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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 21025
[Religious]
Date Posted:
8/12/2009
9:49:46 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 4,175
RSS: 28,055
Comments: 13
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Denny’s Diner Offers Special Discount To Churchgoers
Author: Jennifer Gold Source: Christian Today
Title: DENNY’S DINER OFFERS SPECIAL DISCOUNT TO CHURCHGOERS
A Texas branch of American diner chain Denny’s has been offering special discounts to its churchgoing customers in a drive to bring in more customers.
The branch has been offering a 10 per cent discount if churchgoers simply show a copy of their church’s Sunday service bulleting when they pay.
A number of disgruntled non-churchgoers, unable to take advantage of the discount, have accused the diner of religious discrimination.
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Community Thoughts: There are 13 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Public Accommodation - Civil Rights Act Violation | Aug 13th. at 7:05:07 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me - Web
I contacted Denny's Corporate, that refered me to their public relations agency. Lainey Johnson at Hill & Knowlton SAMCOR LLC promised to email me an official statement, for what turns out in this article to be a situation Randi Foundation members et al were noticing a month ago. That simple official corporate position turned out to be a bit different than Christianity Today's story, in a single sentence:
"The promotion has been discontinued."
Under the Federal Civil Rights Act, all restaurants and several other classes of businesses are defined as "public accommodations". That means that anyone entering those fields assumes certain quasi-government traits, and is not entitled to make arbitrary (nor maliciously bigoted) decisions as a private person may, if it results in discriminatory treatment of persons over protected criteria that include race, religion, etc. In some states every business dealing with the public is so classified, far more broadly than Federal law. Also in many states, marital status, sexual orientation, and similar traits are protected criteria, that arguably must be in Federal law too under Constitutional theory, but not yet under statutory or regulatory process.
Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states:
TITLE II--INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION
SEC. 201. (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.
[Web LINK]
[Web LINK]
Equal enjoyment of privileges or advantages is a far broader legal requirement for ethical business practices, than merely not refusing to serve blacks or issue credit card merchant accounts to pagan businesses. It defines as a violation of civil rights, discriminatory extension of perks that in and of themselves are not rights.
Annie Gaylor at Freedom From Religion Foundation, and often local ACLU chapters, tend to be interested in cases like this, and the others mentioned in this religious news article with its slant that illegal discrimination is desirable in their view. Denny's corporate clearly does not tolerate franchisees found blatantly violating Federal law.
In the Papa John's case mentioned in the article, the cited church no longer has the coupon on its Web site, but it was cached in search engines. I located the restaurant, whose manager told me the church discount was still active, and why he thought it was legal since anyone could get some church's bulletin, and they had other better discounts for customers not requiring church involvement. Escalating to District Manager Terry Reasner, I was asked to forward a copy of the law (as if that level in a large national chain doesn't proactively train senior exec's?) , but expect that based on my voice discussion, email, and copying that to Freedom From Religion Foundation's legal department and President Annie Gaylor, the scofflaw local franchise will likely change its illegal practices without litigation or further corporate escalation.
[Web LINK]
2206 East Hill Avenue Valdosta, GA 31601 PH: 229-245-8188
Google cache:
Southland Church - Community Bulletin Board
PAPA JOHN'S PIZZA Bring your church bulletin on Sunday and get 15% off your entire carry out order. 2139 Bemiss Rd., Valdosta, 241-1000.
Papa John's #1002 Valdosta, GA 31602 (229) 241-1000
[Web LINK]
About half way down this page is discussion of quirks of enforcing a Maryland law against a baseball team, and how messy fine print can be over interpretation of details. That case resulted in an out of court settlement and an end to practices that favored corporate church attendees over atheists, solitaries, and religion over non-religion, which bias is equally illegal as favoring one sect over another, or one race over another. In Maryland, state law has far broader than Federal definitions of "public accommodation", but far narrower applications of protections, to restrict outright denial of service, but not always require full equal treatment of protected classes. Both state and Federal laws must be obeyed, in effect requiring the most extensive applications of both as the obligation of affected businesses.
In another case, a friend of James Dobson of the Focus on the Family evil empire was ordered by New Jersey courts to end discrimination against people who didn't meet their bigotry and hate cult values, especially including gays and lesbians, in practices of the "e-disHarmony" dating disservice. It's hard to imagine g/l/b/etc's patronizing rather than boycotting the less exclusionary dating service that court order required them to develop, but that is a strong example of what can be illegal and not a right of privately owned businesses, in a jurisdiction with comprehensive protected criteria and defining all businesses dealing with the public rather than just select business sectors as "public accommodations". Another large online dating service with a more vibrant and colorful user community, based in NYC and free (for real, not just as a sign up hook) , offers a "rejected by e-Harmonica" test as a badge of honor for users.
OK, further research time. Jeffrey Wagg at James Randi's bright thinkers oriented educational foundation did some work on these issues, that expands on a few asides of this article. Some of those mentions are old, but working from Jeff's links and a little additional new work, there are some non-chain restaurants also needing a tweak to obey the law.
[Web LINK]
[Web LINK]
Sunday lunch goers: bring your church bulletin to Tokyo Japanese Grill & Sushi from 11:00-3:30 pm on Sundays and receive 10% off your meal. At the end of the month the church from which the restaurant has collected the most bulletins will receive a cash donation from Tokyo Japanese Grill and Sushi.
Tokyo Grill King Llc
607 S Main St King, NC 2702 (336) 985-6440
It seems owner Frankie Whalean is well intentioned, unlike many in Bible belt regions, but simply lacks familiarity with the law. He promised in two voice calls to discuss the email of legal details I sent with counsel by next week, and comply.
[Web LINK]
[Web LINK]
Sundays - Bring your Church Bulletin and receive a 20% discount for lunch! (11 am to 2 pm)
El Jarrito Mexican Restaurant
21724 Highland Knolls - Katy, Texas 77450
Phone: (281) 579-8844 11:00 am to 9:30 pm 7 days
Email: eljarritorest@att.net
Owner Mr. Gill was unavailable for voice discussion, but the manager on duty suggested emailing legal info. We'll see what happens there in Katy Texas.
Anyone else spot any more such scofflaws, whether by intent or negligence? There are likely many around, some with local owners needing reminders, and others as national chains with deficient employees needing our help being prodded into compliance with nondiscrimination law. Sometimes a few phone calls or emails can make a difference, without bringing in available outside legal help. In cases of litigation, the scofflaw business can generally be ordered to pay the legal fees of any organization that litigates for court ordered compliance.
This is a serious issue for pagans, as many of us are religious solitaries or parts of unincorporated groups. That places us in the same boat as atheists and others with nonreligious identities, as to the importance of seeing that public accommodations obey the law in full.
Find More info -- HERE
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| Live And Let Live | Aug 13th. at 10:49:49 am EDT
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Sr. Attara (Grand Prairie, Texas) - Email Me
Good gracious, all this fuss because some waffle joint wants to bring in the sunday crowd? Most of the Texas Denny's I've ever seen are located in fast access areas for morning commuters, so it makes sense that their business is probably slower on weekends. As long and there is no refusal to serve non-bulletin toting customers, what's the problem? Isn't it about time that we, as a community of free-thinkers, get over seeing the "Christian Conspiracy Against Us" hiding under every rock and shrub? Obviously mainstream fear and suspicion concerning our viewpoints haven't evaporated completely, but I refuse to believe that the Corporate management of Denny's is leading a vanguard of pagan persecution by sell discounted brunches to sunday christian church-goers. As Charlie Brown would say, "Good Grief."
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| Spiritualists Too? | Aug 13th. at 8:45:44 am EDT
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David Mehling (Anderson, Indiana) - Email Me
Denny's is a private company and they should be able to offer discounts to whomever they want as long as they dont refuse service based on race, religion (wearing pentacle etc) , same sex couple etc. There is a Denny's in this area in Chesterfield, IN just off I 69. Only a few miles away in the same town is Camp Chesterfield, a spiritualist church which has been there over 100 years. I wonder if I attended services there some Sunday (Ive been curious to try it) and ate at Denny's afterwards bringing in a bulletin, would they give me the discount and donate to Indiana Spiritualists as well? But the article said Texas so all I can do is wonder.
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| And? | Aug 13th. at 8:05:42 am EDT
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Finn (San Marcos, Texas) - Email Me
I really don't see what the big deal is here? Dennys is offering people who attend a church service a discount to shore up their business. How is this different from bars that have a ladies night, or restaurants who give people wearing green a discount on St. Paddy's day? Grow up people. Everything isn't some weird Christian conspiracy. When you start seeing something "wrong" with basic advertising and stunts like this you have gone off the deep end.
What is even more telling about us as a group is not only do a fair number of us seem to resent and sense conspiracy behind this "evil plot" to sell more eggs and bacon, but apparently our first thought beyond that is how to con/work the system. Let's talk about making up fake church service brochures or try and bait lawsuits. Let's talk about how "dumb" the poor working-slob saps are that work at Dennys. This behavior shows us all in such a good light. I'm just so damn proud. Right.
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| I Agree.... | Aug 12th. at 4:34:47 pm EDT
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Corax (Glendale, Arizona) - Email Me
Make up a realistic- looking phony PAGAN "church bulletin" with some vague-sounding church name like "Church of the Four Winds" or "Elemental Church of Nature", "or even Church of Rocket-Scientology", etc.
Since the people working for Dennys are not exactly rocket-scientists themselves, I strongly doubt whether any of them will even notice, and even fewer will give a rat's ass one way or the other. If any of them DO raise some kind of objection, there will be an avalanche of religious discrimination lawsuits. Not to mention a bunch of pissed-off Pagans hexing the restaurant!
Fundyism is a sickness of the mind, and the sooner we're rid of it, the better off we'll all be!
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| I Think... | Aug 12th. at 2:33:53 pm EDT
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Rosemary (Oneonta, New York) - Email Me
...people are going to make a bigger deal out of this than it really is. I hope that if it really does indeed disturb people that instead of complaining on internet forums they actually write to the corporation or their senators.
Given the area, I'm not surprised. Really. Christians in Texas? Who would have thunk?
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| No Problemo | Aug 12th. at 1:51:32 pm EDT
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me
Last time I ate at Denny's I could barely keep it down. I was half the way to vegetarianism, and just something about that ice cream scoop they rest on bleach towels to carve out what you HOPE is just a disturbing amount of butter for every breakfast--well, they will never get rich off of me. I did used to like the exotic International House of Pancakes, but now they've cashed in on their own moniker (IHOP) . It doesn't look the same, or feel the same. It wasn't ever necessarily good, just a place to scarf coffee and have someone else fix you waffles. Places like that are perfect for the independent young, the very old, cops and street people and such. I have no problem with them tipping their hat to the Sunday crowd. Those people are pretty harmless. They sleep through service and are not really in God's Army, you know. It's just a social thing.
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| Denny's. . . | Aug 12th. at 12:44:20 pm EDT
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Dynnys Derwydd (Lubbock, Texas) - Email Me
. . .is a private company who can do as it wishes. As long as they don't refuse to serve people of other religious faiths then this particular restaurant is doing nothing wrong.
A local Denny's host an art group every week and has given them a discount on food and beverages. Should this Denny's get in trouble for not offering the discount to the other patrons?
Gnothi Seauton
Honi soit qui mal y pense,
Dynnys Derwydd
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| There Is Another Way....... | Aug 12th. at 12:34:59 pm EDT
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huckster (Dunnellon, Florida) - Email Me
to play with their little minds. Since most people have computers. Type up your own bulletin For your Coven or even if you are a solitaire. Don't forget to really make it look good. Not only will you get the 10% off but your Coven will get 10% of your bill. Then if they refuse to honor their ad .........here comes the lawsuits for religious discrimination. That would be interesting to watch. Denny's already has a reputation for discrimination against blacks.
Bright Blessings To All
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| Well... | Aug 12th. at 11:51:31 am EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
I won't be eating at that Denny's anytime soon. Using a church to fleece the sheep for dinner--- how unoriginal and tacky.
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| Private Businesses | Aug 12th. at 11:46:28 am EDT
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Lady Feyline (Gardner, Massachusetts) - Email Me
Although it's definitely playing to the religious masses, I don't see how anyone can bring legal action. It's a private business and as such, can do as it pleases. We can disagree, but all we can do as recourse is complain and/or not patronize the business. Quite honestly, if enough people take this action, it should bring a change anyway. They said it themselves, it's all about getting MORE BUSINESS. If, as a result of their actions they LOSE enough business, they'll change their promotions.
Yes, the owners and/or corporate may not-so-subtly be encouraging people to attend church services, but in the end it's all about the almighty dollar above all....BELIEVE IT. :)
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| Bribery? More Like Specializing. | Aug 12th. at 11:33:48 am EDT
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Batman (Madison, Wisconsin) - Email Me
This reeks of prejucicial treatment. Wait for the lawsuit. This is highly suspicious too. I'd love to see a fact sheet on the owner (s) of Denny's Corp. I'd lay money on what I think is going on.
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| It Is More Than A Discount | Aug 12th. at 11:00:11 am EDT
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Twig (Orlando, Florida) - Email Me
There is also a 10% contribution to the church on the bulletin -- enlarge the photo of the notice to see this. Wow -- bribing people to go to church, sigh.
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