Christian Daycare in Iowa Institutes New Guidelines for Employees

Shit like this makes me want to pull my hair out.

The article mentions that some of the kids are 16-20 months old. Gotta get them young to brainwash them!

“It’s not that the new requirements are illegal — The church runs the place and they’re free to discriminate as they wish.”
Wow. Are there really no restrictions on how they can discriminate? What if one of their requirements was that employees be white? I’m genuinely curious: can employers in Iowa really discriminate on any basis? 

On more levels than our American cousins could possibly imagine!

What exactly is a “bisexual lifestyle”? If you’re bisexual you’re either in relationships with same sex or opposite sex partners. Same sex would be covered under homosexual but opposite sex? How would these nitwits distinguish between a bisexual in an opposite sex relationship and a heterosexual?

No matter, no self-respecting bisexual (or heterosexual, or transexual, or homosex…well let’s just say human) would want to have anything to do with these unrestrained bigots.

Not mentioned above; Jews also need not apply. I can see why they changed the name, not a lot of happy times are going to be had there. I suppose I should be happy they made their moral bankruptcy flagrant. At least that way parents understand what a nest of snakes their children’s daycare is turning into and can take them out. I do feel sorry that they have to find new accomodations on such short notice though.

 No, religious organizations may discriminate on the basis of religion & adherents to religious tenets. In any & all states.

If somebody ends up an ex-employee of this pathetic excuse for a workplace, they ought to rejoice! They have been spit out by the devil….

All thanks to this little thing called The European Convention on Human Rights, this offensive “contract” would be null and void.

Let’s here it for another SCREAMING CASE of myopic religious bigotry, and intolerance! Its because of christians like this, that my atheism is REENFORCED! Then again those questions need to be more “pointed”, like: Are you an in-the-closet pedophile? Have you ever had illicit thoughts about children? How OFTEN do you view child pornography, and HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE? THESE would have been much more ACCURATE questions to ask for a “Christian” day care! 

What do they consider “behavior that would question Christian testimony“?  If that refers to anything that casts any doubt on the Christian myth, then they’re pretty much saying that employees must abstain from reality to be eligible for employment.

Yeah…I’d be lining up to put my son into that…

I actually wasn’t feeling too sorry for that anonymous teacher in the KCCI report.  She said she considered herself Christian, but admitted that she didn’t meet the qualifications because of lifestyle choices.  The way I figure it, she chose to sin and the new management chose not to allow certain types of sinners on their staff. 
Basically, I’m annoyed with how people can make Christianity mean and be whatever they want.  But I’m probably preaching to the choir on that.

I have to defer to those who a) actually have kids,  and b) put them in daycare, but my general understanding is that selecting a daycare provider is determined one-third by the facility, and two-thirds by the staff.   If parents find out that the staff is completely changed – and the facility’s environment has changed as well – how likely are they to change daycares?

As for the (church’s) administrators, well, given that they treat their employees and customers this way, it doesn’t bode well for the future.  They’re certainly teaching the kids and community a lesson on ethics – namely, what not to do.

Out of those 5 criteria, I could only “pass” one of them 

The problem with these laws is that Christians always demand to be exempt from them. Even if it’s not about performing church functions or religious services, but purely secular things like schools or day care centers

They’d be committing thought-crimes by being attracted to someone of the same gender. Christians love convicting people of thought-crime

They may deserve it, but their poor kids sure don’t. I don’t know if you’ve seen Jesus Camp but it’s impossible to watch without ending up seething with rage at what’s being done to those kids.

As a UK citizen, I too find this shocking. It simply could not happen here. Despite being illegal, it would hit the papers like a tidal wave of offense. The only time I have ever been asked about my religion is on an equal opportunities form that also asks about gender, age, race etc… and that’s totally anonymous and voluntary. Even then it’s not usual to find that question on the form.

Of those top numbered requirements, I only make one. Damn! Well, that is if you read the first bullet point the way they meant it and not the way it looked to me the first time:

“You are currently living in a marital relationship and are faithful to your spouse, or are single and not currently in a sexual relationship with someone whom you are not married, or in a cohabitational living arrangement with someone that is not an immediate family member of the opposite sex.”

They switch from the positive to the negative partway through the list, which makes it sound like you need to be either married, single and abstinent, or cohabiting in sin.

As an American expat living in Germany, I can imagine it quite well!  The course my homeland is taking is heart-breaking to say the least.  Just glad I was able to escape when I did.  Now if I can just convince my girlfriend that America is not this awesome place to live…

They don’t want the evil, evil thinking-for-themselves masses to get in the way of their indoctrination.
In my town, we have a homeschool group that bears the name of both the town and the local Air Force base.  When two, more extremist, xtians got hold of the leadership, they tried to make all the members sign a statement of faith similar, but not as far-reaching, as this. Except that it did also exclude Catholics, Mormons, etc. Basically, non fundementalist, evangelicals were out . O_O  We threw them out and about a fourth of the group went with them and now they have their own little cloistered Stepford-wife-type group. People who show up at the military-linked group (secular) after trying out the other group say it is scary over there.
 It’s like inbreeding. *shudder*

The “Security” section of the PDF provided is the most frightening.  It only lists three things (something about being convicted of a crime, assault, etc.), and they write above it that your answers to these three questions will not automatically disqualify you for employment.  Really?  If you “just” assaulted someone, we’ll think about it, but pack your bags if you are gay or like to have a beer.  Crazy.

I like the way the lifestyle requirements are not negotiable but if you are an ex-con, have been accused of sexual abuse of a child or fired from a job due to sexual misconduct you are not automatically disqualified

If my son were in this preschool (and as secular as it may have been, I’d ask a lot of questions before putting him in one even nominally run by a church) I’d be looking to recover any fees I had paid.  I would consider such a major change of environment to be a breech of contract, and I’d do whatever I could to get any pre-paid tuition or registration fees refunded.  And thankfully my paycheck doesn’t depend on my son being in preschool.

Yea…. I’m considering getting out of here myself because of how bad things are getting.

It’s interesting that they changed their name to include the word “Grace.” Apparently they don’t know the definition of the word.

They are a private company and they can pretty  much do whatever they want within the law. For now.
At some point, the public will get fed up with shit like this and demand legislation to close down these Christian madrasas, or at the least, reign them in.
That won’t happen, of course, until some of their students grow up to be righteous, murdering soldiers of Christ.
Mark my words, it will happen.
Americans are not immune to what has happened over in the Islamic world and to think that we are is just plain idiocy and bigotry.

The employees aside, this is a shitty thing to do to the parents who have their kids enrolled. Finding a quality daycare provider is extremely difficult. They’ve essentially given them two weeks notice if they want to find alternative arrangements. That’s insane. Our daycare provider gave us 3 months notice just because tuition rates were increasing.

Under cover of religion, it’s legal.  They have won lawsuit after lawsuit allowing them to discriminate on any basis they choose if it doesn’t fit the religion of hiring church.  And it doesn’t sound like they’re asking.  They are saying these are the parameters of the job… don’t apply if you don’t fit.  No square pegs allowed.

Religious organizations are exempt from certain parts of the ENDA. They can discriminate based on religious affiliation, so if they claim that their religious beliefs exclude anyone who is unwed and cohabitating with a partner, they can do that.

The real dick move here is doing it with so little warning to either the employees or the parents whose children attend the daycare.

If some other place tried laying everyone off en mass, they could apply for unemployment.  But, churches typically don’t pay into unemployment, so laid off church employees don’t qualify.

This would clearly be illegal in the Province of Quebec, and probably in other Canadian provinces also (I’m not quite up-to-date with national work-related codes outside of Quebec).

This is not going to result in the day care retaining any Christian employees.  All they will end up with are liars who cheat the form to keep their jobs.

In many EU states, and soon the majority, it is criminal for ANYONE to beat a child. Including parents.

USA and Somalia are the only UN states that has not signed the “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child “. I understand the reason is that this would limit the power of (xian?) parents over thier children and that would loose votes…

Religion is all about dividing everyone up into “Us” and “THEM”. Of course, the members of ‘Us” are always the GOOD people and anyone who is one of “THEM” is very, very bad. Naturally, there have to oaths or righteousness and fealty. It is just a crying shame that these people who worked there have been put in this position. But, even worse is the fact that there are parents who will cheer this kind of action and force their innocent children into this kind of poisonous atmosphere.

I bet this is as much a marketing/protecting their butt maneuver as anything else.  That way they can brag to prospective parents what high moral standards they have but also, if that employee does get involved in a “scandal” later on, they can say that they signed an agreement before they were hired.  I’m sure many if not most of the parents are just as crazy fundamentalist as the administrators.

These christians who are now crawling out from underneath their rocks,  and trying to take over our society,  are a lower form of life than Pond Scum.

I was coming to the comments section to post something similar to this. Of course it’s easier said than done, but if they have enough qualified employees who leave due to the new requirements, they might have enough staff to start anew as a secular daycare. Or at least (provided they weren’t required to sign a noncompete agreement) they could reach out to the parents who pulled their kids from Happy Time as private clients.

Those new employment rules are Orwellian, to say the least. How would they even enforce them? Do they send people to their employees’ houses to spy on them and make sure they’re not drinking alcohol, watching porn, or whatever else? Are they gonna be spying on their new employees’ bedrooms to make sure they’re not having premarital or homosexual sex? This isn’t just disgusting, it’s just plain ridiculous as well.

Also, from the article I noticed that the pastor at Point of Grace Church supports Michele Bachmann. No surprise there since she’s just as bigoted as they are.

Any non-compete agreement from their original contracts should be void as Happy Times Daycare is no more as of Sept. 6.

At least they were correct in that there won’t be any more Happy Times.

The purpose of an application form is threefold in my experience.  Firstly it provides the candidate for the job with an idea of the culture of the organisation.  If they don’t like the questions being asked then they don’t need to apply.  Secondly it weeds out those who are not genuinely interested in working for the organisation.  If you ask some difficult questions then some people will be put off and won’t apply.   Lastly it provides a way to weed out the people who do apply who aren’t qualified or don’t fit the organisation’s expectations.

What this application does is to limit the number and type of people who will work for the organisation.  That means that genuine talent and experience is denied in favour of religious dogmatism.  That means that the pool of talent is reduced and the quality of staff is diminished.  In a results based environment that means that the fees will have to come down as standards slip and the organisation is vulnerable to competition from organisations that don’t have such draconian views.

I sincerely hope that staff and parents look elsewhere for opportunities and day care and allow this bigoted organisation to fail.  It is a shame that the current economic climate isn’t conducive to new enterprises being launched.  Does anyone know if there is a will and a way that atheists can help fund competing organisations through micro loans or something?  Local secular community groups might be able to drum up support and funding.  Are state grants or tax breaks available for new businesses.  There seems to be an opportunity here that would correct a social injustice.

50% of the adult population in the United States is Un-married!  How  do these  fucking christians have the GALL to tell 50% of the population that they can’t have sex?  These WORMS  (christains)  should have their butts packed with bibles and then be  buried up to their eyeballs  in “fire Ant’ nests, and then let the ants do what they do best.  FUCK YOU, CHRISTIANS….. you are the scum of the Earth!!!  One thing Geebus would never do today if he were alive…… is be a christian!!!!

Yeah that took me a couple of reads to make sense, and not sure I get it still.

“You are currently living in a cohabitational living arrangement with someone that is not an immediate family member of the opposite sex.”
So if you’re  a guy living with your mum or sister, or a girl living with her dad or brother you don’t qualify?

Am I the only one worried this story is a big huge Neon sign to NAMBLA members blaring the words “DUMB SHEEP! FREE LAMBS!?”

It’s literally saying “if you can lie to us about these things we’ll let you through, even if you have an abuse charge in your past!” 

If there really are cunning sexual predators looking for positions that put them in contact with potential targets (and there is some evidence that there are) this would seem troubling.

Fundamentalists are also  big on the whole “spare the rod, spoil the child” teaching so the kids might not end up so well after this.

Gee, and I thought this blog was called “The Friendly Atheist” for a reason.
Not all Christians are bigots, just as not all Muslims are terrorists and not all Jews are obsessed with money.