Pennsylvania restaurant offers unlawful church discount

July 6, 2012 | Filed under: Faith-Based Discrimination,Secular Press Releases | Posted by: Freedom From Religion Foundation

Restaurant owners in Columbia, Pa., are facing an open investigation into an illegal church bulletin discount.

Lost Cajun Kitchen in Columbia offers an illegal ten percent discount to church-going patrons. And advertises the coupon on the company website.

FFRF and its local member John Wolff have been challenging the discount for over a year. On Wolff’s behalf, FFRF Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert sent three letters of complaint to Lost Cajun Kitchen owners Dave and Sharon Prudhomme beginning April 2011, but they have refused to drop the discount.

Markert pointed out that the discount “violates the federal Civil Rights Act in addition to provisions of state civil rights statutes.”

“The Civil Rights Act states in relevant part, ‘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. . . without discrimination on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin,’” wrote Markert. She added, “As a place of ‘public accommodation,’ it is illegal for Lost Cajun Kitchen to discriminate, or show favoritism, on the basis of religion.”

Patience at an end, Wolff has now filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

The Lancaster Journal reported that the restaurant owners must respond to Wolff’s complaint in writing within 30 days. The commission will then decide if there is probable cause to support the complaint.

Wolff told the Patriot-News that he “bears them no ill will but they shouldn’t be pushing religion.”

The Purdhommes said that they “have more things to concentrate on” and are “not about ready to pull the plug on the deal.”

Markert says that the discriminatory discounts must be stopped, and the law honored.

3 Responses to Pennsylvania restaurant offers unlawful church discount

mikespeir July 6, 2012 - 3:04 am

Heck, I have a computer and a printer. I can turn out “church bulletins” all day long.

The Vicar July 6, 2012 - 12:06 pm

I can kind of see your point here, but I had to rephrase how this was presented before it actually struck me as being illegal. I think you stand a good chance of having the complaints dismissed, and that’s going to be a PR setback if nothing else. This would, to my mind, have been better handled via boycotting, lots and lots of negative publicity, and possibly picketing. Then again, I have never had any cajun food which I actually liked, so I suppose I should just keep my mouth shut and let the people who actually want to eat in a restaurant like this handle it; “skin in the game” and all that.

read the law July 10, 2012 - 11:57 am

This restaurant owner, without realizing it, has fallen face first into fundamental founding fathers law. This is a violation of the Bill of Rights and the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Let me explain…Religion is a “protected class” under the bill of rights. People who want to open a restaurant or a grocery store or a dry cleaners,etc and sell goods and services to the public in the United States are allowed to freely do so provide that they do not discriminate, essentially based on race or religion. If a restaurant provides a discount to those who are active church goers or appear to be active church goers by holding a church bulletin in their hand, then the restaurant is rewarding people based on religious beliefs or what appear to be religious beliefs. The restaurant is engaged in interstate commerce. Anyone passing through town that stops at this restaurant and finds that discounts are offered if you have a church flier is not inclined to return if they are not like minded church goers or if they don’t want to take the time and effort to pose as a church goer by grabbing a flier somewhere. This restaurant owner is rewarding like-minded people. The result is that the restaurant will more likely be frequented by like minded people instead of the general population. That leaves non-church goers to feel that they belong elsewhere so that they aren’t treated differently. Do you see it yet? What about a different scenario….what about the price of milk. The grocery store posts a sign that says kiss our crucifix and we’ll take 10% off the price of milk. Anyone can just walk up and kiss a crucifix to get a discount, even though they are not religious. The issue is that non religious people should not have to POSE as religious people to get the same treatment. Get it yet? One more try, and this is a stretch….. a black person shouldn’t have to paint his face to get a discount made available for whites only. He should not have to POSE as a white person to get the discount. The government forbids business engaged in interstate commerce to create such rewards or discriminations based on race or religion. Thankfully we have made progress over this problem after years of struggle for the race issue. Religious freedom (which includes the freedom to NOT be actively religious) is just as important. I hope you get it because the world needs to worry about these little seeds of discrimination that eventually grow into an entire town of religious zealots. If you say that the restaurant owner isn’t doing this to promote her religious beliefs, then I suggest you look on the wall behind her cash register to see how big the Jesus picture is that is hanging there.