can trust them. I need something that solidifies that this is a reliable group of individuals. Who out there looks at this advertisement and thinks Hey, these people have the tacit backing of Jesus Christ himself! They MUST be worth it!
I don't feel insulted, more like rubbed the wrong way. I don't think it's a terrible thing to advertise in this way, just rather curious. I suppose that it works though, as most forms of advertisement don't stick around unless they're successful. God sells, I guess.
While today I can hardly be considered much of a religious person, I did have thirteen years of Roman Catholic schooling drilled deep into my skull, and I remember a few choice passages from the Bible - especially when it comes to one publicly expressing their religious affiliation. It goes a little like this:
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Not that cherry-picking Bible teachings is anything new, but this one especially makes me snicker a bit. More power to them if this gets them money from others though. We all have to make it somehow, I suppose.
Getting my gutters cleaned out is damned tempting, though.
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