Recite a Bible Verse and Get 50% Off Your Car's Oil Change: Righteous Bargain or Religious Discrimination?

Would you like to get 50% off your car's oil change? All you have to do at the Kwik Kar Lube & Service in Plano, Texas, is recite a Bible verse.

Store owner Charlie Whittington is standing by what he asking customers to do for a deal. “If I’m standing for what I believe, so be it,” he said. “Bring it on.”

The verse is popular for containing the central beliefs of traditional Christianity:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (NIV)

Whittington said he did it as a conversation starter in an effort to talk to people about what he believes.

“It’s one thing about America,” he said. “You can go and do what you want. I’m not making you do anything and I’m tired of people making me do something.”

Is it a righteous bargain or religious discrimination? Would you recite a biblical verse even if you're an atheist simply to get the deal?

Link - via The Week


I'm an atheist and no, I wouldn't do it just to get a deal. He can do what he likes with his own business, that's the beauty of America. The flipside is I'm free to take my business elsewhere.
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I'd recite lines from The Satanic Verses if I got a good discount. Recitation does not equal belief. But, if I had a choice of talking to a religious fanatic or merely making a business transaction, I'll take the latter.
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This is an interesting thing that this man is doing.
I can see people running with this and offering up all kinds of "quote the bible" deals.
(My city's population is approx 66,000 and there are approx 250 churches...really)
And I can see people resist and claim discrimination.
But above all, I see that this is America.
Both sides have the Right to Choose.
Will be interesting to see how this plays out nationwide.
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This is a non-issue to me. Of course he's perfectly in his rights to offer discounts to whomever he wants. He's not a gov't agent in any sense, so there's not a problem. He loses my business, but he'll get all the church-folk who like his style. More power to him.
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Yes, I'd say the words to get the discount, but I'd read them off a page torn out of a Bible and then ask if he'd give me double my money back if he was Raptured before the work was completed.

On second thought, as Rob said...
"Only morons let voluntary religious dogma control their lives."
And I don't think I want someone who proudly declares himself a moron working on my car.
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Religious discrimination. Though I do think the irony that he is asking people to ramble out religious dogma to get a product produced from long dead animals millions of years before the bible teaches the Earth formed is quite profound.
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the best deal in this discount is the opportunity to hire a good lawyer and walk away with free money

if you offer a discount to anybody who makes a racist joke is that legal? or is that discrimination?

plenty of grey area to convince a jury
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But you never see anybody getting a discount for quoting Amendments to the US Constitution. And no, the 2nd Amendment does not say "every Cletus who wants one can have an AK-47."
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I don't understand. why do most of these comments suggest that this guy is a moron? Because he believes in God? He isn't refusing service to someone because they don't believe. Regardless of what most people think, Christians aren't all Hillbilly rednecks who were homeschooled and carry a rifle in their pickup. I think a lot of the people posting comments need to get out more and actually meet some of these people. They want the same things most religions want, everyone to get along and have a sense of community and brother(or sister)hood. My church supports other churches and has community events to bring people together. It doesn't get preachy, they just want people to unplug and actually socialize. It seems that we are living in a day when you can make fun of Christians, but if you start making fun of Muslims, Buddhists or whatever you aren't "hip" or "edgey". Yeah, that guy who predicted the Rapture was a bit "off" and he really hurt Christianity in the mainstreams eye, but I promise you. Not all of us are like that.
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Does he require to read it in a respectful tone of voice? If I quote the verse while doing my best Bobcat Goldthwaite impression and still get the discount, then I'm OK with this.
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It's bad business, either way. Not only for his own shop, but for the entire franchise.

Plus, it puts Christians in a bad light. Makes them look small-minded and annoying.

What the business owner should have done is "turn the other cheek" and give the guy his $15 discount anyway.
Kinda makes you wonder why he didn't do that . . . unless he actually wanted to cause a controversy for some free publicity? Who knows?

But if this is how Christians behave, then I'd just as soon take my business elsewhere.
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He doesn't specify *which* verse, does he? There's a lot of verses that the average believer would find offensive and not believe are in there; recite one of those!
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One price for Christians, another price for non-Christians. How can that be seen as anything other than discrimination? People should be treated equally, whatever their beliefs, race, sexual orientation, or anything else.
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Blessed are those who find wisdom,
those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold. (Proverbs 3:13-14)
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Maybe someone out there will offer 50% off for explaining the basic tenets of evolution! Even mainstream Christians shouldn't have a problem with that, and people might learn something in the process.
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The nerd in me is positively delighted at the idea of getting a discount in exchange for memorizing a passage of text.

The atheist in me is upset he had to pick John 3:16. If he picked, say, Luke 6:31 ("And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise), I would have no problem with this at all. If the verse was Ezekiel 23:20 ("There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses") it would have completely made my day.
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One price for Christians, another price for non-Christians.

False.

One price for those who say a combination of words, a different price for those who don't. If you can present any documentation to support a claim that he requires 'proof of religious belief', fire away.

If you want to claim that atheists have some kind of religious prohibition against speaking Christian scripture, again, fire away.. I'd love to see the documentation to support *that*.

How can that be seen as anything other than discrimination?

By knowing the difference between religion and speech.

There's no structural difference between this and a radio contest where they give cash to the Nth person to call in and recites the station's slogan. If you want to argue that religious speech deserves *less* legal protection than a radio station slogan, once again.. fire away.
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Thought of a better comparison:

"Half Price Drinks For Anyone Wearing a Jersey From the Bar Owner's Favorite Team During the Playoffs: Cheap Booze or Team Affiliation Discrimination?"

How DARE they...
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I don't have a problem with this. He's just giving some people a better deal;it's not religious discrimination. However, if he made people pay MORE because they couldn't recite it, then there would be a problem. But as it is, I don't see anything wrong with it.
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I don't need a god's help to live my own life, and I don't need this guy's help to change my own oil! Two birds with one self-reliant stone.
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Discrimination, clearly. I would just negate everything by saing out loud "the following sentence is what is wrong with Religion:" and then resite the verse.. Or "the following sentence is total BS" or something like that.. The owner was clever that uýou have to use that one verse, there would'v been so many great ones, like in the second half of Deuteronomy or Leviticus...
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If he is giving the discount only for Chritians, then it would indeed discrimination. However, I am not sure if just asking someone to recite something from a religion counts.

For those that think it is no big deal to expect someone to say a Bible verse for a discount, I hope you have the same position if the guy was asking you to recite something from the quran or other religion.

I am amazed he could give 50% discounts. That is quite a markup!!
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How about this one?

"The people of Samaria must bear the consequences of their guilt because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed by an invading army, their little ones dashed to death against the ground, their pregnant women ripped open by swords." (Hosea 13:16)
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