Gelatogate (1/2)

| Sun 20 Nov 2011 | 26 Comments | 1531 Views

Author Emily Dietle

My focus is on state-church separation & social issues. I'm an avid reader, and feel that one of our most valuable tools is the free movement of information and ideas. | @emilyhasbooks

If you’ve been keeping up with Skepticon this weekend, you may have seen this image. In Springfield, Missouri, the owner of Gelato Mio took the time to write this sign and place it in the store’s window.

I want you to look at this sign. Read the words aloud. “Skepticon is NOT Welcomed to my Christian Business.” Why aren’t they welcomed? Well, the underlining of ‘Christian Business’ may give you a hint, and knowing that the audience of Skepticon consists largely of a variety of non-theists may also clue you in. It appears that Gelato Mio doesn’t want non-theists in their midst.

Let’s examine the sign, scratched boldly in red ink. First, ‘Skepticon’ is on its own line. An attempt to ensure Skepticon attendants notice the sign before entering? Next, look at ‘NOT’. It is written in all caps, the text version of shouting. Note the quantity of strokes needed to create such a bold font. This looks like it was written in anger, and it is underscored with two aggressive lines.

We move on to the last two words ‘Christian Business’, also both underlined for impact. The word ‘Business’ is barely squeezed onto the sign. Evidence of the haste and an eagerness to get the message out before the ‘others’ got in?

What would anger a person enough to make such a sign? Hundreds of extra visitors to your place of business, wanting tasty gelato? Critically thinking individuals entering your place of business? Or is it that the patrons were non-theists? By the underlining of ‘Christian Business’, my bets would be on the latter.

Andy, the owner of Gelato Mio, removed the sign and today issued an apology. I doubt the sincerity of his note and assume that someone pointed out his illegal action to refuse service based on his Christian criteria. Take note of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, 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.”

We cannot idly stand by and allow any bigotry to be allowed. By letting him slide with an apology, it makes his actions acceptable. It doesn’t matter if the sign was up for minutes, hours, or days. It is a fair estimation that the intent of this sign was to restrict patronage based on religious affiliation. The most effective way to ensure that business owners will not repeat/mimic such actions is through their wallet, and I support boycotting of this and any business that acts in a bigoted manner.

Here are three organizations working to protect our rights and keep the wall between Church & State: Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and American Atheists and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

See ‘Gelatogate (2/2)‘ for the reaction to Andy’s third apology >>>

See the Springfield News-Leader for another view

See Andy’s Post on Reddit

Comments on this post sparked: We Don’t Expect Perfection

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  • Andreas Egeland

    I really wonde rwhat was going through his head. How did he not realise this was so stupid and bound to cause him trouble down the road?

  • http://www.twitter.com/jmatheist john michael

    are atheists covered in the civil rights act of 1964? atheism is not a religion. i think his business should be boycotted by anyone who believes in civil rights. we’d be ensuring his place in his heaven, unless eating his icecream makes you so thin that you can squeez through the eye of a needle.

  • http://stevesommers.info Steve S

    I wonder what the event was that he witnessed that caused him to put up the sign?

  • tim

    He screwed up. He said sorry. Give him a pass and back off.

    Forgiveness is a humanist virtue

  • http://www.facebook.com/scott.weitzenhoffer Scott David Weitzenhoffer

    John Michael, the courts have established in a series of rulings that atheism be treated as a religion regarding the protections extended to religion.

    • http://www.twitter.com/jmatheist john michael

      Good. Thank you. I apologize for being too lazy to Google it. :)

  • http://twitter.com/Euan_B Euan (@Euan_B)

    He’s seen the error of his ways or been shown them, end result is that it’s corrected. Anything further is vengence. I see no good coming of a boycott.

  • Ben

    Excellent Job Emily! Thank you.

  • http://www.twitter.com/jmatheist john michael

    I’m sorry, if someone posted a note saying, “we won’t serve blacks in our white business,” the bigotry would be obvious. His knee jerk reaction was bigotry people. I’m sorry, I can walk a few extra blocks, burn off a few calories and give my money to someone who doesn’t harbor hatred for me, or at least hasn’t had a momentary lapse of reason to openly declare it. The bottom line is he’s sorry because it’s illegal. He did share his most personal thoughts, and I am not so desperate to eat where I know I am not welcome.

    I would like to suggest “crow flavor” to be added to their menu.

  • Mark

    The sign just saves skeptics from the trouble of knowing whether this is a business that should be boycotted or not! :)

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  • Lawbag

    Playing devil’s advocate, it does say Skepticon is not welcomed (sic), and not its attendees… :-)

  • John Eberhard

    Emily, I believe you nailed it with “I doubt the sincerity of his note ….”. His note says the sign was only up for a few minutes; however, it went up shortly after 9:00 p.m. Saturday night and came down Sunday morning near 11:00 a.m. Close enough to 14 hours. It appears that he chose to lie in order to do some damage control, not to apologize because of remorse or regret for his action and the bigotry that led to that action.
    Thank you for posting this.

  • http://www.GelatoMioUSA.com Andy

    I spent all day trying to get the word out on how sorry I am. I hope this explains (not excuses) why I did what I did. http://redd.it/mkw6h

    Best Regards,

    Andy-
    Gelato Mio

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  • http://www.atheistgeeknews.com The Atheist Geek (@TheAtheistGeek)

    It seems obvious that the very idea of Skepticon offended him deeply. A knee-jerk reaction indicates strong emotions, especially one that opens him up to a law suit. I also feel that the apology wasn’t sincere, but an act the owner did out of necessity and with just a little bit of resentment, too. His initial response to Emily’s post was brief, and required her to go elsewhere to actually see the apology. Of course, he may simply not be a very tech savvy person. The fact that he posted the sign for more than half a day and claims it was only a few minutes isn’t exactly encouraging, though.

    Even so, it might be a good idea to let the thing slide as far as legal actions go if only to show that we’re far more tolerant than he is. :-) If atheists and other Skepticon attendees want to boycott the place, or bring media attention to it, I wouldn’t be opposed. But to take it to the law…I don’t know. If I worked for him and was discriminated against, I might feel differently. But all he really did was post a boneheaded sign because his uber-Christian sensibilities were hurt. It’s tempting to slap down people like that, but is it smart?

    If it was a megalithic corporation that needed to be taught a lesson, that would be different. People would cheer because everyone’s tired of corporations bullying people. And it would set an example, proving that we can’t be pushed around and everyone would follow that example who had any sense–especially other megalithic entities.

    But picking on a small business owner like this would instantly get those involved a bad rap from the press. Actually, as it stands right now, it’s only newsworthy to we nonbelievers for the most part. (So far as I know, it hasn’t earned a mention on cable news.) If we retaliated, it would become newsworthy for an entirely different set of reasons. The whole thing would backfire, making atheist look bad, Skepticon look bad, so-called intellectuals look bad…etc. Wash, rinse, repeat. Merry Christmas to Fox News. Don’t you think?

    Yes, it would remind people that atheists have rights, too. But we have to pick our battles. How strong are the arguments that tell us to pick this one? My mind is open to being changed. Any other thoughts?

    In the meantime, just my 2 cents…or my dime, considering how long this is. :-) Sorry.

  • Diamond Dave Show

    Jesus Christ! What did you skepticon people do to this guy to cause such a schismatronic psychotic christian reaction. It’s not like people aren’t saying wild shit about the bible around Springfield all the time. There’s thousands of them. Seriously though, I think what happened to this guy needs to be studied and researched. Jolly good show I must say.

  • AmyLou Wilkins

    I feel I must post what we discussed the other evening, Emily, at least as best as I can remember. True, Andy did the wrong thing. He did break the law. As a Christian it can be difficult to deal with one’s own anger. This man obviously had a knee-jerk reaction that he should have thought and prayed about. Instead he acted out his frustration. All people get angry. It is a natural response to something we disagree with or despise, etc. As Christians we are supposed to love and pray for all who don’t know Jesus Christ. We are to be witnesses not just in words but in deeds. Non-Christians expect us to, I don’t know, be perfect. That is impossible as no one can do that. Many of you feel that Andy’s apology is a sham. None of you know his heart nor do I. I DO know that he missed out on a wonderful opportunity to share his faith with the skeptics and anyone else who might be searching. He blew it. Instead of showing the TRUE nature of Jesus Christ of unconditional love, Andy let his human anger get away from him. I would suggest that his apology be accepted and let a dialogue begin. When do we as humans stop and try to talk instead of sue, sue, sue? We have to start somewhere.

  • John Eberhard

    Excuse me for butting in, but that phrase is heard so much it has become one of the accepted “big lies” that needs to be addressed every time it is heard.

    “Non-Christians expect us to, I don’t know, be perfect.” No ma’am, we don’t. That is just plain old not true. We do hear that a LOT from Christians,though. Since so many Christians claim the moral high ground and advance the idea that atheists CANNOT be moral, a lot of us DO expect you-all to call out those of you who don’t live up to it, instead of defending them. Like, for instance, so many Catholics fail to call out the church but in fact defend how the church has tried to protect its reputation at the cost of abuse of children–children!– by not doing the right thing in regard to pedophile priests. Or, for instance, go to the Springfield News-Leader article on Gelatogate and note how many Christian commenters think Andy’s action was defensible…and how few Christians are on there saying it was wrong. No, ma’am, we don’t expect you to be perfect, but since you aren’t—anymore than we are—we do in fact get tired of hearing how much better than atheists you are when actions by Christians put the lie to those words.

    We observe how Christians attempt to institutionalize discrimination against atheists, homosexuals, and members of other religions. No, ma’am….we don’t expect Christians to be perfect, but we do wish that as a whole they would be a little less evil while smugly telling us how much better they are than us. I have heard the trite little, “We’re not perfect, just forgiven” as if it is a license to excuse every evil they can dream up, and the smug superiority with which it is always delivered is enough to gag a maggot.

    Especially, check out the lies and crap about Gelatogate on this radio program in Springfield: http://www.ksgf.com/podcasts/reedpodcast/134321563.html and their podcast “Atheist Civil Rights Are Not Protected Because They Do Not Believe in a God”. We don’t expect you all to be perfect, but we do hope for you to be less than rabid.

    Instead of “Non-Christians expect us to, I don’t know, be perfect”, here is a good place to start the dialogue you ask for: Resolved, Christians as a whole are no more perfect nor any less perfect than any other group, including atheists. Hopefully, you can see the difficulty with having dialogue until you are willing to put us on that kind of equal footing.

  • Katie Tims

    May the MSU Standard use this pic please?

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Category: Atheism & Religion, Church-State Separation