A North Carolina restaurant dropped its discount for “praying in public” after an atheist group informed the establishment that such a practice is illegal.
In July, two customers received a discount for praying before their meal at Mary’s Gourmet Diner in Winston-Salem, N.C., and they posted a picture of their receipt on Facebook, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
After the receipt gained attention on Facebook and in the news, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the restaurant notifying the owners that such a discount was illegal.
On Wednesday, the diner posted a notice informing customers that they would no longer be offering the discount, noting that they had been threatened with a lawsuit.
I’m hearing from a lot of you about this prayer discount ending – keep your thoughts coming! @WFMY pic.twitter.com/ZoOrUDpUbu
— Morgan Hightower (@mchightower) August 6, 2014
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation told the Winston-Salem Journal that the group did not threaten to sue the restaurant, but informed the establishment that they had won cases in similar instances.
One of the co-owners of the restaurant, Mary Haglund, told the Winston-Salem Journal that the discount was a “bad choice of words,” and that it was intended to show appreciation for people with “an attitude of gratitude.”
… not to mention that if you need to pray before eating the foot … well, what does that say about the sanitary conditions?
How can a bribe for praying be a “bad choice of words”? This was not just about how they worded the discount offer.
The lord works in mysterious ways as the saying goes.
“We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”
H L Mencken
Wait till the Open Prayer activists hear about this…