This post is just ... bizarre. ...
Oh, I agree wholeheartedly!
That post (#124) IS bizarre. I'll go ahead and give you credit for admitting it upfront, though.
First, the restaurant is in Winston Salem, not Asheville (>100 miles away); ...
What, you've never stopped for a meal while passing through or visiting another major metropolitan area in your own home state?
First, had you bothered to break down and read the
first fucking post I made in this thread (post 3 here), you would have seen where I said I do exactly that, which is how I know Mary and her restaurant.
It was
literally the second sentence I posted in this thread, dude. Read much?
More to the point, regardless of your personal travel habits, I think that little diner in North Carolina might more likely be visited by native Satanists than by out-of-staters, so my goal was to point out that there are, in fact, a number of home-grown Satanists within a reasonable traveling distance from the restaurant.
And second, Asheville and Winston Salem are 145 miles apart, not a "reasonable driving distance". Much as I love Mary's, I don't jump in the car and drive two hours for breakfast. If I lived in Asheville (which I once did) it would be even further. As for "out-of-staters", Virginia is closer than Asheville. So is South Carolina. And third, there is no "satanist religion". That's a joke, and you're the butt.
Of course, feel free to rebut that with links to these "home grown satanists"...
In reality, although relatively few in number, there are forms of Satanism that fulfill both the lower-case 'p' and upper-case 'P' definitions of the terms "pagan/Pagan" (see Diane Vera's essay,
Is Satanism "Pagan"?,
here).
Oh. I see, you read it on the internets therefore it's real.
Did Windy send you in here to make him look less idiotic?
Paganism has nothing to do with "Satan". Satan is a Christian invention.
Besides, tell it to the fundies
in that area and really all across the country, who've collectively lumped Wiccan, Pagan, and Satanist beliefs together as being "of the devil" for longer than you or I have been alive to watch them do it.
Blind squirrel hits nut. Of course they have; it's the height of ignorance to first invent your own devil and then hang it on those competitors who threaten you. Nothing new here; that's what Christianism did by inventing Saul Alinksy in the first place. Uh, I mean Lucifer. Whatever. That's still got absolutely nothing to do with anything here.
More importantly, whether or not you believe there are any actual "satanists" among the thriving "Pagan" population of Asheville (and believe me, there are), there are certainly other pagan and Wiccan factions in the area that pray to a slew of 'earth-based deities'. While I didn't explicitly mention them in my previous posts, I think they're implicitly included under the umbrella of "alternative religions" that are close enough to run and grab a bite to eat at the now famous diner.
Believe me, there are not. Again, "Satan" is a
Christianism invention; pagans don't believe in it. "Satanism" is
satire based on that silliness, and you're apparently too shallow to process it. Mary (the proprietor here) is herself one of those pagans -- except you're still in the wrong city altogether. WS is further from Asheville that Philadelphia is from Washington DC. How many Philadelphians do you know that traipse down to DC just for breakfast? Do you imagine Asheville has no restaurants?
Wacko.
...third, neither paganism nor "satanism", if the latter even existed, have anything to do with Islam. ...
No, but the phrase "
Pagan Mecca of the Southeast" does, as some of the more discerning readers may have concluded from my highlighting of the word "
Mecca. -- Duh.
--- a phrase YOU brought in, a metaphorical phrase anyway, in reference to another unrelated city that's nowhere near this restaurant, and now when you've been called on geographical head-up-the-ass ignorance you're spinning like a Maytag on Monday.
I don't think you have a sense of geographic scale; "Oh, you're in North Carolina, you must know ____". It's not Rhode Island. A friend and I once got in a car in western NC and drove to the ocean. It took us literally all day. Even where I live I'm further west than Cleveland. So the fact that two places both exist in North Cackalackee doesn't in any way mean they're in "reasonable traveling distance" of each other. Dumbass.
And fourth, the restaurant and its staff are more pagan than anything else, which means they would welcome anything. They're certainly not conventional types. ...
Hey, if the practice has been done equitably all along, I have no problem with it. Of course, the fact that Mary's waitstaff aren't obliged to honor the policy suggests that it hasn't been done that way to date. Not to make any assumption regarding the unhappiness of some of the workers, but an airing of all of the reasons (monetary and otherwise) they're not required to honor the policy ...could make for some interesting discussion.
What? Now you want to discuss the
topic? I can't keep up...
My guess would be requiring the waitstaff universally to apply it would make it definable as company policy, and that might get her in legal trouble. As noted I'm of the opinion that she's already in a grey area by designating a discount for only certain diners and stating the basis. I've always praised them
directly for their fare; I never noticed a discount. So I agree.
I understand what she's trying to do; Mary used to live in the Philippines and takes blessings very seriously as a result. I'd advise her to call it something other than "praying", something more inclusive.
