Dining with the faithful

I had a business lunch today with a professional staffing agency which shall go unnamed. I met with a salesman and the president of the company. They were trying to establish a relationship. They had leveraged a 10 year old connection to get my time. I am a hard sell. I tend to develop long-term relationships with trusted suppliers. Getting my business requires a lot of effort. They made their best pitch today. I was impressed right up until they started talking about going to church, Sunday school, and Christian morality. The religious talk was light, but the message was clear, they were Christians therefore I can trust them.

I’m all business. Religion does not factor into my thinking when I’m trying to determine how best to staff a project or serve my company. For me, dealing with a suppler is based on direct experience and trust. As a supplier, what you do is far more important than what you say. Telling me you are a Christian does not automatically equate to you being a good business prospect. Experience, references, reputation, these things count more than going to church on Sunday.

Why is it that people think telling somebody they are a Christian will help in a business situation? They know nothing about me. Nothing at all, yet they make an assumption that can sink their sales pitch. They even went a little farther and asked obliquely about if I’ve every taught Sunday school. I deflected. How unprofessional is that?

I thought about mentioning atheism, but did not do so because I felt it would be unprofessional to discuss the matter with strangers in a business setting. I represent my employer in these situations, it does not seem right to impose my personal beliefs on the situation.

I am curious about how atheists handle situations like this one. What do you do?

Technorati tags: Atheism, Religion