gregawilson

[gregawilson]

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RELIGION & BUSINESS – CAN THE TWO COEXIST?

On Wednesday, February 14th, 2018 Nikolas Jacob Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and proceeded to methodically kill 17 people. This senseless, debased, and cowardly act has the nation currently in and rightfully so in an uproar. People all across our country are upset about this act of violence. While we have the right to feel the way that we do, is it necessary to separate faith, religion, and our personal worldviews from business?

I, like everyone else who felt pain, disappointment, and helplessness took to social media and made a post. The post that I made was on the business Instagram page for Connections Small Business Journal. ………….After posting the image and doing my normal series of #hasttags, the post immediately began to gain a certain level of traction. The majority of the comments were overwhelmingly positive and led to additional conversation, that is still available for review under that specific post. On the other hand, there was one post that completely troubled me the wrong way and has quite honestly become the renewed motivation for this particular blog post. I label it has a “renewed motivation” because for years I have asked this question, can religion and business coexist?

We must understand that mixing or combining business and religion is not something that should be viewed as uncommon. It has for years been interwoven into the very fabric of our society. It has, however, in many regards, become an argument that has found its way to the forefront of discussion and debate. While The Constitution of the United States does allow liberties for all people, the constitution doesn’t in any shape form or fashion shield businesses from the aftermath of making the decision to incorporate religion into the way it decides to conduct business.

One of the greatest and immediately seen areas that a business is affected by taking a publicly hard-nosed position on religion is in terms of revenue. A recent example of this that was very public was the small business in Denver, Colorado who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple based on his religious belief. The cake baker who was well within his constitutional rights of excising his free speech was immediately sued by the gay couple who also were well within their constitutional rights. Small business owners must choose how they want to incorporate their faith into the company that they own.

Incorporating religion into business can also lead to a reduction in the target market for the small businesses. If the target market for a particular business reflects a more secular clientele, then introducing religion into the business plan or business model could potentially alienate the business from the target market that it is attempting to reach. There are individuals that have a complete aversion to religion and purposely go out of their way to avoid supporting in any shape form or fashion businesses that they feel that religion is “sold to them”, along with the product or service that they initially wanted. A few years ago Chic-Fil-A made a hard-nosed stance on gay marriage. Immediately this stance was met with opposition from the LGBT community. It also was equally supported by “anti-gay” groups. What was the end result of that decision? Was it worth it? Would it be worth it for your small business? According to an article in Forbes Magazine,  CEO of Chic-Fil-A Dan Cathy — an evangelical Christian — says he made a mistake. According to the article, Cathy admitted his anti-equality stance probably wasn’t a wise business decision, regretting “making the company a symbol in the marriage debate”.

So when I made the decision as a business owner to post my religious beliefs in a social media post in response to the recent tragedy in Parkland, FL was I wrong? Not necessarily so. I do however believe that focusing on the things that are immediately under my area of influence would be a better way for me to exercise my faith. Community involvement, partnerships, and volunteer work under my personal name and business name would be more productive than a religious debate aired in my business social media feed.

Let me know your thoughts.

– Greg

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